February 7, 2021
Upcoming Events and Notices
This week San Diego Country remains in the highest COVID-19 risk category of Purple/Widespread. The State of California guidelines for San Diego County states that all worship services should be conducted outdoor. And given the challenges of weather and logistics, we will continue to hold our Lord's Day worship service online only.
Please join us 10 AM, February 7, 2021, for worship. You can participate in this week's service via YouTube here. You can find the order of worship and songs here.
You can find the sermon from the January 31, 2021 service here.
Please join us as we read another collection of great books for the year 2021. You can find the list here.
February 7 (Lord's Day 11:15 AM): Please join us for fellowship after the worship service via Zoom: Meeting ID: 879 4595 5692 — for meeting passcode please text pastor Ken.
February 10 (Wednesday 7 PM): Please join us for for "Knowing God" Zoom study. This week's study will cover chapter 17 — "The Jealous God." Meeting ID: 831 0828 6050 — for meeting passcode please text pastor Ken.
Thank you for your continued support of Grace Fallbrook (PCA). Your loving support makes the proclamation of the gospel and the building up of the saints possible. Please continue to mail in your gifts and offerings to our church treasurer, Bruce Summers. In addition, our church website now features online giving. Please visit the church website and click on "Give" which you will find in the upper left corner of our church's website. When you click on "Give Online Now" button on that page, you will be directed to the PCA Foundation where you can give towards Grace Fallbrook (PCA).
Before We Worship
Some people say that following Christ is all about how we live, not about our theology. That is like saying we can walk without legs! Then there are some people who are only concerned with head knowledge, but not with how they live. That is like getting dressed up with no place to go. Instead, we ought to remember what Jesus said about marriage applies just as well here. In Matthew 19:6 Jesus says, "What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate." Indeed! Following Christ is not a matter of either doctrine or life. It is both doctrine and life. What we believe shapes our practice. Our practice, in its turn, validates what we believe. We can only follow Christ rightly when right doctrine gives birth to right life, and right life, in turn, makes our right doctrine beautiful.
This principle is clearly expressed in both the Old and the New Testaments. Micah asks (6:8), "He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?" What God has revealed to Israel requires the people of Israel to live in a certain way.
Paul also expresses the same thought. In Romans 12:1 he urges the believers, "I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship." Paul has explained God's mercies in chapters 1 through 11, setting the right doctrine apart from the false doctrine. Then, he tells us, that that mercy must lead us to offering ourselves as a living sacrifice. Once again, right doctrine must produce right life. God has joined these two things together. We must not separate them.
Broadly speaking, then, the Bible gives us a two-pronged approach to the Christian discipleship. We study and we obey. We learn and we act. We think and we live. This is what God desires from us. So come into God's presence to learn. And leave his presence to obey.