Dear Northwood Berkeley Saints,

I don’t about you, but I am thankful that the bad weather is forecasted to miss us completely. Cold rain above freezing temperatures beats the weather that much of our country will experience. I mention the weather because we have a big weekend coming up!!!  Saturday night is Family Game Night. Show up at the church at 5:30 p.m. The church will be providing pizza. Please let our secretary  know how many from your family are coming so we have an idea of how much pizza to order. Also, please let Lindsay know as well. Feel free to bring your favorite board game, trivia game, corn hole, or whatever type of game you like. It’s going to be a great time to hang out and have fun as a church family. I love the fact that our congregation enjoys spending time with each other. And while we do love each other this is also a wonderful opportunity to invite a neighbor or a friend.

This Sunday we begin a new section in our preaching series through the Book of Romans. Romans1-5 explained that the Gospel is the good news that God is both just and the justifier of the sinner because of Christ’s sinless life, sacrificial death on the cross and victorious resurrection. The righteous live by faith and enters the Christian life by simple faith. If chapters 1-5 of Romans focus on justification, Romans 6-8 focus on the fact that a justified believer will be sanctified and will progress to being glorified in eternity. While some people wrongly argue for the heresy that a justified believer can lose their salvation Romans 6-8 clearly refutes that mistaken belief. Romans 6 sets the expectation that a justified believer is not to abuse grace but rather to become a slave or righteousness instead of a slave of sin. Chapter 7 and the first part of chapter 8 highlighted that a justified believer experiences frustration in life as they still are housed in a body that is prone to sin, but thanks be to God that through Christ the believer is granted the freedom to walk in the Spirit and grow in sanctification.  In the last part of Romans 8 we saw three reasons why glory is greater than groaning. How comforting it is to know that God gives us hope in our suffering, help in our weakness and has determined that the believer will conquer in the end!!!  We were exposed to the Golden Chain of Salvation and to the fact that nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord!!!  How positive!  How exciting!    Some scholars have argued that Romans 9-11 is a mere parenthesis in Paul’s Spirit inspired argument. Nothing could be further from the truth. Romans 8 ends on a high note assuring the believer that God will finish what He started in the life of the believer. Justified believers will be sanctified and ultimately glorified. How do we know that God is telling the truth? What about Israel? Did God tell the truth to Isreal? Did he break His promise to Israel? (No!!)  Some in Israel embraced Christ as Savior, many did not. Did God keep His promises to Abraham and Israel since so many reject the Jewish Messiah? Romans 9-11 helps address this issue. We will discover that there are not two separate peoples of God, and we will discover that God has not written off Israel either as some falsely claim. This Sunday we will delve into the fact that God always keeps His promises and can be trusted. On the political level, elections matter! This Sunday we will look at Romans 9:1-29 and will discover that God’s electing grace of Christ as the Promised Seed and theme of salvation matter as well. 

Don’t forget we have started Midweek at Berkeley on Wednesday nights. Our children meet for Kingdom Kids, our youth meet for Crave, and our adults meet for the Pastor’s Bible Study and prayer time. We meet from 6:30-7:45 a.m. If you have been yet, plan on coming! It will be a blessing to you.

The pastoral team met this past week and discussed the need for continual clarity in our church systems. To be clear, Northwood Baptist Berkeley exists to connect faith to life by helping people follow a clear pathway of spiritual growth.