Ashville Road Church of Christ

A Fellowship of Believers

Services Schedule

(205) 699-2447
1401 Ashville Road    Leeds, AL 35004

• 28Feb

  Neil’s Niche

  by Patrick in Neil’s Niche, Seeking Things Above.

  What do we think of when we worship?  Do we consider the very being of God, His divine attributes?  Do we consider the greatness of God, and His desire for us to recognize it?  Let’s read the 8^th Psalm before we go into worship this morning to recognize God’s amazing power:

  “O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!  You have set your glory above the heavens.  Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger.  When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?

  Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.  You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.  O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!”

  Dwell on these sayings for a few minutes, pray about them, and let’s get our minds right as we prepare to worship our LORD.

• 21Feb

  Neil’s Niche

  by Neil in Neil’s Niche, Seeking Things Above.

  I am going to be honest with you guys, I really, really, really like the Psalms.  I find that, in our busy lives, we just kind of skim through the Psalms to get our daily reading done, or to help our kids remember their memory verse, and we just go back to our lives.  No, I don’t like that mentality when thinking about studying the Psalms (much less the Bible!).  What we need to do is to read them and dwell on them.  Chew on them such as we would eat a filet mignon: enjoying every morsel of the fine quality that we get to experience.  These Psalms are a story of wisdom and character; pain and loneliness; God’s heart and man’s.

  This is something that we should completely take a time out for.

  So for the next couple of weeks, I want to highlight some Psalms that I love, and I want you to talk about them.  Talk about them with your family, your friends, your co-workers, the elders here at ARCOC, the teachers here, and Drew and me.  Tell us what you think, ask us what we think.  Chew on them; enjoy them; dwell on them:

  Why do the nations rage, and the peoples plot in vain?  The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying, “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.”  He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision.  Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying, “As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.”  I will tell of the decree: The LORD said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you.  Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.  You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”  Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled.   Blessed are all who take refuge in him.     –Psalm 2

• 21Feb

  Core Christianity

  by Drew in Seeking Things Above.

  Next Sunday we will begin a five-part sermon series entitled “Core Christianity.”  The plan is to talk about the five things Christianity cannot do without.

  It is a series on fundamentals.  Fundamentals are important.  Something is “fundamental” when it is basic or essential to the overall structure it helps to construct.  Remove just one of the fundamentals, and it is like knocking a load-bearing wall out of a house–the entire building collapses.

  There are five things Christianity cannot do without:

  1. God.  Hebrews 11:6 says, “And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.”
  2. Revelation.  The Bible is the revelation of God’s will for mankind.  Without it, it would be impossible to build faith, for “faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Rom. 10:17).
  3. Redemption.  The gospel is the good news of Jesus’ mission of redemption.  Mankind is lost in sin, but the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost, shedding his blood as a ransom for many (Lk. 10:19; Mt. 20:28).
  4. Community.  In every dispensation God has required his people to worship and fellowship together.  We are stronger when we practice our faith alongside other believers.  Some will say, “I have a relationship with Christ, but I don’t believe in organized religion.”  God invented organized religion.  It is called the “church,” and he expects us to be involved in this community, which was built by his Son (Mt. 16:18).
  5. Resurrection.  Paul says, “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.  Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.  If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied” (1 Cor. 15:17-19). Christians are able to face adversity and even death because of their “living hope” (1 Pet. 1:3).  This is what makes them stand out from the rest of the world.

  One of the objectives of this series is to gain a second visit from guests who have visited Ashville Road in the past.  We have designed postcards to advertise the series and have mailed several of them out.  Maybe you know about someone who is open to hearing more about the Christian faith.  Share one of these postcards with them and extend a personal invitation.  Perhaps hearing the basics of Christianity will help them cut through the confusion of the religious world to the essence of what God expects has offered the world through his Son.

• 07Feb

  Neil’s Niche

  by Neil in Neil’s Niche, Seeking Things Above.

  What is peace?  Peace is something that we tend to run around chanting for, but I am not talking about that kind, I am talking about the inner kind.  Inner Peace is something that, if you ask someone, “Do you want peace?” The answer will most undoubtedly be a resounding, “Yes!”  There’s a problem to this easy question, though.

  We don’t actually want peace.

  We like to talk about it.  We like to wish for it.  We like to pray for it.  But we don’t actually want to have it.  We would rather have all the other complications and hang-ups that plague us in our lives.  We like to be confused and chaotic in our spiritual lives, wondering whether we are just getting by, or drowning in a sea of doubt, confusion, anger, and sin. Continue reading »

• 24Jan

  Neil’s Niche

  by Neil in Neil’s Niche, Seeking Things Above.

  What do you do when you feel like you are running on empty?  What do you do when you feel like your only option is to give up?  What do you do when it seems like you have nothing more to give?  This is a question that plagues us all; make no mistake, you’re not alone.  The marines have a saying: once you feel like you have given everything you have (that is to the point of exhaustion), then you can give 10% more.  They figured this out by conducting studies, and they did indeed learn that once we are to the point of running on empty, we have 10% more.  I think this same mentality is given to us in Hebrews 12:1:

  … Let us run the race with endurance.

  Having run track in high school, I can tell you that endurance is a hard thing.  I was a sprinter; I was fast; I was through after 10 seconds of running.  The endurance runners had to go on for what seemed like hours.  They could not simply give up once they got tired, they had to keep on going.  And more often than not, they kept on going until they finished the race.  Even if they told themselves they were through, they still finished.  Such is the case for us.  Keep on running!  Don’t give up!  Don’t let yourself give up…

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