“Hope From A New King”
II Kings 18:1 – 8
Hezekiah: God Is My Strength
February 9, 2020
On February 9, 2020, Sunday school is canceled due to inclement weather. We will still have worship at 10:30 a.m., and other announcements for Sunday’s church activities will be announced then.
You can find the announcement at KIMT, KIOW, and on our social media channels. Please feel free to share this information with others.
Please trust the Lord and stay safe during this winter time!
In I Corinthians 10, the Lord’s Supper transforms us in our relationship with God and our fellowship with each other!
“Communion Fellowship”
I Corinthians 10:16 – 17
Foundations 2020
February 2, 2020
“Jesus Is Lord of Emotions”
Psalm 42:1 – 11
Foundations 2020
January 19, 2020
Zion services on Sunday morning of January 19, 2020, are canceled due to inclement weather. Sunday school, the worship service, and committee meetings, are canceled.
You can find the announcement at KIMT, KIOW, and on our social media channels. Please feel free to share this information with others.
Please trust the Lord and stay safe during this winter time!
This Sunday is the Lord’s Day closest to the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the case that brought abortion to national practice in America. Because of this, we will join Christians throughout the land to remember this day as Sanctity of Life Sunday.
The first thing you can do for Sanctity of Life Sunday is join us in adult Sunday school, where we will have a speaker from Caring Pregnancy Center (Mason City). Her powerful testimony and amazing experience working with pregnant mothers helps to put this difficult issue in the right perspective, as well as remind us of God’s amazing grace.
You can find out more about Caring Pregnancy Center and all that they do, their resources, or how you can support them, at their website.
Second, find out so many important resources regarding abortion, the right to life, how to help mothers, and more at:
“The Gospel of Self Control”
Galatians 5:13 – 26
Foundations 2020
January 12, 2020
Zion is pleased to announce the start of the new Bible study for women – Better: A Study of Hebrews. Using video teaching, workbooks, Bibles, fellowship, prayer, and lots of laughter, ladies will be delighted to understand God’s Word together, and to live it out by faith in Jesus, the Author of a better promise.
We will meet Sunday (Jan 12) at 7pm. Does that time not work for you? Don’t worry, we will be choosing a day and time that works best for our group. So come this Sunday night with your calendars and we will pick a meeting time and location to make sure this Bible study fills you with God’s grace!
So many of us have questions about the Bible. How do things like temple, sacrifices, and priests help me with raising kids, loving my husband, or getting the laundry done? Others of us have questions about our lives. Is this really the abundant life Jesus promised? Why do I struggle spiritually? The New Testament book of Hebrews answers all these questions and more – and it points us to Jesus Christ, who is better in every way!
Conference
We will also get more information about the Women’s Conference on February 21st and 22nd. Ladies from the North Iowa area are invited to join us Friday night (Feb 21) at 6pm for our Seeking Him conference, featuring international speakers like Nancy Leigh DeMoss. We are praying the Lord would make this an unforgettable weekend for His glory, so be sure to mark your calendars and plan to join us!
The goodness of our covenant Savior was on full display once again this past Lord’s Day, and there are a few resources we want to make sure you take with you for the week ahead.
As we have walked through Biblical teachings on wealth and money, we have covered a lot of ground, and sometimes it is nice to have all the material in one place. You can download “Proverbs on Wealth & Money,” a topical grouping of verses from Proverbs that deals with the topic of our study. Download and share!
The sermon from I Peter 1:23 challenges us to make the “living and abiding” Word of God our priority. As has been mentioned, 2020 Bible reading plans are available for almost every preference you can imagine. Take up and read!
Also, one of the points Peter makes is that only the Word of God can bring new birth and conversion. In some church traditions, baptism, confirmation, or some other church rite might be supposed to regenerate the individual. Fortunately, the Heidelberg Catechism makes clear that I Peter is teaching only the Word can generate the new birth. Question #65 asks:
Q. It is through faith alone that we share in Christ and all his benefits: where then does that faith come from?
A. The Holy Spirit produces it in our hearts[1] by the preaching of the holy gospel,[2] and confirms it by the use of the holy sacraments.[3]
1 John 3:5; 1 Cor. 2:10-14; Eph. 2:8
2 Rom. 10:17; 1 Pet. 1:23-25
3 Matt. 28:19-20; 1 Cor. 10:16
The Spirit works through the Word of the Gospel to create faith, and He confirms it through the sacraments.
We used the following video to talk about Adam & Christ, the Gospel, and sharing our faith:
You can find more Gospel resources from their website Three-Two-One.
Happy New Year to our Zion family!
As we pray and trust that the Christmas and New Year holidays have brought joy and celebration to you and yours, we want spiritually prepare ourselves for what the Lord in His providence will bring us in the new year. Let us prayerfully commit ourselves to living only for the glory of God this year!
A lot of people will make resolutions this year – lose weight, drop a bad habit, improve yourself, etc. But the best thing you could do is draw deeply from God’s Word! With over a dozen different reading plans, there is something here for everyone! What are you going to let hold you back from diving in to more of God’s holy power in your life through His Word & Spirit?!
Continue reading “Reading Plans 2020” at Ligonier→
See also:
“Why Should Christians Study the Bible?”
“A Practical Help For Bible Study”
[Scripture] calls us not simply to imitate Christ but to live out our union with him. But before [Paul] speaks an imperative, he announces the indicative of the gospel: Christ’s saving work has accomplished far more than we imagined. The Spirit’s work of uniting us to Christ makes us not mere imitators but living members of his body. We are incorporated-baptized-into Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection.
Jesus said the same thing in John 15. His disciples are not only forgiven; joined to him as the life-giving Vine they become living branches, bearing fruit that will remain. We have no life in ourselves, he tells them. There are no resources for following Jesus, imitating him, becoming his disciple. We are dead branches, cut off, without hope in this world. Only then does Jesus issue his imperatives to love and serve each other as he has loved and served us.
There is a world of difference between having a role model whose example we fall short of ever reproducing and having yourself “killed” and re-created as branches of the Tree of Life. Doing what Jesus did is different from bearing the fruit of Christ’s righteous life. In fact, the most important things that Jesus did cannot be duplicated. Because he fulfilled the law in our place, bore our curse, and was raised in glory to take his throne at the Father’s right hand, we can have a relationship with him-and with the Father-that is far more intimate than the relationship of a devotee to a guru, a student to a teacher, or a follower to a master.
Continue reading “Following Jesus” at Monergism→
Earlier, we encouraged you to re-devote yourself to Scripture for 2020. But are you praying for what is to come? Let other Christians model prayer for you, as it evokes your own prayers in your spirit to the Lord. Read on for prayers from the Puritans, the Reformed, and Billy Graham.
Continue reading “New Year Prayers” at Pastor Brian’s website→
Everything comes around just as it has before [on New Years]… I’ll be honest, I get the same feeling whenever I reflect on New Year’s resolutions. People concoct them every year but it seems that “there is no remembrance of former things.” We fail to recall last year’s resolutions, largely the same ones, that have been left by the wayside, usually long before the red shadow of Valentine’s Day ever hits. Ironically enough, even pessimism about New Year’s resolutions is not new.
Yes, the past happened. Its failures are real. Your failures are real. But so is the reality of a God Who reigns over history and Who gives us hope and anticipation for the future.
Continue reading “New Year’s Resolutions…” at Christ and Pop Culture→
“Resolved, to do whatsoever I can think to do to God’s glory alone…” So begins the personal statements of resolve by one of America’s most brilliant minds, and highest pastors, Jonathan Edwards (1703 – 1758). Begun when he was just a teenager, these statements show a life determined not to settle, not to compromise, and not to give in. What resulted was one of the brightest lights that shone for God’s glory in our nation!
Read and digest these simple statements of faith, truth, and courage, and may they inspire you not to make your own resolutions, but to live life resolved. Resolved to follow Christ. Resolved to walk by faith. And resolved to live for His glory, even when no one else will!
Continue reading “Edwards’ Resolutions” at Pastor Brian’s website→
