Advent, from the Latin word meaning “coming” or “arrival,” is the traditional celebration of the first advent of Jesus born in a stable and the anxious awaiting of His second advent in glory.  The focus of the season is a time for remembering and rejoicing, watching and waiting.

Video Driven Advent Bible Study

Eastwood Tulsa has made RightNow Media, the Netflix of Bible study, available for free to all our members. As a church-wide focus on the coming of Christ, you will be studying on your own, with your family, or in your small groups Matt Chandler’s sermon series, Advent, on RightNow Media, beginning December 1st, 2019.

Schedule and Study Guide

Advent – The Coming of Jesus is a five-part sermon series from Matt Chandler, Pastor of The Village Church in Flower Mound, Texas.

December 1st – Part 1: A History of Darkness and Depravity
December 8th – Part 2: Rescue
December 15th – Part 3: Forgiveness
December 22nd – Part 4: New Hearts and Lives
December 25th – Part 5: All Things New

Study Guides are available in the foyer or are available for download below.
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_btn title=”Download Study Guide Now” color=”purple” size=”lg” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Feastwoodtulsa.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2019%2F11%2FAdvent-Study-Guide-RNM-Compressed.pdf||target:%20_blank|”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

How to Subscribe to RightNow Media

You can get your free access at https://eastwoodtulsa.org/rightnow, inside the Eastwood Tulsa App, or by texting “RightNow EWBC” to 41411. Here is the link to the study >> https://www.rightnowmedia.org/Content/Series/1308

Watch Now

As we remember and enter this story, the coming of Jesus Christ, we reconstruct and embrace the true story of the gospel in our lives.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Through the Beatitudes – Learning how to allow God to heal our hearts. Wednesdays beginning May 29th from 6:15 – 7:30pm in Room 135.

Childcare is provided.

For Women Only, this study through the Beatitudes in Matthew 5 shows us God’s road to recovery, wholeness, growth, and spiritual maturity.

We all have issues that may be interfering with our fellowship with God and others.

Therefore, we all qualify. You can become free from addictive, compulsive and dysfunctional behaviors and learn how to leave them behind and move forward.

The United States of America is comprised of more than 328 million people, each of whom lives in one of 19,510 incorporated locations in the United States (towns, cities, and villages) in 3,142 counties.

Our vast nation needs the transforming message of Christ.

Advancing an intentional strategy of prayer for America calls upon each Christian, church, and ministry to do all we can, working together to achieve this God-sized assignment: to remember our audience and the daunting task entrusted to us.

Not one of us can advance this strategy alone. We need one another.

Transforming America with Prayer

Transforming America is only possible when the Lord hears the roar of His people in prayer for all of America.

That is why the National Day of Prayer is significant. It calls upon each of us to unite with our fellow believers in prayer for our nation on one specific day: Thursday, May 2, 2019. The National Day of Prayer is the one day each year when every town, city, and county should have at least one prayer observance for America. This needs to be accomplished in 2019.

Prayer can help create a culture where a transforming message can be heard and received by everyone, including people who may not look like us, believe like us, talk like us, or understand us.

If we cover our nation in prayer, America will receive this transforming message that will be lifted up across our nation, beginning now and especially on the National Day of Prayer.

Transforming America with Jesus’ Words: Love One Another

“Love One Another” is the theme for the 2019 National Day of Prayer. These words are powerful and convicting. They set a spiritual standard for us and challenge us.

Jesus’ words, “Love one another,” are recorded in John 13:34: “I give you a new command: Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another” (CSB, emphasis added).

Please notice, in this one verse, Jesus calls us three times to love.

Love is so important to Jesus that He went further with these convicting words in the next verse: “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love another.” Of all the actions we can take as Christ followers, only one action distinguishes us from everyone else in this world. It is Love One Another.

In our nation, where government cannot fix us and politics cannot heal us, we must call out to God and live out before others these transforming words: Love One Another!

Why Love One Another?

Love One Another is a dynamic theme to advance, beginning now and through the National Day of Prayer and beyond. These are the words of Jesus Christ. We cannot improve on what Jesus said: “Love one another. Just as I have loved you. . .” (John 13:34).

I find it very powerful that in the first part of John 13, Jesus said someone would betray Him, and at the last part of that same chapter, He declared someone would deny Him three times. But it was in the middle of this chapter that Jesus proclaimed boldly but compassionately, “Love one another.”

This theme is extremely relevant. It is clear, simple, and easy to understand. It is also easy to communicate, even to people who are perhaps very different from us and do not understand us.

I believe everyone in the United States would agree that our nation could become much better if we would just love one another. Everyone gets it. America needs to learn to love one another.

How Deep Is Jesus’ Love?

John 13 begins Jesus’ farewell to His disciples. From John 1 through John 12, the word love is used 12 times. From John 13 through John 21, the word love is used 44 times.

Love is the theme of His farewell.

Love was Jesus’ burden when He prayed for unity among His followers in John 17. He prayed, “I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them” (v. 26, emphasis added).

Loving one another distinguishes us from unbelievers. Loving one another is God’s transforming power in all relationships.

According to the testimony of the early Christian apologist Tertullian (A.D. 155–240), the pagans said about the early Christians, “See how they love one another?”

The pagans witnessed these early Christians washing the feet of others. They even saw them lay down their own lives for the Lord, for His name, and for others.

When Jesus said, “I give you a new command,” He was speaking of a new kind of love that is personal and fresh. Theologically, the death of Jesus Christ is the only way we can get right with God, and it is the coming of the Holy Spirit that sets our hearts afire with love!

The specific word for love used in John 13:34 expresses purpose. It is the kind of love that gives of self completely and unselfishly. It is a love that calls us to lay down our lives for others and to seek the welfare of others.

Love like this transforms people and can transcend all problems within relationships. Love like this is a new kind of love, and the Holy Spirit ignites us to love even our enemies. Jesus said, “I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matt. 5:44). This is extraordinary love based on the depth of God’s love for His Son Jesus, and for each of us.

Even in his epistles, John addressed this kind of love. With boldness he declared, “Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love his brother or sister” (1 John 3:10).

Jesus is calling us to forgive, release, forget, and even to seek out those who offend us and love them in a better way. Jesus calls us to love people just as He loves us: willfully, sacrificially, and unconditionally.
Because God has loved us, we are to love one another. When we belong to Jesus, we belong to love.

How Wide Is Jesus’ Love?

Love One Another spans all generations, all ethnicities, and all languages.

Each of the 350,000+ churches and 200 denominations in America needs to live up to these profound, life-changing, transforming words of Jesus: love one another!

God’s greatest footprint on our nation is the hundreds of thousands of churches across our country. Each church can host a prayer observance for America on the National Day of Prayer, or a few can join with each other to cover their region in prayer.

While our task of mobilizing unified public prayer for America is daunting and intimidating, it is not impossible.

A Day of More Prayer

We need to resolve to make Thursday, May 2, 2019, the day America is prayed for more than any other day this year. We need millions of people to pray for America on the National Day of Prayer.

We may differ with one another at times, but we can always love one another. Love is our highest duty to God and to one another. Love is the badge of our discipleship. Love is what sets us apart from others.

Jesus did not say that we are known by our creeds, songs, doctrine, knowledge, achievements, dress, appearance, or the color of our skin. We are only known by our love.

We need a baptism of love by the Holy Spirit that will immerse the entire Church of Jesus Christ and our entire nation in a baptism of love. This kind of love must begin in the church houses of America, and then go to the state houses of America, and ultimately go all the way to America’s White House.

Loving one another will transform America.

“Love one another just as I have loved you.” John 13:34 #Love1Another

RONNIE FLOYD is president of the National Day of Prayer Task Force. His website is ronniefloyd.com.

This article was originally published at https://www.prayerleader.com/love-one-another/[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_cta h2=”National Day of Prayer @ Eastwood Tulsa” h4=”Thursday, May 2nd from 11am – 1pm”]Join us for a come and go prayer service as we pray to Love One Another.

Loving one another will transform America. We encourage you to get involved in the National Day of Prayer! #love1another

[/vc_cta][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Grandpa would put $50 in one plastic egg and wrap it in silver foil and $100 in another plastic egg and wrap it in gold foil. Then he would hide them among hundreds of other candy-filled plastic eggs. The trick, of course, would be finding the coveted silver and golden eggs before anyone else. The problem was, grandpa usually hid those eggs so well you would need a metal detector and a shovel to find them. This search covered over an acre of both cleared and wooded property. He would even hide them in the pool occasionally (this was in Florida so the water wasn’t that cold – brrr).

As a child, Easter for me represented family, church, fun and candy. Oh, the candy! Did you know that U.S. candy makers produce some 90 million chocolate bunnies and 16 billion jelly beans for Easter each year? I never understood why we received chocolate bunnies, but I didn’t care. They were cute and tasted good .

As I think about celebrating the Hope of Easter this year, I was curious about why it’s called Easter. I mean, the word Easter isn’t even in the Bible. No one knows for certain when people began observing the resurrection of Jesus Christ as a holiday, although some evidence points to the second century or earlier.

The English word Easter can be traced back to the Greek word Pascha, which is derived from the Hebrew term pesach, meaning “Passover”. The Passover Festival was established in the Old Testament in Exodus 12 as an annual celebration of Israel’s deliverance from Egyptian slavery.

In Exodus 7-11, Moses tells of the ten plagues inflicted by God upon Pharaoh and Egypt who held His chosen people captive as slaves for 400 years. The first Passover coincided with the last of the ten plagues, the death of every firstborn male in Egypt. For Israel to avoid this terrible judgment, God required a blood sacrifice. Every Israelite family were to select an unblemished one-year-old male lamb and care for it in their homes for 14 days. I can imagine how much they would have grown attached to their new pet. On the 14th day, they were to slaughter the sacrificial lambs taking some blood and putting it on the sides and tops of the door frames of the houses where they were to eat the roasted lambs. Later that night, as God brought justice upon Egypt, He saw the Lamb’s blood on each Hebrew dwelling and withheld judgment, passing over those houses in mercy. Ultimately, the festival foreshadowed God’s Son, Jesus Christ, and His sacrifice on the cross for the sins of mankind.

Both the Old and New Testaments make it clear that Christ was the perfect fulfillment of the Old Testament sacrificial system that God gave His people on Mount Sinai.

• “He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth.” Isaiah‬ ‭53:7‬ ‭NASB‬‬‬‬‬‬
• “The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” ‭‭John‬ ‭1:29‬ ‭NASB‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬
• “Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed.” 1 Corinthians‬ ‭5:7‬ ‭NASB‬‬‬‬‬‬
• “Knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.” 1 Peter‬ ‭1:18-19‬ ‭NASB‬‬‬‬‬‬

That the Messiah was crucified during Passover week (John 19:14) was no accident. Jesus was making a powerful statement in revealing Himself as the perfect fulfillment of the Old Testament Law.

After the early church started, following the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2), the first Christians started gathering together for weekly worship services on Sundays, or “the Lord’s Day” (Revelation 1:10), to honor the day on which the resurrection occurred. Eventually, believers started commemorating Christ’s triumph over death with an annual festival we now call Easter.

For true followers of Christ, what’s most important about Easter is not its origins, traditions, or even the very institution itself, but rather the glorious truth that it celebrates. The Son of God is alive, and His victory over death provides eternal, life-changing hope!

The resurrection changed everything, and gives us hope and peace even today. Celebrate with us on Easter Sunday at EASTWOOD TULSA at 10:45 am.

Defending Genesis

Several years ago, God impressed I Peter 3:15 on me. “Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and always be ready to give an answer to anyone who asks you for a reason of the hope that is within you with meekness and fear.” Then later, Psalm 11:3 “If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?” And then in Isaiah 58:12 “. . . raise up the foundations, . . . Be a repairer of the breach!”

The study of Genesis is the foundation of all we claim to believe Biblically, including creation, the deity of Jesus Christ, the Gospel and the Second Coming of Jesus (among other salient doctrines). Thus, the defense of the Genesis record has become my way of living by I Peter 3:15. God told us “earthly things” in Genesis—things we can check out (John 3:12). But if we don’t believe those “earthly things,” how will anyone believe the promise of His soon return–what we can’t check out? If they don’t believe Moses writings, they won’t believe Jesus either (John 5:46- 47).

Christian Apologetics

Education has tried to destroy the “foundations” of our faith given in Genesis. We’ve been sold a false doctrine in which there is no room for the authority of the Creator God or manifestation in the flesh, Jesus Christ our Savior. Evolution cannot be, and has not been, proven. It is based on mountains of speculative assumptions for so long that people have accepted it as truth, principally because of its secular scientific credibility. Those who promote evolution as scientific truth have been deceived just as Eve was deceived. Those who push such false lies know that to acknowledge belief in a God makes us responsible toward Him as Creator. “No Creator – No guilt” (Romans 1:28).

Evolution deceived man into thinking he can decide what’s right or wrong. NO absolutes! True scientific “knowledge” supports divine creation that is dependent on a supreme intelligence. Life on earth depends on the sustaining power of Jesus (John 5:17, Hebrews 1:3, Colossians 1:17). He is upholding all things by the power of His Word. Science has no explanation of how atoms hold together or how the universe functions like a well-oiled machine. Apostle Paul said it right, people believed a lie and became as fools (Romans 1:22).

Many people have said to me, “I just believe whatever the Bible says, that’s good enough for me.” But that is not a ‘defense’ (I Peter 3:15). Yet those same people can’t give an answer for what or why they claim to believe a certain way, and this is because there is such a drought among professing believers concerning what they believe and why they believe it! I certainly don’t know all the answers but it is such a thrill to know the foundation of my faith is secure.

Small Groups Help Answer Difficult Questions

In our small group, we will study “A Primer on Biblical Worldview” by Michelle Holland and Dr. G. Thomas Sharp and view videos from the “Unlocking the Mysteries of Genesis” series by the Institute for Creation Research.

Unlocking the Mysteries of Genesis Trailer from Institute for Creation Research on Vimeo.

Join us as we discuss questions and answers to many issues not usually dealt with in Sunday School. The excitement of learning new information about our Creator and His plan will help anyone more effectively defend what he claims to believe. Books available at my class are $3.00.

A Primer on Biblical Worldview is a book outlining the elementary principles that are needed to have a proper understanding of science and the first 12 chapters of Genesis. This primer endeavors to help you evaluate your worldview and adjust it to align fully with the Bible so that you interpret your world through the lenses of Scripture.

How to Join our Small Group

I am leading two small groups with this study. We meet on Sundays @ 5:30 pm or Wednesdays @ 1:00 pm. Register at https://eastwoodtulsa.org/small-groups or contact the church office at 918-836-8686 for more information.

They are obviously imperatives—commands.

I can at least vaguely understand how I might be able to rejoice all the time, but pray all the time? Impossible! – At least as I had always understood it. I had a living to make, a house to keep up, and a husband and children to care for. I couldn’t be kneeling down, bowing my head, or whatever requirements there might be to be praying all the time.

Surely preachers and Sunday School teachers had tried to teach me better for years, but I never quite got the message. Until…until, as it so often happens, a circumstance, an occasion or an event comes along to make things clear.

                My daughter died in a vehicle accident. I was devastated and I cried out,

“My child, my daughter, my first-born, my, my, my!”

God spoke to me, not just a feeling inside, but translated to me in words inaudible to anyone else, “What’s this my business? I let you in on the fun of placing this little person on earth, but she never belonged to you. She was mine from the beginning because I was her creator and then she was mine multiplied over when she accepted my son Jesus as her Savior and Lord.

You had a great 33-year loan but I didn’t have to ask your permission to bring her home to me.”

His words were stern but not harsh. He was taking part in the dialogue of prayer.

Dialogue? Yes! Without intention or even recognizing what I was doing, I had engaged in true prayer.

His words were stern but not harsh

That prayer is a dialogue rather than some kind of monologue from me was the first lesson I learned. The second was perhaps even more wonderful. Prayer needn’t be an event with boundaries of time or place, but more of a state of being. It should be an ongoing, unceasing state of communication. At any moment I can reach out to my Dearest Abba Father and whisper, “I love you,” “I need you, please help me,” “I can’t understand this, would you please instruct your Holy Spirit inside me to teach me,” and most powerfully, “I don’t know how to pray right now. Please let your Holy Spirit know my heart and speak for me.

I guess these things are from my side again but with an open door for God to speak to me, sometimes in answers to what I have said, but often without my beginning any dialogue. Perhaps I can be looking in a mirror, frowning at what seems to be an obvious flaw or sign of aging to me, and I hear His gentle voice saying, “You are just as I made you and I love you just the way you are.” To my best-intentioned but still mid-excellent singing, “Trust me, one day you’ll do better up here.” At some time when I’ve really tried to do something which has been unnoticed by all the humans around me, simple words of encouragement: “Good job!” At a season of personal despair: “I cherish you.”

“I cherish you.”

Sometimes I forget the prayer lessons I’ve learned an unwittingly go back to those earlier misguided days, but it only takes a moment for His gentle reminder that our prayer time together is real and unceasing.

Do I pray for God’s guidance? Of course, I do, and sometimes I even do so in the same way I formerly thought was the only way to pray—a set-aside time either early in the morning or the last thing at night looking forward to the next day—asking His direction and blessing on that time to come.

I’m not trying to disparage this kind of action, but even asking for direction, I find that I now am more likely to follow the immediate and constant contact that has been given to me.

Whenever big decisions or events are imminent, I say, “Go before me, Lord, I always want to be following you. Open doors, but just as importantly, close doors before me. I would even prefer that you slam them to make your will clear to me. Help me remember that I want to follow only your will. That I would not be led off in trying to follow my own when I know that is hardly wise.”

Sometimes this prayer for guidance can even be for something simple or minor, yet remembering that the Father wants to hear about the little things of my life, too. My husband thinks my prayers can be kind of silly, but God and I don’t think so. “Lord, I just lost one of the lovely blue earrings that I’m so fond of.

If it’s your will, please lead me to it.” However much some bystanders might scoff, the number of times He has graciously answered such prayers is astounding.

Sometimes this prayer for guidance can even be for something simple or minor, yet remembering that the Father wants to hear about the little things of my life, too.

Praying without ceasing covers all areas of communication with God: guidance, protection, healing, provision, deliverance and intervention. Yet guidance actually covers them all and I have been so gifted to have this privilege of communication with the master and creator of the universe, my Dearest Abba Father.

-By Trudy Graham

It had been a busy day for Nathan and the other shepherds.  Finally, the day was done and the flock was settled down for the night.  After supper, he laid down by the fire and soon was fast asleep.

Suddenly, something woke him up.  When he opened his eyes, he was blinded by a dazzling bright light.  What was happening?  Was this an attack?  Then, he began to see that there was something in the bright light… something that looked like an angel!  Then, he heard a loud voice say, “Do not be afraid.  I have great news for everyone.  Today, in the town of Bethlehem, a Savior has been born for you.  He is Christ the Lord.  You will find a baby lying in a manger.”  Suddenly, the whole sky exploded in light as thousands of angels streaked through the skies over Bethlehem.  They began praising God,  “Glory to God in the highest,” they said, “ and on earth peace to men of good will. ”  It was the most glorious thing Nathan had ever seen or heard.

All too soon, they were gone and the sky was empty and black.  The shepherds looked at each other in wonder.  “Let’s go see what the angel was talking about.”, they said.  They left their flocks, which is very “unshepherdish”, and ran to Bethlehem.  There, they found the stable with Mary and Joseph and the baby in a manger just as the angel had said.  In awe they knelt down before the baby in the manger and worshiped him.  As they left Bethlehem, they told everyone what they had seen and heard that night.

Later, Nathan realized how amazing it was that God had sent His angels to shepherds!  Shepherds!… the poorest, smelliest, most disrespected bunch of folks in Israel!  Yet, God chose them to be the first to hear His great news.  What Nathan didn’t understand was that everyone is equally important to God!  It is no different today.

“When we were utterly helpless with no way of escape, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners who had no use for Him.”  Romans 5:6 (The Living Bible)

-Lujean