Victory Family Church

Today we worshiped at Victory Family Church, 21150 Route 19, Cranberry Township, PA 16066, 724.453.6200, www.lifeatvictory.org, John Nuzzo, Senior Pastor.

Scripture – ESV

Romans 8:14-17

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

John 1:12-13

But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

Bob’s thoughts:

Knowing that two of our 4-year-old grandchildren would be entertaining me outside of the sanctuary, I did not expect to have much to add to our blog, but there are some things I want to share.

I was exclaiming to my grandson how the huge Christmas tree in the lobby reached clear up to the ceiling. His response: it reaches clear up to Jesus and (my son) Uncle Dan. Dan was killed before Parker was born but he has a special relationship with and resemblance to Dan.

I enjoyed a conversation and witness with a young mom and was glad to lift this young family in prayer. I love how God orchestrates interactions in our lives.

Also I marvel at how often we have a discussion during the week that is addressed in the sermon on Sunday. We had discussed comments from others that their life as it is is better than being dead. The message taught what we should believe as Christians in this regard, that we should have no fear of death.

On Christmas Eve we worshiped with another daughter and her family at Crossroads Church and had an uplifting worship experience celebrating the Birth of Christ.

A great point raised in that message was, “Christmas means a way out of the dark places.” It was a special treat to see some of our grandchildren perform in song and the addition of a saxophone to the talented praise band was phenomenal.

After a conversation with the pastor of the church we visited last Sunday we recognized that our words had the potential to do more harm than good. Therefore we removed that blog post and you are invited to join us in praying for that young church.

Jan’s thoughts:

Greetings here usually consist of a smile and a nod, and today’s involved conversation in addition.

Nearly every time we’ve been here there has been an eye-catching display of some sort in the atrium, and today we were treated to a huge Christmas tree surrounded by boxes hand inscribed with the things for which people were most thankful. This church has enough members to make this a large display.

We were grateful for the free coffee this rainy morning.

The message was given by youth and young adult pastor Zack Blair and based to a large extent on his own experiences, it seems. Entitled “Sons and Daughters,” he spoke about the path to overcoming what he termed “spiritual orphanhood.”

This path involves, first, facing the past and the labels we have put on ourselves, whether on our own or via others; second, recognizing that trust is an essential part of fulfilling our need for connection with others; and third, embracing the knowledge that our Heavenly Father loves us, that He has searched us out and adopted us as His own. We are His sons and daughters and because He loves us perfectly, we need not fear life or death or anything else. His perfect love casts out fear, so there is always always hope.

Our prayer for this church:

Lord, Your hand is evident in this church and pray for Your continued guidance and blessing on the leaders and members alike. Amen.