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Building Lives from the Ground Up

Bethany Grace Fellowship

To Thrive I To Impact I To Unify 400 Reading Road East Earl, PA 17519 717-445-6644 www.bethanygf.org

Sunday Services 9AM & 10:35AM Streaming online at 9AM on Facebook, YouTube and our website.

Mt. Zion Baptist Church

3 Denver Road, Denver, PA 17517 717-336-5553

Sunday School: 9:45am

Morning Worship: 8:45am & 10:30am Evening Worship: 6:00pm Wednesday Evening: 7:00pm www.MtZionDenverPa.com

70 Clay School Road Ephrata, PA 17522 717-733-4071 Service Times: Saturday 6:00 p.m. I Sunday 10:00 a.m. Kevin Eshleman, Lead Pastor ephratacommunity.church

St. Paul’s UCC

133 Church Street Bowmansville 717-445-6256

Pastor Phil Shober

Sunday Worship 10:30am In-Person & on Sunday School & Nursery Available Men’s & Women’s Bible Studies Second Wednesday of the Month, 7pm Home of “Grace House Blessings” www.stpaulsuccchurch.org they not have given Paul a hearing? Did they not have Bibles too?

Perhaps we need this lesson. Bigotry among God’s people today will have the same effect as it had in that day. Let us never close our minds, to keep error out, for in doing so we will shut out new light as well, and close old errors in. Rather let us receive the words of men and subject them immediately to the Word of God.

And this brings us to the second element of Berean greatness.

THEY BELIEVED

GOD’S WORD ALONE

They were not gullible or credulous. They did not just believe whatever they were told. They “received” Paul’s word, but they did not immediately believe it. They listened to him; they gave him an interested hearing, but did not immediately agree with him. First they had to search the Scriptures to see “whether those things were so.” Paul’s word was subjected to God’s Word. The word of man was tested by the Word of God. [Note: At this point in the article, many years later, Pastor Stam added these handwritten words in the margin: “Now all that Paul preached was not to be found in the Old Testament, for Paul had received a further revelation from the Lord. But it all fit right in with the Scriptures

717-733-7356 SCHAEFFERSTOWN 717-949-2663

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Liberty Baptist 47 Cindia Lane, Ephrata 717-733-0396

Pastor Jim Taylor

Assoc. Pastor Keith MacDougall

Old Hymns - KJV

Traditional Services

Sunday School 9:30 AM

Sun. Worship 10:30 AM & 6:00 PM

Wed. Prayer Meeting 7:00 PM

Thurs. Bible Study 1:00 PM

Independent - Fundamental Soul Winning

The Beacon on the Hill ill

249 East Main Street New Holland, PA 17557 717.354.7871

Pastor Dr. Drew DiNardo

More Info at www.ststephenpca.org

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Mellingers

Evangelical Lutheran Church

80 Gockley Road Stevens, PA 17578 717-336-8800

Pastor Timothy Craven

Sunday Worship: 9:00 AM Available In-Person, Parking Lot (98.3FM) & Facebook Live Sunday School: 10:15-11 AM www.mellingers.org

18 Quarry Road • Leola, PA 17540 717-656-9200

Pastor Karen E. Larson www.zionleola.org

Congregation of the ELCA

SUNDAYS Faith Formation Study - 8:45am Worship - 10:00am WEDNESDAYS Chapel Worship 6:30pm

Lutheran Church Worship In Person, on Facebook or YouTube they had. None of it was contrary to the Old Testament.”] How God must have rejoiced over this Bible-loving, Bible-honoring group! They, and not the popular leaders of the day, were the truly great ones in Israel.

Picture the scene: A husband comes home saying he has heard strange things in the synagogue from the lips of a visiting rabbi. Reaching for the sacred Scriptures, he begins an intensive search. The rest of that Sabbath day finds him buried in thought over the writings of the prophets. And not only that day, for he continues the search day after day. He hurries home from his daily work. He puts aside the less important things. Untiringly he searches on until he is sure he has the Truth of God.

And he is only one of many. This was the general attitude in Berea toward Paul’s message. “They searched the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” They were not willing to take his word for granted. They sifted his message carefully and put it to an intense investigation in the light of the Word of God.

Result? “Therefore many of them believed.”

And we may be sure that these Bereans were strong in the faith, for they had an intelligent understanding of the subject. They not only had the “full assurance of faith” (Heb. 10:22), but the “full assurance of understanding” (Col. 2:2). We need to be as the Bereans were.