Please remember “Christ Community Church” – our LPD “Church” of the Week. Thanks to Anna (Ben) Crumback at Sointula Community Church for producing the Church of the Week!
Please see the attached “Five Minutes on Friday” for news on Mountain View Church in Chilliwack and an update on ministry in the LPD.Five_Minutes_on_Friday_June_23_2017.pdf
Dear friends,
Greetings on this beautiful Friday morning. Summer is here!
The wages of sin is death….
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God!
These verses are stark, sound harsh and perhaps even unkind.
Fortunately, these verses only tell half the story.
The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord! (Rom. 6:23)
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
(Rom. 3:23,24)
Both sides of the equation are necessary!
“The wages of sin is death” – is truth and reality.
“… but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord! Is God’s answer to our need and hopeless state. We have no need of the gift if we deny the need. We live in an age that increasingly seems to deny a need.
On this mote, I was intrigued by the recent story in the National Post from rural Alberta, where a Cornerstone Christian Academy was urged to delete an “offensive” scripture from its Statement of Beliefs.
http://news.nationalpost.com/news/religion/alberta-christian-school-fights-board-request-to-remove-offensive-scripture
The offending scripture is from 1 Corinthians 6:9, 10, which states: “Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God…”
The question regarding this passage is not its truth, but simply that it is not inclusive or “nice.” At issue are not the sins of slander, drunkenness, greed, theft or the worship of idols. It is regarding sexual sin. The wages of sin is death …. all sin.
The saddest part for me is that the story tells only the “bad news,” and omits the good!
1 Corinthians 6:9-11 reads (NIV),
Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
This is my favourite picture of the Church in all of Scripture. We need to hear and proclaim both the “bad news” and the “Good News.” Christ has taken us, once labelled by our sin, and through his blood, we are washed, sanctified and justified!
What He has done for us, he can do for others too!
Let’s make sure that our world hears both sides of God’s Story!
