Pastors Pen for Sunday, 28Sept2008

Pst Joy and I are in Surabaya to minister in 2 Churches and to speak for a Youth Camp for another. You are in good hands today and Pst Rishi will be preaching a timely and important sermon. We are blessed to have great Pastors and Staff!

Next week, I will preach the second to last sermon in our series covering the entire book of James. Please familiarize yourself with James 5:1-12 in your personal devotion time.

Speaking of personal devotion time, allow me to encourage you to persist in receiving God’s Word into your life everyday. A friend of mine recently told me that many of the members in the Church he Pastors have become upset that he strongly encourages them to read the Bible every day. They have become hyper obsessed with one of the latest popular teachings about grace… many people world-wide have. They now believe that because of God’s grace, that they don’t need to be so devoted & are angry that he is "placing guilt" on them. But God’s Word balances its teaching on grace by stating, “3Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints. 4For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord. 5Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe." (Jude 1:3-5 NIV)

Friends, we will not maintain our relationship with Christ and we will not grow in discipleship without regular, daily meditation on His Word. I pray that receiving hard copies of the sermon notes has been a help for you and that you have been using them to truly get the Word of God WORKING in you. I have not sensed an urgency so strong to help our congregation to understand the Word of God as strongly as I have for our entire congregation to understand the book of James. It is imperative. Thank you so very much for being students of the Good Book and for your devotion and loyalty to Jesus, the Author and Finisher of your faith!