Week 5

Going into today I was excited. It was an election day and there is a polling place located in the community center across from the Church. Usually there will be people on the Church property holding up signs pushing their candidate or issue. Since they can’t be on the grounds of the polling place, they stand on the sidewalk by the Church. One time I went with another FAITH member and was able to present the gospel to those standing around. We have these “poll questions” that our Church uses to find out how we could better serve the community. The last question is “In your opinion, what do you understand it takes for a person to go to heaven”. If we get anything but a “faith” answer, we present the gospel. Unfortunately this was just a small election and nobody was out pushing for his or her cause, it was just an annexation vote.

Class was good we studied about the “A” in FAITH. A is for available. God’s forgiveness is available to us. It is available to all of us. John 3:16 says “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Even though it is available to everyone it is not automatic. Jesus says in Matthew 7:21 “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven”. There are a lot of people out there that believe that everyone will be saved or that all religions lead to heaven. They read into John 3:16 and say see He died for all of us, so we all are going to heaven. We need to also look at the “whosoever believeth in him..” This is why the “F” that we studied last week is so important. Every one has sinned and needs forgiveness. That forgiveness is in Jesus only. If we don’t understand our sins, how can we receive or even understand the cure. We compare ourselves too much to other people (horizontally) and not to God and His holy standards (vertically).

In class we also learned that people often ask “How can a loving God send someone to hell?” Again, the need to understand who we are (sinners) and who God is (Holy and Righteous). Like an earthly judge, if a convicted criminal went unpunished then the judge would be corrupt. The same with God, we wouldn’t think that God would let a murder or a rapist go unpunished would we?. How about a lair, a thief, or a blasphemer? When Jesus was talking to Nicodemus in John 3:18, a few verses after John 3:16. He said “He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already”. Jesus didn’t come to lead people to hell they are already on their way. He came to save us from it.

Our Visit

We had a ministry visit, the Parsley’s. Mr. Parsley has cancer and has not been able to leave his home for a while now. One of the FAITH teams has been tried to visit with them each week. Last week a FAITH team didn’t visit and they disappointed. Even though a FAITH team didn’t visit, there have still been visits from the pastor and friends during other parts of the week. We had a real good visit and we talked about how we miss them in Church. Mr. Parsley was a little emotional telling us that they miss being in Church. We learned more about them. This is one of the preachers at our Church. The few times I’ve heard him preach, I came away blown away at the talent God has given him. Since his eyes had gotten bad, he couldn’t read the passages out of the bible. He would recite them from memory, word for word. He is a great inspiration for me and I’d bet a lot of people in our Church too. We had an overall good visit. We prayed with them before we left.

Prayer

Pray that Mr. Parsley would get healthy enough to make it to Church again. Pray for the son of my daughter’s teacher. I’ve found out tonight that he had to go in for emergency surgery on his appendix. Pray for my team members both of them work at our school and this is a busy time for them. Pray for the lost and that I’d have more courage about sharing the gospel.

Week 4

This week there were several people out sick. We even had one missing from our team. This weeks lesson was on the F in FAITH. F is for forgiveness. Everyone has sinned and needs God’s forgiveness. The bible says in Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;”. Everyone must first realize that we are all sinners. A lot of time we compare ourselves to other people. When we do that we seem to be okay. It is not until we compare ourselves to God and his holy standards, that we realize how bad we are. Just look at God’s law, the 10 commandments. For example, who hasn’t stolen or told a lied. Who has failed to put God first? We also have those secret sins of the heart were God sees hatred as murder and lust as adultery. I can see where I’ve broken every single one of these. If we say that we have not sinned we are calling Jesus a liar (1 John 1:10)because the Bible say “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. Even if we’ve kept most of the law we’re still guilty; for whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one [point], he is guilty of all. (see James 2:10)

Once we understand that we are sinners we can understand our need for forgiveness. That forgiveness is in Jesus only. In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace. (Eph 1:7). It is only through the sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross that our sins are paid for. That is what separates Christianity from all the world religions. The world’s religions believe we can work our way their. That penalty it too large for us to pay ourselves, God can’t be bribed. God came down in the form of a man to pay for our sins, that they may be forgiven.

Our Visit

I was assigned to go with Chris and Judy’s team, since both teams were missing people. We were assigned a new resident that lived close to me. There was nobody home, so we went to the neighbor’s house. They didn’t want to talk and said that their child already attended a Church. So we didn’t get to talk to anyone tonight, but it was a success. I got to talk with both Chris and Judy. We had a great time of fellowship.

Prayers

Remember those that were out sick in our FAITH group. Remember my Great-Aunt. She had surgery and ended up with a stroke. Pray that the doctors and family will make the correct decision on how to treat her. Pray for Daniel that I came into contact with the last few days. Pray that I’ll be able to ask about his salvation. He seems to have bible knowledge and be open to spiritual subjects.