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OUR SUNDAY SCHOOL MINISTRY

Highland Laker Kids are discovering this summer all the fun involved with being one of "God's Secret Agents". Please join us as we discover interesting people from the bible, learn some great, positive values and enjoy making creative crafts. Most of all -- the kids just have a lot of fun and get to hang out with other kids!

Summer Sermon Series
ON HOLY GROUNDS:
Examining Controversial Issues Biblically
Starting Sunday, July 4


PASTOR'S VACATION

Pastor Ron and his family will be away July 26 to August 10. Pastor Ron is a native of Nova Scotia and will be visiting there for the first time in 20 years. Please keep the Mahlers in prayer as they travel, and that the family would have a great time seeing all the sights (and eating lots of fish!)

Thursday, March 19, 2009

A Message from Pastor Ron

As one reads the New Testament, one can't help but ask some "why" questions. What I am referring to, is, why Paul spoke/wrote the way he did in some of his letters? For the sake of my argument, I will point us to the letter that Paul sent to the church in Galatia. Have you ever read that letter to the Galatians - and thought, "Wow! That is some sharp language he is using!" If you read that letter in one sitting, you are left with a couple of impressions. First, Paul sounds royally "ticked," and second, after doing some biblical study and digging, you can appreciate why Paul was so upset at the Christians at that church, not to mention, you also see his shepherd's heart and pastoral love fueling his concerns. Let me ask you: What would you do if someone came into our (your) church - and told you that there was something you and I were "missing" in our process of coming to faith in Jesus? Imagine being told our salvation wasn't finalized, and that God somehow wanted us to jump through a hoop that we never thought we had to! Imagine being a new Christian - or being someone who is "searching" and considering putting their faith in Jesus, and hearing this. How might you and I react?

Well, the Galatians, apparently a good number of them, went off the beaten track and followed certain people into theological error. Here was the crux of the problem in the first century church of Galatia: a group of Jewish Christians (noted in history as Judaizers) who, even though they advocated salvation in Jesus as Messiah, still held that God reached out to non-Jews THROUGH the law (of Moses) and not APART from it. Therefore, what entailed was that all males who wanted to become Christians needed to be "circumcised", and needed to follow certain Jewish customs as well.

Now I ask you, did Jesus mention anything like this in His three years of ministry? Did He even remotely imply this stuff in the Great Commission? NO! Jesus, the Bible tells us, "fulfilled" the law's requirements - and came to make "one people" (Ephesians 4) out of us - and not keep uniquely separate, the means by which Jews or Gentiles - should come to God. Paul would not have seen the Christian movement as a "new" religion, but rather as the natural extension and fulfillment (in Christ) of Israel's faith and longing for Messiah. Therefore, Paul had every justification to be hopping, mad as it were, at these Judaizers for throwing the people in Galatia into spiritual and scriptural confusion. That is, having them rely on some outward, physical actions - in order to complete their faith in Christ - and fully secure salvation - rather than it being by faith in what Jesus had done for them - alone.

Now think in "principle" how this issue in the Galatian church, could be applied today - in our current context as the church. We must tread carefully - in making sure we are not putting up obstacles and giving confusing signals to those who enter our churches and who may be considering Jesus as their Saviour. By promoting an ecclesiology (doctrinal practice of the church) that elevates such things as rules, tradition, structure, institution, and liturgical rigidity at the expense of the pure gospel - and how people were able to encounter Jesus - and how one came to a saving knowledge of Him, are we not bordering on being modern day "Judaizers"? In some sense, are we not hinting at "preaching a different gospel" perhaps, as Paul writes to the Galatian church? John the Baptist came to make "straight paths in the desert" for people to be able to receive Jesus as their Messiah/Saviour. May it never be, then, that we make them crooked again! May it never be - in our ministries or evangelism, that we present a "different gospel," or erect a "mirage" of spiritual hoops for those outside the faith, in spiritual deserts, to jump through - in order to know Jesus, and trust in Him for their salvation.