HOW ARE YOU GOING WITH THAT?
In our death we are born to life,
At birth we are born to death.
We were created for eternity with God.
We were created in His image,
Made for companionship and friendship,
And offered, intimacy with the creator of the universe.
God gave us free will to choose to follow Him,
Sadly, the choices made by humanity favoured self-interest,
And we turned our back on our creator.
We lost the bond we had with God and went our own way.
Despite our rejection of Him,
The Father in mercy sought us out and sent His Son,
To come and find us in our self-centred arrogance in our imperfect and spoiled existence,
And gave His life to rescue us from judgement and our broken relationship with the Father.
He did what we could not do,
He restored hope by conquering the power of sin and disobedience,
Taking our punishment upon himself,
That we could be set free from the consequences our actions,
Our list of charges dismissed in the court of the King.
God, in the person of His Son, died in our place!
Who would ever do that?
Sacrifice their life, a perfect formidable one, for people scarred by evil!
A people who had turned their back on Him,
And even cried out for Him to receive capital punishment.
How despicable we were and yet He still did it.
A people without hope, living in the pigsty of their own making,
Offered invitation into the King’s palace to eat at His table!
To live with Him in luxury forever and ever, rather than left to eternal misery!
Not all want to come back into the close bond of relationship with God,
Preferring to please themselves with their own wealth, fame and worldly success,
Giving no thought to life’s end and denying that there is a life to come for all.
For them there is …
No good news.
No hope of seeing family and friends again,
No vision of eternal happiness in a perfect world with the one creator,
Hoping that no punishment will be waiting for them for what they have done,
Hoping that hell is a myth even though they see evil present all around them.
All have a choice; even making no choice is a choice,
And God honours the decision of everyone.
How are you going with that?
Neil P. Schiller
04 February 2023
The question needs to be asked about the role, response and responsibility the churches take for the drift away from traditional forms of church. Why are the younger generations shunning the church and in fact membership in community organisations with formal structures?
Have churches forgotten their mission to reach out in mission and ministry (shepherding people to come to Jesus and follow Him) and instead just doing church and looking after their own needs? Are people in our own community feeling and seeing Jesus through the church caring for those of the faith let alone those in the communities around us? Jesus called people to come to Him and be in a relationship with Him and to share in life together with other believers.
Living following Jesus is described in the New Testament as showing love and care for others by spending time together, helping each other, loving all people by showing kindness, friendship, understanding, showing goodness. Offering encouragement, forgiveness, and hope!
Following Jesus is not an hour a week singing a few songs, hearing a sermon and some whole church prayers, having a coffee and a chat for twenty minutes and then going home: job done for the week.
Will we be surprised in heaven to see people there who followed Jesus, lived their faith in the community, but were not members of a church?
How do people outside Lutheran circles see our arguments over ordination, our attitudes to people who are gay, homosexuals, transgender etc. and have a view of churches as given to them by what they see on T.V, in Movies, on Netflix, Stan and in the newspapers?
If we grew up in a family that was unchurched, what would we think about church from what the local churches say and do?
Worth thinking about seriously in my view.