Loading...
The Citizen, 2015-09-17, Page 16PAGE 16. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2015. By Rev. Mark Royall Huron Chapel Evangelical Missionary Church In Canada, we are grateful for the opportunity to live in a free country. Freedom here is a gift available for all to enjoy. However, this freedom is conditional. It is conditional upon a person obeying and abiding by the laws of our land. If someone chooses to disobey and break the laws of the land, they can lose their freedom and be sent to prison. We get that and we accept this as the condition of our freedom. As God’s children, we are grateful for the opportunity to be able to live with God in Heaven forever one day. Heaven is a gift for all to enjoy. However, Heaven is conditional. The most well known verse the in the Bible is just one of many places that tells us so, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son….” (now here comes the condition) “…that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). According to God’s Word, believing in Jesus is the condition to receive eternal life. Now this “believing” doesn’t mean that we just believe Jesus exists. It means that we believe ‘in Him’ and what He did for us on the Cross for our sin. We believe and we accept and we follow Jesus. Canada is our home. Because we believe in freedom, because we love others and desire for all to enjoy what we do here, we welcome people from other countries who don’t have freedom to come and live with us. However, there is a condition, they must abide by the laws and principles that make our nation a great place to live. We have seen in recent days the horrid pictures of refugees trying to escape their homes in Syria because one group of people hates another group of people. Hate is causing people to live in fear. Hate is killing people. So thousands are fleeing for their lives. A couple of weeks ago we saw the picture of a little boy who was fleeing Syria to come to Canada with his family, lying dead face down on a beach. He drowned trying to escape on a raft that capsized in rough waters. We are horrified and our hearts sink in despair for these people. We wonder how terrorists could ever hate someone that much to cause that much grief and senseless death. Now… if the terrorists responsible for this hate came to Canada, our home, and wanted to do the same thing here, we would do all we could do to not allow their hate and terror to enter our country. In fact if we could…we would gather them all up and send them to prison for the rest of their lives where they could never hurt innocent people again. But how could we do that? How could we, a people who say we want freedom for all, who say we love all people, allow some to go to prison? This doesn’t sound very loving. However, we are not only a people of love…we are people who need justice. We couldn’t live with ourselves if we allowed this kind of evil that causes children to die and families to flee their homes in fear to carry on without us doing anything about it. We would not allow that kind of hatred to enter our homes here in Canada if we could. We love, but love goes hand in hand with justice. We are made in God’s image and like God we are a people who love but we are also a people who need to see justice. Love demands justice. Love without justice is indifference. God loves us all. Nothing is more true. But God is also just. God cannot allow sin to carry on unpunished any more than we can. He is not indifferent to sin. He knows the seriousness of sin and what sin is doing in our world today and He will not allow it into heaven, His home. If we are guilty of anything, it is that we don’t understand just how serious sin is. Sin is not just a ‘boo boo’. Sin is not just a mistake. Sin breaks up families. Sin kills. Sin robs people of peace. Sin robs people of joy and their sense of value in this world. Sin causes people to become refugees. God has a house called heaven and He wants all to come to live with Him there. However there is a condition that needs to be met. Before you can come to live with Him forever, you have to deal with your sin problem. He cannot allow sin into His perfect Home anymore than we would tolerate hate coming into ours. So this is what God did for us. “For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.” 2 Corinthians 5:21 And this is why Jesus can say, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through Me.” It sounds nice when we hear people offer their opinion and say they think everyone is going to THE CATHOLIC PARISHES OF NORTH HURON AND NORTH PERTH CORDIALLY INVITE YOU TO ATTEND HOLY MASS. OUR SUNDAY LITURGIES ARE AS FOLLOWS: Brussels: St. Ambrose Saturday 6:00 p.m. 17 Flora Street Wingham: Sacred Heart Sunday 9:00 a.m. 220 Carling Terrace Listowel: St. Joseph’s Sunday 11:00 a.m. 1025 Wallace Avenue N. MELVILLE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH BRUSSELS Rev. Elwin Garland SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 20 Nursery care available 519-887-9017 Worship & Sunday School - 10 am Coffee & Snacks - 11 am We invite you to join our church family in: Fridays 11:30 am - 1:00 pm ~ Soup & More 2 - a free community meal held in Melville’s basement, and made possible by the Brussels churches working together. BRUSSELS MENNONITE FELLOWSHIP Invites………YOU Sunday, September 20th Guest - JUDY GRIEVE MONOLOGUE MINISTRIES ““Bringing Rahab to Life” Service @ 10:00 am Friendship Lunch to Follow $ “Come Just As You Are To Worship!”  #"!$ $$$$$!$!$$" $   $$  $ SUNDAYS Morning Service 10:00 am Evening Service 7:30 pm Hwy. 4, Blyth www.blythcrc.ca 519-523-4743 Minister: Pastor Gary van Leeuwen You’re Invited To Join Us In Worship BLYTH CHRISTIAN REFORMED CHURCH CORNER OF DINSLEY & MILL STREETS MINISTER Rev. Gary Clark, BA, M. Div. All Welcome MUSIC DIRECTOR Floyd Herman, BA, M. Ed.OFFICE: 519-523-4224 Sunday, September 20 Sunday School Kick Off ~ All Welcome Worship Service & Sunday School at 10 a.m. MUSIC DIRECTOR Floyd Herman, BA, M. Ed. Children Welcome SUNDAY SCHOOL HURON CHAPEL SUNDAY SCHOOL 9:30 am MORNING SERVICE 10:30 am huronchapel.com SUNDA HURON CHAPEL 9:30 SCHOOLLYSUNDA HURON CHAPEL 9:30 am HURON CHAPEL MORNING SER SUNDA huronchapel.com VICE 10:30 amMORNING SER 9:30 SCHOOLL YSUNDA VICE 10:30 am 9:30 am Youre Invited to come worship with us Sunday, Sept. 20 Brussels Business & Cultural Centre at 10:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. Sunday School for children 4 to 12 years of age at 9:30 a.m. Childcare provided for infants and preschoolers during the sermon. Coffee & cookies after the morning service. For additional details please contact Pastor Andrew Versteeg 519.887.8621 Steve Klumpenhower 519.292.0965 Rick Packer 519.527.0173 getlivingwater.org Living Water Christian Fellowship 10:30 a.m. ~ Worship & Sunday School at 308 Blyth Rd. (former Church of God) Pastor: Ernest Dow ~ 519-523-4848 Sept. 20: Jn. 14:19ff, 15:1ff “Are You IN or OUT? Avoiding the Disconnect” Evangelical Missionary Church Sept. 30 10 a.m. COFFEE BREAK Women’s Bible Study (at LWCF) BRUSSELS WORSHIP SERVICE AND SUNDAY SCHOOL 11:00 am All Welcome United Church Minister: Rev. Gary Clark, BA, M.Div. Bulletin notices: 519-523-4224 blythunited@tcc.on.ca Church bookings: 519-887-6377 Other concerns: 226-963-1175 From the Minister’s Study Love, justice and the conditions of Heaven Continued on page 18