Faithfulness

He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much. Luke 16:10 (NKJV)

In one of his works, professor Michael Green offers the following illustration on faithfulness:

“Do you apply the same standards of faithfulness to your Christian activities that you expect from other areas of your life?

If your car starts once every three tries, is it reliable?
If your paperboy skips delivery every Monday and Thursday, is he reliable?
If you don’t go to work once or twice a month, are you a loyal employee?
If your refrigerator stops working for a day or two every now and then, do you say, ‘Oh, well, it works most of the time’?
If your water heater provides an icy-cold shower every now and then, is it dependable?
If you miss a couple of loan payments every year, does the bank say, ‘Ten out of twelve isn’t bad’?
If you fail to worship God one or two Sundays a month, would you expect to be called a faithful Christian?

“We expect faithfulness and reliability from things and other people. Does God not expect the same from us? The problem is that in our religious activities we see ourselves as volunteers rather than as duty bound (I Cor. 9). For a volunteer, almost anything seems acceptable. For a bondservant… faithfulness is expected (Matt. 25:21).”

Magna View Ministries…

Aerobics is back Tuesdays and Thursday @ 7 pm

The Ushers will meet Sunday after the morning worship service. We will be training our ushers for security duty. If you have signed up to be an usher, or are interested in serving as an usher, please plan to stay for about 15 minutes after the service Sunday morning.

Homecoming 2009 – Sunday, October 11th. Rev. C.H. Christopher will be our guest preacher for the homecoming service. We will have a covered-dish meal after the service, and then we will have a dedication service for our new addition. Our children will be doing a “ribbon cutting” for the service. There will be no evening service.

Church vs. Gang

“So then you are no longer as those who have no part or place in the kingdom of God, but you are numbered among the saints, and of the family of God.” Eph 2:19 (BBE)

I’ve been reading an excellent book that was loaned to me by one of our church members; “Forgotten God” by Francis Chan. I want to share a brief passage from the book about the Church:

“A while back a former gang member came to our church. He was heavily tattooed and rough around the edges, but he was curious to see what church was like. He had a relationship with Jesus and seemed to get fairly involved with the church.

“After a few months, I found out the guy was no longer coming to the church. When asked why he didn’t come anymore, he gave the following explanation: ‘I had the wrong idea of what church was going to be like. When I joined the church, I thought it was going to be like joining a gang. You see, in gangs we weren’t just nice to each other once a week – we were family.’ … It saddened me to think that a gang could paint a better picture of commitment, loyalty and family than the local church body.”

Chan goes on to say, “Without the Spirit of God in our midst, working in us, guiding us, and living and loving through us, we will never be the kind of people who make up this kind of community.” (p.152)

I think Francis Chan has hit the nail on the head. People are looking for community; they are looking for family. They can and will find it in the world, if they don’t find it in the church.