Tonight's Blog for April 21, 2013

Worship today at MCC was a rich and blessed experience for me. Gary Hawes from His House Christian

Fellowship ( https://hhcf.org ) spoke about college students. Because of his experience and faithful service, Gary was able to show us the differences in students today and when he started. He was very careful to remind us that the students might change, and times might be tough, but we still serve the same LORD. Thank you, Gary for your encouraging words! Our you can reach Gary by email at garyh@hhcf.org if you wish to share an encouraging word, or ask a question. 

I was glad to have Gary share with us one of the toughest passages from Acts. Two church members died in the worship time because they tried to lie to the Holy Spirit. They lied about the money they brought to give to the apostles, but it really wasn't about the amount of the money or the percentage. As one of our ladies said, it was about the intent. They had committed more sins than just the lie. The number of sins and the seriousness of each is another topic. Earlier, in the Gospels, Jesus seems to say that the sins involving the Holy Spirit are especially bad, even unforgivable, as in Mark 3:20-29. This sin is called the "blaspheme against the Holy Spirit." What do you think? 

As I see it, this continues our discussion of last night. Most of these issues are about our faith, weak or strong faith, the objects of faith we hold dear, and whether or not we worship anything or anyone but JESUS. We were talking about folks who say they are believers in Jesus, but who are wavering in their faith. Some might substitute Judaism, others might go after new ways to approach GOD, while minimizing or even abandoning Jesus. Many of us love the traditions, the ways that things have been done in the past, or even the memories that might not even be accurate. Because they are our memories, we forget that we might not be remembering facts but our mere perceptions of those events. It really is a short step, not even a leap, to worshiping the past in those situations. 

Tonight I want to remind you that our goal in worship has always been and will continue to be about HIM…. Jesus, HE is the only way and we will seek Him. GOD Bless you tonight, my dear ones… big marv