Andy Groenink

I am learning that there is a lot of grey area’s as well. I recieved, more of this education again last night from 3 people on Twitter. It may seam to them that I did not understand them right away, but I always mull things over and realized that I still need to broaden my way of thinking.

If I do not broaden my way of thinking and understanding, then I can not fully Love everyone around me like Jesus had told me to. All of us, need to broaden our way of thinking and try to understand other peoples views on things, for if we don’t at least try to understand them, we can not fully Love them, the way God and Jesus told us to.

Therefore, lets all listen to people around us with an open mind and heart, the grey area’s, so that we can Love the people around us the way God and Jesus told us to, not condemn them and come down on them, with a heavy handed approach, like we have done in the past. Because if we do, we cannot Love them, or Show them an understanding, Loving Father and His son Jesus properly.

Today’s scripture reading is 1 Corinthians 13

Today is the day we set aside to Worship and Praise Him!

Today is the day we go and fellowship with our brothers and sisters in the Lord!

Today is the day we go to church with our family members and spend the day together!

Today is the day we get to pray together so we can stay together!

Today is the day we learn how to Forgive each other and Love each other!

We are told to Forgive, Love, Pray, Worship, Fellowship together, so that we can Encourage each other, and Lift each other up so that we can be strong and remain in Him! As well, then we will know and learn what our Lord wants us to do for Him and for others around us.

Therefore, lets all go to Gods house, the church, and do the above mentioned things, so those who do not know Him will learn about Him through US and from US!

Today’s scripture reading is 1 John 1: 5 - 10 

In 2 Samuel we see the consequences that happened to David, when he had done those 2 sins, adultery and murder. God will do the same thing to you when you sin. There are many, many types of SINS, that we all do. You can categorize them all under the 10 commandments, like I did with the 3 examples I used in the last 3 days, lies, adultery, and murder. You you can even expand on what I wrote down for each of them.

When we SIN, we not only hurt the people around us with those SINS, but we also hurt God, for when we SIN, DO WRONG, we do it against God! All our SIN is a violation of God’s Holy Law. When we failed to do good we are also guilty of SIN. To go even further than that, all of us know we should do good things and if we don’t, that’s a SIN.

Can we be forgiven for those sins? YES! We can if we ask, God and Jesus to forgive us of those SINS, only if we truly mean it, like David did in Psalm 51. But we still will be punished for those SINS just like our earthly parents punished us for the things we did wrong when we were growing up. Except God will not abuse us when He punishes us, not all our earthly parents abused us when were growing up, but some did and that to is a SIN.

All of us need to ask God for His Mercy and for His forgiveness of our Sins. Especially for the ones we did, that we may not remember, for sometimes we humans forget things.

Therefore, lets start doing what God and Jesus told us to do, that is to start loving everyone around us, for love covers a multitude of SINS!

Remember as well, we all have to ask those we have SINNED against to for give us, but also ask God to forgive us, not just saying, “oh Lord forgive me” slightly but truly mean it like David did in Psalm 51.

Then I would like us to think how far adulty goes, Adultery is having an affair with someone while you or them are married, but it goes further it is also pornography, going to watch exotic dancers, looking at the opposite sex lustfully. All these things and others that fall into this group are adultery.

The same thing with murder. Jesus told us that if we hate we have committed murder. So if you have hatred towards someone, dislike someone, bully someone, put someone down, you have committed murder.

Tomorrow I will talk a little further on the the 2 scripture passages I have asked you to read first this morning and expand on them. I would like all of you to think about the SINS you have done as well.

Today I want to talk further about the word sin, or should I say what is it and what do we do about it in our lives.

In Numbers 32:23 it says, “You may be sure that your sin will find you out.” That means every time you do something wrong, say something that is wrong, you have committed a sin and it will come out that you have sinned. Like telling a lie, and then that leads to another to cover up the first one, and after a while you get caught with the lie. So why lie in the first place.

In 2 Samuel 11, David sinned 2 times, he slept with Bathsheba and she became pregnant, to cover up this sin David tried to have her husband come home from the battle to sleep with her. He refused, for it was not right for him to do so, for his men couldn’t. Then David had Uriah killed, the second sin. ONE SIN LEADS TO ANOTHER, TO COVER THE FIRST ONE!!

Alright, we know what sin is, what do we do about it? When David was confronted about his 2 sins he really repented and felt so guilty he wrote about asking God for forgiveness and we have his repentiveness in Psalm 51.

We all sin, even after we have accepted the Lord as our savour, but we all have to confess to the person, we have sinned against and ask them to forgive us, as well go to God and ask Him to forgive us! Will it be easy? No, it wont be, but you will be forgiven by God,  as well you should also be forgiven by the person, you have sinned against.

I have talked about a person you have sinned against, but you can also sin against a person, place or thing, for example, the government, your work, your bank, retail outlets, your own pets, someone else’s pets, these are just a few examples to give you the idea of what you can sin against.

The word SIN, is the most unpopular word in the English language. It is a short 3 letter word and it is brutish, even to the point of when you say it, it forms a bit of a sneer on your face. We don’t like the word SIN, so we sugar coat it with words like, it was a mistake, or sowing  wild oats, Etc. But the heart of the matter is, SIN is disobedience, the great interloper, that diminishes us  and displeases God. We don’t like to use the word SIN because it lies so close to our experience, because it sounds hard, harsh and we don’t like the sound of it, for it is true to what we had just done or are doing.

Sin is an intrusion in the way God made the world, and has left us really scarred of where it will lead us, if it doesn’t it should. Because of Adam and Eve, all of us have become sinners and are subjected to temptation, even like David, a man after God’s own heart. He loved the Lord but failed, and gave into temptation, and had sex with Bathsheba, SIN! This turned to have consequences, of her becoming pregnant, a married women, not Davids wife.

Now adultery is what David did and that is a SIN, and a big one, but we all do sin and give into it’s false and luring temptation and helps our SINFUL desires to take control, and then we will fall into SIN. We must face the fact that we will be tempted to SIN, but we can find strength not to SIN, in the Lord who did promise to help, keep us pure. If we feel our selves being tempted we just have to say Lord help and He will help us to walk away from that temptation.

Therefore, don’t give into temptation, if you need help to get away from the temptation turn to the Lord and he will help you by giving you the strength to get away from it.

“Yield not to temptation, for yielding is SIN, Each victory will help you some other to win” from the Hymn Yield not to temptation– by Horatio R. Palmer.

It was 3 things that struck me at once. 

1st  was that my 19 year was moving out on July 1st, well that’s not so bad, 1 less child in the house she will be 20 in 6 months common at her age.

2nd my 16 year old informed me she too was moving out now! That struck a big nerve, and that was the biggest issue of the 3. Here in Alberta apparently they can do that at sixteen, but I am still legally responsible for her and yes I should be, but she should not be able to move out at such a young age.

3rd thing is that we had a pastoral vote at church Sunday July 2nd pushed upon us by our senors who think that the church should only be traditional and not contemporary. We are trying to bring in new people  in the church who do not know the Lord. This the vision given to all us staff and board members, but the senors say no and then the vote July 2nd. They brought in members who haven’t been at church for 3, 5, 10 years or more to vote against our Pastor and that gave them enough vote’s so that our pastor last day is July 26, and now our contemporary service doesn’t want to stay here.

These were the things that were bothering me. I have been in prayer and talking to family members, my daughters mother, and people of the church and getting little sleep.

So these were my 3 giants that I was battling with the last 10 days. 

problem #1 is resolved and I look forward in helping my 19 go ahead with her independence. #2 is not solved completely but not to destroy our relationship I will help her with this move, but told her I do not condone this move of hers.

#3 we are going to plant a church and them the traditional folks can keep the building and we can start a contemporary church and bring people who do not know the Lord and have never been to church.

So, please pray for us as we go forward with this church plant, as we go ahead with the great commission that Jesus gave us!

Today’s scripture reading is Matthew 28:16-20

In my scripture reading today, 2 Samuel 9, I saw how David kept his promise to Jonathan by trying to find someone from Saul’s family, still alive so he can show love and kindness to.

How difficult it must of been for David, to reach out to the family of the man wanting to kill him, and yet show kindness to one of his family. What an example of a human being he is by doing so, offering forgiveness and compassion to those who suffered innocently. We need to see how big of a heart, King David really had. Is this something we can do? Is this something we need to do? Or do we take everything possible, from those who have done us wrong, and bring them down?

Jesus tells us that we are to go after peace and to love all those around us. In Hebrew 12:14, we are told to be bound to a Holy lifestyle, and it is a something we have to do if we want to see the Lord.

To go after revenge, is a sign of carnal dominance in our soul. Allowing the Holy Spirit, to cleanse us, take the sinfulness out of us and replacing sinfulness with, Holy expressions of perfect Love is something that is available to all of us, who seek the Lord and believe in Him.

Boy, what a standard David has given us to follow. We have God’s and Jesus assurance that, with God’s grace and with his help, we can all do what David did. Paul told us in 1 Thessalonians 5:23, “The one who calls you is faithful and He will do it”

I would like all of you, if you are willing, to Pray for our church and for our pastor.

The majority of us supported the pastor, but he needed 2 rds of the votes but we fell just short of that. I can not say whether the vote was fair, or right, but we are moving on.

If you would go to this site http://garrymullen.blog.com and read his blog you can see he is a man called by the Lord and I would ask you to please pray, for him, his family and our church.

Did you wake up with a feeling of uncertainty?

Are your fearful of what others might do today?

Is what happening at your church bothering you?

Are there people trying to cause dissension around you today?

Then be still and know that the Lord is with you always and will protect you from all evil doers, for we know the day is coming when righteousness and justice will prevail, and eternal peace will be established. Look up and be assured our redemption draws near.

Today’s scripture reading is Psalm 47