Good Gracious
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Below you will find articles from this newsletter and other articles published by Grace Church.
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Good Gracious
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If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith…but Christ has indeed risen from the dead… (1 Cor. 15: 13-14, 20)
This April has us consider the cross and the resurrection of Jesus once again. These are not peripheral to our faith and relationship with God, but at the centre of it. Here we find Jesus’ mission fulfilled at great cost. Here we find hope in the midst of terrible life circumstances that end with death. Here we find life in Jesus anew. Here we say with Paul: “If God is for us, who can be against us…” (Rom. 8:31)
So many things seem to have gone wrong in the last two years. The virus exposed our vulnerability and our ignorance of basic public health and basic immunology, so we have simply trusted those in leadership over us. What else could we do? There are still many divisions over whether to wear the masks or not, even as the same leaders tell us it is okay who have told us it has not been safe.
The denomination has steered away from Scripture yet has allowed us and like-minded congregations to keep trusting the Lord and His Scripture for marriage and sexuality and many other issues, but we have felt the pain and division in the body of Christ as never before. It is hard to know what to do and we simply trust those in leadership over us in our local congregation. What else can we do? There are other places to go, but there is no guarantee similarly divisive things will not touch those congregations as well.
So we trust Jesus. We trust Him for the fact that if He can conquer death, He can conquer every other issue and challenge in our lives. He is faithful.
When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” (1 Cor. 15: 54)
If Jesus has our eternal destiny in his hands, faithfully keeping us as His own by His righteousness, holiness and redemption (1 Cor. 1:30), then we can trust Him with our congregation, our pandemic, our life and health, our future, our very selves.
Hallelujah! Christ is risen. He is risen indeed.
Have a blessed Easter in 2022, trusting the Lord as never before!
Pastor Jonathan
