FRIENDSHIP WITH GOD THROUGH CHRIST

When anyone is joined to Christ, he is a new being; the old is gone, the new has come.  All this is done by God, who through Christ changed us from enemies into His friends and gave us the task of making others His friends also.  Our message is that God was making all mankind His friends through Christ.  God did not keep an account of their sins, and He has given us the message which tells how He makes them His friends. 

Here we are, then speaking for Christ, as though God Himself were making His appeal through us.  We plead on Christ’s behalf; let God change you from enemies into His friends.  Christ was without sin, but for our sake God made Him share our sin inorder that in union with Him we might share the righteousness of God.

(2 Corinthians 5:17 -21)

This is the Word of the Lord

Thanks be to God

May the Lord bless you and take care of you. May He be kind and gracious to you. May the Lord look on you with favour and give you peace.

With love filled blessings,

Your Sister in Christ

WARNINGS AGAINST IDOLS

I want you to remember, my brothers, what happened to our ancestors who followed Moses.  They were all under the protection of the cloud, and all passed safely through the Red Sea.  In the cloud and in the sea they were all baptized as followers of Moses.  All ate the same spiritual bread and drank the same spiritual drink.  They drank from the spiritual rock that went with them; and that rock was Christ himself.  But even then God was not pleased with most of them, and so their dead bodies scattered over the desert.

Now, all this is an example for us, to warn us not to desire evil things, as they did, not to worship idols, as some of the did. As the scripture says “The people sat down to a feast which turned into orgy of drinking and sex.”  We must not be guilty of sexual immorality, as some of them were -- and in one day twenty-three thousand of them fell dead.   We must not put the Lord to the test, as some of them did- and they were killed by snakes. We must not complain, as some of them did- and they were destroyed by the Angel of Death.

All these things happened to them as examples for others, and they were written down as a warning for us.  For we live at a time when the end is about to come. 

Whoever things he is standing firm had better be careful that he does not fall.  Every test that you have experienced is the kind that normally comes to people.  But God keeps his promise, and he will not allow you to be tested beyond your power to remain firm; at the time you are put to the test, he will give you the strength to endure it, and so provide you with a way out.

So then, my dear friends, keep away from the worship of idols. I speak to you as sensible people; judge for yourselves what I  say.   The cup we use in the Lord’s Supper and for which we give thanks to God:  when we drink from it,  we are sharing in the blood of Christ.   And the bread we break:  when we eat it, we are sharing in the body of Christ.  Because there is the one loaf of bread, all of us, though many, are one body, for we all share the same loaf.  

(1Corinthians 10:1-17)

This is the word of the Lord! 

Thanks be to God!

May the Lord bless you and take care of you. May He be kind and gracious to you. May the Lord look on you with favor and give you peace.

With love filled blessings,

Your Sister in Christ