From the Pastor:

 Some things that I have learned in my ministry:

1. God is awesome.
    In observing stuff, I am significantly impressed with the activity of God.  And there is much to observe.  From the cosmos, the dynamic of all that material (galaxies, super novas, the speeds involved, and the background radiation), I am dwarfed by it all.  From the realization that matter and time are the creation of God, and God is not of matter and time, is mind boggling to me.  From observing that which is so small that electron microscopes only show the ‘big’ stuff adds to the boggling of the mind.  God creates and the extremes of big and small are huge. 
    Now, that is only looking at creation.  Turning to history and see what has developed through the ages is awesome.  Narrowing that history down to just human history and noting the people who have given the examples of the best of human nature causes me to aspire to those heights as well.  On the other side of the balance are examples of the worst of human nature which instills a determination to work to stifle activities in those directions.  Yet, it is amazing that the human creature has such a range of potential.  How is it that such is possible with a creature that mostly lives less than a century?
    God is awesome to have created these things.
     
2. People are truly sinners.
    In my ministry, I have learned that people are truly sinners.  Whether I was speaking to those in maximum security prisons or in the Elders meetings, I could see the breadth of sin.  No one seems untouched by the ability to sin. 
    But this observation is not startling.  What is startling is that sinners can be forgiven.  What is startling is that the power of sin cannot stop the expressions of confession and the realities of forgiveness.  It seems to me that logic would drive sinner to being unable to do much more than to accumulate the consequences of sin until all is consumed in sin and lost. 
    For the advent of a process called confession - repentance - forgiveness - reconciliation to occur is a miracle to me.  The very existence of such a process and such behavior reveals the activity of Jesus Christ for it is only after the Cross and Resurrection does this behavior become the norm for the people of God in the human history. 

3. The church can only be of God’s creation.
    From reading history and searching through sociological reporting, the number of religions and cults are enormous.  The human creature is truly a religious animal.  This religious animal created all manner of institutions for the perpetuation of the religion or cult.  Thus, it is not surprising to see an institution arise after Easter. 
    The difference between the church and the various cultic institutions of the world is that the church emphasizes that those invited are not the pure, the saints or the most perfect.  Rather, defying religious logic, the impure, the sinner and the imperfect are precisely the ones invited to be the church.  The purpose seems not to make all of the sinners into gods, but to perpetuate the
reality of confession - repentance - forgiveness and reconciliation. Therefore, it is unlikely that humans created the church.  The church has to be a creation of the divine, for it is through the church that the divine process of confession - repentance - forgiveness and reconciliation becomes a reality.

4. Without grace, all is doomed.
    Of course, what I am driving at is that without grace, all is doomed.  Without God’s grace the human creature will die.  Without the human creature giving grace to each other, the human creature will kill each other and kill oneself.  Grace is the power that breaks the bonds of a behavior that I call sin.  Grace is the power most vividly shown on Easter morning.
    Grace does not make the human creature perfect. Grace does not magically solve all relationship problems.  If grace could do so then wars, spouse beatings, parents killing children, and feuds would have ceased on Easter Monday long ago. I am not talking magic. I am talking about an item that seems to exist only because of divine meddling into the human activity.  This meddling into human activity provides that which is necessary for people to live, and to allow others to live as well.  Grace is revealed in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.

5. Eternal life makes sense.
    Of the many things that I have learned in my ministry, I wish only to take up one more in this brief newsletter article. I have learned that eternal life makes sense.  The skeptics with great ability to command much data and reasoning have aptly argued that eternal life is wishful thinking or fantasy.  Their arguments are powerful and I don’t have the agility to disprove all of their detail.
    What I do have is the experience of my ministry, the writings of the saints, and the revelation of God’s Word.  To me, wishful thinking lacks the power to capture and guide the quantity of people who have confessed faith in Jesus Christ.  To me, fantasies lack the substance to propel people into loving and forgiving activity.
    The promise of eternal life is neither wishful thinking nor fantasy.  It is a reality revealed by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The power of this divine promise sustains people through life situations that are impossible.
   
    This is my last First Facts article. See you around.
    Paul