Over the past 27 years, I’ve enjoyed the privilege of ministry as an Elder, Associate Pastor, and Senior Pastor.  It’s always amazed me when I counsel with people who make the statement, “My sins are so great that God couldn’t possibly forgive me.” When I hear that kind of statement I’ve come to realize that first, this individual really doesn’t understand God’s grace and mercy toward those of us who have sinned greatly nor do they understand how to deal with and rid themselves of their feelings of shame-based guilt. That thought prompted me to write the following blog.

   Just what are we to do with feelings of guilt for sins we have committed in the past. Today, many people deal with it one of three ways - either by drowning it, denying it, or deflecting it.  Let’s take each one of these three ways of dealing with guilt one at a time.

   First, by drowning it. Many people try to deal with their guilt by drowning it one way or another. Some drown it in alcohol and drug abuse.  Marijuana use is rampant today as is other hallucinogens. And the use of cocaine has increased by 166%. Over 14 million Americans are in 12–step programs. Why are Americans drinking and drugging themselves to death? We’re trying to escape ourselves and drown the pains of our own guilt. Marlon Brando, who some of you may remember, was once young, trim, and handsome. A million girls dreamed of having him. But before his death, he weighed over 400 pounds, and he told someone, “I’m sorry for all the harm I’ve done and for all the troubles I’ve brought to others in my life. I’ve never been a good parent or good husband. I’ve been too busy with my own life to have time for others. Now I’m a guilty old man who’s ashamed of the kind of life I’ve led. There’s nothing left for me except eating.”

   Other people deal with guilt by denying it. As our society has become increasingly secular, it has lost respect for the authority of the Word of God, and that has led to a dangerous and destructive moral and spiritual chain reaction. If there is no authoritative Word of God, then there are no moral absolutes. If there are no moral absolutes, there are no ultimate standards of right or wrong. If there are no ultimate standards of right and wrong, then we can base our rules and standards on societal consensus. If we base our rules on societal consensus, then we can simply adjust them to our own shape and size. We can adjust them downward. We can live any way we want to, and there is no such thing as genuine guilt before God. Guilt is just a nagging relic of Puritanism, a Victorian antique, a psychosis to be denied.

   Thirdly, some people deal with guilt by deflecting it. They blame other people for their failures and faults and shortcomings. They blame their parents or their environment. This technique goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden when Adam blamed Eve and Eve blamed the serpent.

    But sooner or later, all these techniques fail, and we find we can’t escape the consequences of our own sinfulness and guilt. Jeremiah 2:22 says, “Although you wash yourself with soda and use an abundance of soap, the stain of your guilt is before me,’ declares the Sovereign Lord.”

   You see, my friends, guilt is the corrosion of the soul. How do we get rid of it? We can’t drown it, deny it, or deflect it. We can only dissolve it in the blood of Jesus Christ! How do we do that? First and foremost, we run to the Word of God! What does He tell us to do? First read 2 Timothy 1:12, “I know in whom I have believed!’ Then 1 John 1:9, “He is faithful to forgive our sins and purify us!” Read John 5:13, “If you believe in the Son of God, you have eternal life!” and Ephesians 2:8-9, “We’re saved by grace through faith, not by works.” And finally Romans 8:38-39, “Nothing can separate us from the love of God.” The “nothing” is the operative word here. Confess you sins to Him. Repent and turn away, and ask for forgiveness, and your sins are taken away from you as far as the east is from the West. You no long need carry the shame and guilt from your past! Have faith and believe in Jesus Christ.

   If you’d like to know more about this Jesus that I’ve written about today please come and visit Heritage Christian Church during our 10:30 A.M. worship hour. If you’re already attending another church, go worship with them next Sunday. Either way, you’ll meet Jesus Christ and learn how to leave your past behind.

In His Name,
Pastor Pat

   If you have a private prayer request, even if that request is to know Jesus as your savior, e-mail us at torsogong@ yahoo.com. We will forward it immediately to the appropriate ministry, whether it be the pastor and elders and/or our Prayer Warriors. Please title the subject of your e-mail "Prayer Request".
God bless you.

   As we celebrate and remember Christ’s death and resurrection on Resurrection Sunday, (Easter to some folks), we’ll miss out on one of the most prominent motivators that led Jesus to sacrifice Himself for all of us who have committed themselves to following His example with our lives. That one factor (among many others) was the way He was able to love us, who for the most part are unlovable much of the time!

   With that short introduction, I want to share a short story with you that gives us a Jesus-like example to follow as we strive to share His love with others. It goes like this…

   One Puerto Rican lady, after getting saved in church, came to her pastor with an urgent request. She didn’t speak a word of English, so she told the pastor through an interpreter, “I want to do something for God, please.’

   The pastor replied, “I don’t know what you can do.”

  “Please, let me do something,” she said in Spanish.

  “Ok, I’ll put you on a bus. Ride a different bus every week and just love the kids.”

So every week she rode a different bus—the church had fifteen of them—and loved the children. She would find the worst looking kid on the bus, sit the child on her lap, and whisper over and over the only words she’d learned in English: “I love you. Jesus loves you.”

   After several months, she became attached to one little boy in particular. “I don’t want to change buses anymore. I want to stay on this one bus,” she said.

   The boy didn’t speak. He came to Sunday school every week with his sister and sat on the woman’s lap, but he never made a sound. Each week she would tell him all the way to Sunday school and all the way home, “I love you and Jesus loves you.”

   One day to her amazement, the little boy turned around and stammered, “I—I love you, too.” Then he put his little arms around her and gave her a big hug.

   That was 2:30 on a Saturday afternoon. At 6:30 that night, the boy was found dead in a garbage bag under a fire escape. His mother had beaten him to death and thrown his body in the trash!

   “I love you and Jesus loves you.” Those were some of the last words he heard in his short life—from the lips of a Puerto Rican woman who could barely speak English.

   So, I ask you, who among us is qualified to minister God’s love to another person? Not you; not even this pastor! But we do have a supreme example to follow in Jesus Christ! He showed us the way. He set the standard for this woman who couldn’t speak English and he sets the standard for us.

Do we dare not to love one another as He has commanded each of us? I think not!    

Pastor Pat

If you have a private prayer request, even if that request is to know Jesus as your savior, e-mail us at torsogong@ yahoo.com. We will forward it immediately to the appropriate ministry, whether it be the pastor and elders and/or our Prayer Warriors. Please title the subject of your e-mail "Prayer Request".
God bless you.

  As I watched the news coverage of another shooting in one of our schools in a small urban community back east it caused this pastor to wonder if there’s any hope for humankind in that one day we will remember that God has said, “You shall not murder,” (Exodus 20:13)!

  If there is hope, and I believe there is, it can only come from the promises God has made to us in His Word and the examples He has set for us in His creation of the things that surrounds us in nature.

   For example, let’s consider the prism. The prism is a light breaker. The pure, clear light passes through the varied facets of the prism and is broken into red, yellow—all the shades of color. Science has studied it all out and found that it all works according to cold law. The sun shines through the warm spring rain; the drops of water catch the light, break it to pieces, and throw it across the sky in the glory of a rainbow! But the rainbow is more than the mechanics of physical law. God has set it as the sign of a covenant and surety of His promise. Man has made the rainbow a symbol of Hope!

  In the Scriptures, we learn to realize the full meaning of hope. Man is born in sin, with his face turned toward the lake of fire. One of the most terrible phrases in the revelation that God has given us is that man is “without hope.”  Draw the shades of night. The sun is gone, the moon is blotted out, the clouds have curtained out the stars; no light seeps through to show the way to the lost wanderer. Man is without hope! And “in due time’ Christ appears. “The light of the knowledge of God is in the face of Christ.”
(2 Corinthians 4:6).

   What then does that light reveal? “So His appearance was marred, more than any man” (Isaiah 52:14). It shows us tears, the tears of God, running down His face like rain, mingling with His blood. What a prism for God’s eternal light! All the colors of Heaven were broken up in those tears when the hours of darkness were over and the light of God’s holiness broke forth anew; out across the blackened sky was flung a rainbow! Hope for the lost was won by the cross. Hope for the past—the blood has washed it away; hope for the future—blessed hope. He has won the right to return as conqueror and to bring His myriads with Him. This rainbow reaches from the solid rock of the cross to the eternal abiding place, and man is forever secure!

   My friends, all that we see happening in this world should never cause us to lose hope and doubt that our God will not live up to His promises. Rest assured that one day our “home” will be in a place where He shall wipe away every tear, there shall no longer be any death, mourning, crying, or pain; the first things have passed away’ (Revelation 21;4). Praise His Holy name!

Pastor Pat

If you have a private prayer request, even if that request is to know Jesus as your savior, e-mail us at torsogong@ yahoo.com. We will forward it immediately to the appropriate ministry, whether it be the pastor and elders and/or our Prayer Warriors. Please title the subject of your e-mail "Prayer Request".
God bless you.

    Many people today are seeking after various methods of improving their personalities. There are many books available on such topics as winning friends or influencing people, and you see much advertising which features methods whereby supposedly dull people can become the life of the party, or wallflowers can win the hero medal of their neighborhood. These things would be more amusing where it not for the fact that many Christians follow this worldly lead and ape the earth-dwellers in their seeking for personality development.

   There is a great Biblical doctrine, a doctrine which is right along the same line, which is often overlooked by many who should know better. That fact is that the Holy Spirit was given by God to take possession of the life and individuality of the believer, and to express His divine personality, or one small aspect of it, through the believer’s life and personality. Let us approach this truth by the backdoor. The Bible tells of men who were possessed by demons whose lives expressed the identity of those demons.        

   Anyone who approached these poor, stricken  creatures could be immediately aware of the sinister personality controlling and  dominating the stricken being. There are several descriptions found in the Gospels which show these personalities manifesting themselves in men: “exceeding fierce” (Matt. 8:28,) “dumb” (Matt. 9:32), “lunatic” (Matt. 17:15), “unclean” (Mark 1:23), “crying” (Mark 5:5), “pinning away” (Mark 9:18) a nudist (Luke 8:27), and other delinea-tions of character which ceased with departure of the demon.

    If the presence of a demon in the life of a man could so alter his identity, covering the true human personality and exhibiting the demon personality, how much more shall the Holy Spirit’s presence in the life of a believer dominate his personality by expressing the personality of God in the life of the yielded believer? Here is a clue to the inner meaning of the great verse: “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and self-control” (Gal 5:22). You can’t duplicate that by consulting a psychiatrist or by reading a book on self-expression. At times, we meet people who, judged by the world’s standards, are fearfully drab and colorless, lacking in what the world calls personality.  Yet, we note in many instances the definite marks of the presence of the Holy Spirit in that life. There is warmth and tenderness towards life and it’s problems, a love and devotion not to be found in the selfish world, a color and life easily visible to the discerning eye. When we think of what these people would be without the presence of the Lord within them, we can glorify God in them.

   The point is, let’s let the Holy Spirit take hold of all our personalities so that through Him we may glorify God and love one another!

Pastor Pat

   I want to take this opportunity to introduce a blog written by one of the deacons of our church on his web site that features his Christian music compositions. It reads:

Can Praise Music Be Bad for You?

  I read a really interesting blog the other day from a Christian woman who revealed an epiphany she recently had that her love for praise music was actually standing in the way of her relationship with Christ. This woman thrived on Christian music that glorified the Lord to the point that if she didn't hear it most all the time, she would feel herself fall into a spiritual slump. To hear her tell it, one day the Lord spoke to her (through His Holy Spirit) and informed her that she was using her cherished music to get a spiritual "high", while all the time, God was trying to get through to her telling her what her gifts and ministries were. But she was so distracted in getting her emotional fix, His voice went completely unnoticed.
  
   Don't get me wrong. There is nothing wrong with praising the Lord through song. But a balance must be struck. Most modern Christian music tends to send a clear message of what wonderful things God has done for us, but rarely mention our duties and obligations of obedience to Him. Our relationship with Christ is a two-way street, and I fear in our religiously liberal age, many believers aren't doing what God's expectations of them, because they neglect their responsibilities in at least trying to live up to what the Bible says they should be practicing. (By liberal age, I'm referring to those who tend to twist the scripture into meanings that suite the lifestyle they want to live and that they feel comfortable with, or worse yet, those who believe the Word of God was only relevant to the society of believers two thousand years ago, so they don't have to live by Christ's teachings today.)
  
   A lot of the lyrics to my personal compositions and most all the lyrics to the songs we sing at worship time in our church stress what we are to do for God in order to reap the benefits and blessings He wants to so abundantly bestow upon us. We're not here just to go to church on Sundays. We have been given a command to spread the joy of knowing Christ to the world. The Word of God cannot be any more clear - we must run the race to the finish line to receive our victor's crown.
  
   Yes, we praise God in our lyrics too, but I hope the Christian music you listen to prompt you to think about our relationship with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in ways you hadn't thought of before. At least, that is my goal. My prayer for you is that you take a quiet time and pray for God to lead you in the direction in life He is trying to send you. We so rarely do that, and it's one of the most important things as Christians we should be doing regularly. Christ in the garden said, "...not My will, but thy will be done..."
  
   As always, love others as God has loved you.

Deacon Dave

If you have a private prayer request, even if that request is to know Jesus as your savior, e-mail us at torsogong@ yahoo.com. We will forward it immediately to the appropriate ministry, whether it be the pastor and elders and/or our Prayer Warriors. Please title the subject of your e-mail "Prayer Request".
God bless you.

_    This is the last article in a three part series covering the history of our Restoration Movement and the tenants of who we are as an independent Christian church. I pray that these articles have given you a better understanding of who we are especially when your asked about the church you worship in each Sunday.

    Last month we centered our discussion on the topic, “In Essentials, Unity”. This month we’ll look at the last two foundational principles of our movement. The first is, “In Opinions, Liberty.”

   This subject addresses the issue of where do we stand where the SCRIPTURES have not clearly spoken? Such issues should be considered to be matters of opinion.

  An important key to the unity and growth of the Restoration Movement in the nineteenth century was the determination of the Christians who were a part of it to maintain freedom of private opinions. They refused to establish terms of fellowship beyond the clear teaching of the New Testament.

   Problems over opinions arose in the church of the New Testament, and the apostle Paul dealt clearly with the question in such Scriptures as Romans 14;     First Corinthians 8:1-13; Galatians 4:9-11, 5:1,13,14; and Colossians 2:16-22.

   In these texts, he provides us with forceful declarations about freedom of conscience in areas of private judgment and clear lessons on the conduct of believers toward one another over such issues. The great apostle wonderfully joins the twin virtues of freedom and responsibility.

   Underlying Paul’s teaching on this subject was the fundamental truth that no human opinion could be joined with the gospel terms as necessary for salvation and the fellowship of the church. To the Galatians and Colossians he affirmed that adding any requirements beyond those he had proclaimed was false doctrine and a denial of justification by faith in Jesus Christ.

   The church grows best when faith is stressed and proclaimed, and opinions are held privately. This truth is vitally needed in today’s church.

   The last foundational principle of the Restoration Movement we’ll explore is the concept, “In All Things, Love”. Most of the New Testament teaching on the right of private opinion goes beyond personal matters and treats our responsibility to others. We are not to please ourselves, but to pursue a course that edifies, harmonizes, and unites. The unity of the church can be better maintained when love prevails among us.

  Love is served and unity preserved when Christians refrain from judging one another in matters of opinion. Some tend to criticize and condemn those who are inclined toward greater freedom in those areas. Others who are more broad-minded in such matters tend to assume an attitude of sophistication and look down on, even ridicule, more narrow-minded Christians, There is no place for either attitude in the church. The New Testament condemns both the unfair criticism by legalists and the haughty contempt of freer Christians.

   When an issue over opinions arises in the church, the solution is not to be found in insistence on agreement on a given opinion, but insistence on Christian love. Paul advice is still good: “Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification” (Romans 14:19).
   My prayer is that you all had a Christ centered Christmas and a safe New Year holiday. May He lead us forward to greater service in 2012.

Pastor Pat

If you have a private prayer request, even if that request is to know Jesus as your savior, e-mail us at torsogong@ yahoo.com. We will forward it immediately to the appropriate ministry, whether it be the pastor and elders and/or our Prayer Warriors. Please title the subject of your e-mail "Prayer Request".
God bless you.

    In this December blog I’ll continue with the discussion of who we are as fellowship of believers united in Jesus Christ. I’ll address one of the cornerstones of our church structure, “In Essentials, Unity.” But before I begin that discussion, we’ll take a look at a little more background.

    As I ended the last article, I told you that the movement has grown over the years to approximately 2 million members. However, during the twentieth century, division occurred within the ranks of the Restoration Movement. This division has had many causes. In some instances, matters of personal preference have been elevated to a test of faith. The silences of Scripture have been used to break fellowship among believers. Others have cast aside the validity of the New Testament as the all-sufficient rule of faith and practice for the church. Denominational respectability has been considered more important than the ancient gospel. In nearly all such cases, sectarian pride has replaced the plea for unity of the church according to the doctrine of God’s Word.

    While the Restoration Movement has been hindered by such factors, the Movement has not died. The reason for its persistence may be that it is not, and never has been, a structured organization; it is a free fellowship. Wherever individuals and congregations sincerely follow the  New Testament as their only rule of faith and order and practice the principle “in essentials, unity, in matters of opinion freedom, and in all things love,” the Movement continues to thrive, and congregations are growing!

   Today we’ll explore the cornerstone of “In Essentials, Unity.” The Fatherhood of God, the Messiahship of Jesus, the facts of the gospel (His death, burial, and resurrection), the power and presence of the Holy Spirit, the inspiration and authority of the Scriptures, the importance of biblical names, the divine ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, and the autonomy of the church are some of the New Testament concepts that keep us united in Christ.

   The fundamental truth of Christianity is the Messiahship of Jesus. Faith in Jesus Christ as Lord underlies our entire relationship to God. It is the basis for every response in conversion. Its no wonder that when Christ commanded His apostles in Mark 16:15, 16 to “go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation,” he affirmed that, “whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned“. Faith in Christ as Lord underlies all else. Without it, there is only condemnation.

    From this perspective of justification by faith it is easier to understand and explain with greater clarity the conversion accounts in the book of Acts. To the Philippian jailer of Acts 16, who probably had never heard of Christ, but who asked what he must do to be saved, Paul responded, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved - you and your household” (v. 31). Responding in faith, the jailer and his household were baptized the same hour of the night. Years earlier the Ethiopian eunuch had responded to the same message by Philip, the evangelist. Convicted under Philip’s preaching on the Messiahship of Jesus from Isaiah 53, the eunuch asked what prevented his being baptized. He and Philip both then went into the water, and the eunuch was baptized.

     Every active response in conversion rests on faith in Christ as the Messiah of God. Acts of obedience are not, as Paul writes in Titus 3:5, “Righteous things we had done,” but expressions of faith by which we are justified in Christ and receive God’s grace. Faith is as necessary to repentance as a change of heart, as vital to confession as the movement of the mouth, and as essential to baptism as water. In fact, without it repentance is only an emotional fling, confession mere empty words, and baptism just a simple bath! When we come to God in genuine faith in Jesus Christ as Lord, however, repenting, confessing, and submitting ourselves to Him in baptism, through the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit we experience the marvelous transformation called the new birth (born again). Paul beautifully describes one facet of this experience when he writes to the Romans “For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved” (10:10).

    Faith is not left back at the first “step” in the plan of salvation; nor is it left in the water when one comes out from the grave of baptism. The apostasy or falling away against which the author of Hebrews so sternly warns his Christian readers throughout his letter is not less than casting aside faith in Christ. Maintaining trust in Him, on the other hand, continues to bring us everything of eternal value. May we treat it preciously, guard it carefully, and keep it faithfully.

    In January’s newsletter, we’ll explore the cornerstone of “In Matters of Opinion, Freedom.”

    My prayer for you and your loves ones is a very blessed and Merry Christmas. May Jesus Christ be glorified!

Pastor Pat

If you have a private prayer request, even if that request is to know Jesus as your savior, e-mail us at torsogong@ yahoo.com. We will forward it immediately to the appropriate ministry, whether it be the pastor and elders and/or our Prayer Warriors. Please title the subject of your e-mail "Prayer Request".
God bless you.

     What do you believe? From one perspective, “no creed but Christ, no book but the Bible,” should be an adequate answer to that question and a sufficient guide to sound doctrine. But because of much confusion in today’s religious world, the question deserves a more detailed explanation for those who honestly want to know. Therefore, for the next four months I’m going to publish a series of articles taken partly from a special edition of Lookout Magazine that will help explain where we stand as an independent Christian church in today’s maze of Christian theology.

   We’ll begin first with the early history of the Restoration Movement. With roots in the British Isles, the Restoration Movement sprang to life in the United States about the turn of the nineteenth century. The leading pioneer figures were such men as Elias Smith and Abner Jones in New England, James O’Kelly in North Carolina and Virginia, Barton W Stone in Kentucky, Thomas and Alexander Campbell in Pennsylvania and West Virginia and Walter Scott in southern Ohio. These men were all dedicated preachers in major denominational bodies.

   With little or no contact among most of them, these men and others around them came to believe that a divided church did not conform to the will and Word of God and that human creeds, however correct they might be in substance, perpetuated sectarianism and denominational barriers when they were made tests of fellowship. Our pioneer leaders called people to the simple gospel of Christ, the authority of the Scriptures, the right of private judgment in matters of opinion, and the unity of all believers.

   This call took many forms: “Where the Scriptures speak, we speak; where the Scriptures are silent, we are silent.” In essentials, unity; in nonessentials, liberty; in all things love.” “Call Bible things by Bible names.” “No creed but Christ, no book but the Bible.” “The Bible is our only rule of faith and practice.” And we are not the only Christians, but are Christians only.” These statements were more than just clichés. They represented a firm determination to accept the Scriptures as the authoritative rule, to reject sectarian division, to work for the restoration of the ancient church in faith and practice and to promote the unity of all believers.

   The Restoration Movement allowed people to fellowship together and consider each other brothers and sisters in Christ, while they differed over such matters as the use of musical instruments in worship, paid preachers, closed Communion (which we do not practice), missionary societies, and so forth. It led to a “free church” in a “free land” that multiplied twice since the period from the Civil War to 1909, from a movement of 200,000 members  to a fast-growing fellowship of over 1.5 million people today.

    In future editions of this blog, I’ll address the cornerstones of our church structure, “In Essentials, Unity”, “In Opinions, Liberty,” and “In All Things, Love.”

    Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and rejoice in God’s grace and mercy as we celebrate His love for all His people!

Pastor Pat

If you have a private prayer request, even if that request is to know Jesus as your savior, e-mail us at torsogong@ yahoo.com. We will forward it immediately to the appropriate ministry, whether it be the pastor and elders and/or our Prayer Warriors. Please title the subject of your e-mail "Prayer Request".
God bless you.

   As some of you know I’ve been teaching through the book of Jeremiah over the past several months in Bible study on Sunday mornings. While doing some research on his life & death I ran across a very provoking section of a book entitled, “All the Men of the Bible” (Lockyer, Zondervan 1958). In this part of the book there was a chapter on “The Great Host of Unnamed Bible Men” It so intrigued me I decided to share it with you in this newsletter.

   Did you know that there are thousands upon thousands of unnamed men (and women of course) in the Bible? Many of them can be called “God’s Anonymous Men.” Too often we fix our attention exclusively on the greater characters of the Book, yet the vast host of the inconspicuous and unnamed has been preserved by the pen of inspiration as being worthy of our meditation. The unknown saints – unknown, that is, to human fame---must not be passed by. While full consideration must be given to those God called into the limelight, we dare not ignore others who remain in the shadow of obscurity or anonymity. So let us think of many Bible men whose deeds are recorded, but not their names. The following list is by no means complete.

   While three of Adam’s sons are named, others born of him and Eve are not named (Gen. 5:4). Were they among the many who perished in the Flood?

   None of the carpenters who assisted in the building of the Ark are mentioned, neither are several of those who labored in the preparation of the Tabernacle. The same is true of the overseers of the Temple repairs in the reign of Jehoash, whose honesty was such that their superiors had no need to scrutinize their accounts.

   Also among the unnamed of the Bible we have the seven thousand who refused to bow to Baal. God knew them but Elijah was not aware of them. If only the members of this host had openly declared themselves as being on God’s side, how they would have cheered the lonely heart of Elijah!

   The nameless prophet who has been referred to as, “this great man of God who comes out of a cloud, shines for a splendid moment before all men’s eyes, and then dies under a cloud,” is another unknown man. Heroic, he was yet human, an unnamed man whose fascinating story lies in its mixture of courage and weakness (1 Kings 13:1-3).

   The New Testament abounds in its anonymous characters, historical and literary. By the latter, we mean those employed in parabolic form, which our Lord freely used. Those He portrays might have been individuals He had observed. Many of the literary characters are as forceful as many of the historical ones!

   Paul in his Epistles sent personal greetings to many of his fellow laborers whom he knew and named. But think of those who are summarized as “the brethren” or referred to as “other fellow laborers, whose names are written in the book of life.”

   Many heroes of the faith are named by the sacred writer (Heb. 11), but what about the others equally faithful and sacrificial, about whom the historian did not write (Heb. 11:32,36)?

   We cannot but wonder why there are so many anonymous servants. Tradition has given names to several of them such as the Wise Men, the Rich Ruler and the Two Thieves, but Scripture is silent as to their identity. 

   It is comforting to realize that although multitudes of workers are “unknown” they are ‘yet well known.” They are “manifest unto God,” who sees that which is hidden from the human eye, and whose approval is the highest reward. Their abiding influence cannot be hid.

   For ourselves, it is sufficient to know that, whether our names are blazoned abroad or unknown, easy or difficult to pronounce, short or long, full of meaning or unattractive, they are written upon God’s palms and in heaven every child of His is to have a new name (Isaiah 49:16; Revelation 2:17).”

   I pray the thoughts contained in this newsletter gives you encouragement to seek only God’s approval. It’s really not important to seek the approval and recognition of the world!

Pastor Pat

If you have a private prayer request, even if that request is to know Jesus as your savior, e-mail us at torsogong@ yahoo.com. We will forward it immediately to the appropriate ministry, whether it be the pastor and elders and/or our Prayer Warriors. Please title the subject of your e-mail "Prayer Request".
God bless you.

   Most of the news we read, hear or see in the media today sometimes leaves me with a sense foreboding! So, I determined to write this newsletter to encourage you and all who read it, to rejoice in your Christianity!

   It’s true that a Christian is really the only person in the world with a right to rejoice! The Psalmist sang, “Our heart shall rejoice in Him” (Psalm 33:21). This is true for the Christian in any circumstance whatsoever. The believer can rejoice even in the midst of the deepest distress. Calamities, like a tidal wave, carry off the unsuspecting, but having swept away the debris which we believers have accumulated around us, leave us standing on the Rock.  Our shore is swept clean and we have a new glimpse of the ocean of God’s Wondrous Grace! The air is fresh washed by the storm and our lungs are filled with new vigor as we breathe it in.

   The unbeliever often breaks before calamity, or takes the dull, depressing attitude of the stoic, that one must make the best of a bad situation. A stoic may be more admirable than a whiner but he’s in no way happier! That’s because the roots of Christian calm go deep into the very heart of God.

   When we understand this, there is a sense in which we can reverse one of the great thoughts of the New Testament. Paul tells us that the Lord’s Spirit bears witness with our spirit (Romans 8:16). That is a motion which begins with God and comes down to us. There is also a sense in which our spirit bears witness with His Spirit. The yielded Christian has an uprising of the Spirit which constantly moves towards God.

  This is one of the marks of the twice-born man; we reach out towards God. Some of the words used by men in the Book are “yearning-panting-waiting-looking-longing-watching -desiring.”

   We reach up into the being of God and find that our all in all is there in Him, and our heart comes back rejoicing. In fact, the only people who really are happy are among those who have been redeemed. The world has gaiety, but no happiness; forgetfulness, but no peace! The world counterfeits every Christian grace, but never is able to produce a coin with the right ring. Its popular to say that “the man worthwhile is the man who will smile when everything goes dead wrong” but even then the weight of unforgiven sin hangs over the heart, and the despair of the old nature hasn’t been removed. Underneath the surface the unsaved are “like troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt.” They are without peace!

   The Christian possesses the joy of the Lord. It’s his strength. The basis for this joy is obvious. “Rejoice in the Lord.”  How can there be reality in joy that has no foundation outside this changing world? All passes; Christ remains! Our worship is in the Spirit, our rejoicing is in Christ Jesus, and we have no confidence in the world. This, of course, is the exact opposite of the world’s joy, which is fixed in self alone and doesn’t look to Christ. So I encourage you to, “Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say, rejoice!”                                                                                             

Pastor Pat

If you have a private prayer request, even if that request is to know Jesus as your savior, e-mail us at torsogong@ yahoo.com. We will forward it immediately to the appropriate ministry, whether it be the pastor and elders and/or our Prayer Warriors. Please title the subject of your e-mail "Prayer Request".
God bless you.

Friends,
the Bible tells us that one day God will judge the world, and every knee will bow to His majesty. No one knows for certain when that day will come, but IT IS A CERTAINTY! Where will you stand on that day? Listen to the sermon below by Pastor Pat.

If you have a private prayer request, even if that request is to know Jesus as your savior, e-mail us at torsogong@ yahoo.com. We will forward it immediately to the appropriate ministry, whether it be the pastor and elders and/or our Prayer Warriors. Please title the subject of your e-mail "Prayer Request".
God bless you.