Announcements for the Week of October 4

Men’s Bible Study (evening edition) will be this Wednesday at 7 PM in the JIBC Office. Come for some good food, fellowship and Bible Study.

This is the last week to sign up for the Couple’s Bible Study. There is space available for two more couples, so sign up today. This 12 to 14 week study for married couples will be held at Pastor Stephen and Jennifer’s house on select Saturdays from 2-4 PM. We will be using John Piper’s video series and book, This Momentary Marriage. The schedule for 2009 includes the following dates: Oct. 10, 17, 24; November 7, 14, 21; and Dec. 5. Maps to the St. John’s house are on the welcome table next to the sign up sheet.

JIBC Youth Service Project will be on Saturday, October 24. We will be distributing prepared bags of food donations to underprivileged “box dweller” families of the Senen area. Please contact Jill Sharp or Edna Romulo for more information or if you plan to attend.

If you want to donate food or money to the JIBC Youth service event, please give your donations of cooking oil, rice, canned milk, noodles, sardines and similar foods or money to the church office before October 17. We look forward to your participation!

Thankfulness for the God of Wrath

Dear friends,

Twenty verses past the most famous verse in the Bible we find the following:

“He who believes in the Son has eternal life; he who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God rests upon him” (John 3:36).

The first portion of the verse is happy news - eternal life is possible through faith in Christ. The second and third parts of the verse are more troublesome for some people. It is, for them, too dreadful to imagine God’s wrath being poured out on the disobedient. However, there is something comforting about a God who punishes wickedness. Dr. Wayne Grudem writes, “It would be helpful for us to ask what God would be like if he were a God who did not hate sin?”

That is a great question. It highlights the truth that we do want (and need) a God who will not tolerate sin and wickedness. We, like the smallest children, need the boundaries that are established by the Lord’s holy character and his hot hatred for sin. Our world is made safe by this Divine differentiation between what is right and wrong.

The knowledge of God’s wrath is only dreadful when we refuse to flee into the arms of Jesus for shelter. When we do that, when we place our trust in the work of God the Son on the cross, then we are safe from the judgement of the Father and secure in the knowledge that he despises all wrongdoing and evil in this world.

Your servant,

Stephen

Rev. Stephen St. John
Pastor/Elder

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