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Newsletter Vol. 1, No. 2
Good Friday, April 06, 2007
Greetings Christian Soldiers!
Welcome to the Christian Soldiers Newsletter.
Our mission is to encourage Christians to stand firm in their faith and in their convictions.
The Latest outrage aimed at Christians
New Jersey School Stages Practice Hostage Drill – Portrays Killers as Fundamentalist Christians
Superintendent says, “We need to practice under conditions as real as possible”
By Meg Jalsevac
BURLINGTON, NJ, April 3, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – On Thursday, March
22, officials at Burlington Township High School enlisted the help
of two local policemen to carry out a mock ‘hostage situation’ drill
at their school. The drill invoked disapproval from Christian
students as the student body was told that the alleged gunmen were
“members of a right-wing fundamentalist group called the 'New Crusaders'
who don't believe in separation of church and state.” Read
more
The American Center for Law and Justice is taking a pro-active stance by drafting a legal demand letter to the Burlington Township School District.
Add your voice to the outcry by signing the Letter of Outrage at https://www.aclj.org/Petition/Default.aspx?sc=3265
There is no shortage of issues that conscientious Christians should be standing firmly united on.
Visit Focus Action Petitions for more information.
The Consequence of Sin
As I was listening to a message of the crucifixion of Christ being preached recently, I was suddenly struck by a dimension of sin in a way that had never occurred to me before.
As I tried to articulate my thoughts later, to my beloved wife, I was overcome by such sorrow and regret that my voice broke into sobs and I had to stop for a few moments.
Consider:
2 CORINTHIANS 5: 21
For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
As if it wasn’t enough that Jesus was scourged and beaten half to death and experienced the excruciating pain and humiliation of being nailed to a cross, He took upon Himself the sin of all mankind, throughout all time, from the fallen Adam and Eve to the present time and the future up to His return.
Now, of course, this is not news to any Christian believer. It is at the core of our beliefs. We have heard it scores of times, to the point, I sometimes fear, that the impact upon us lessens over time. Do we begin to take our salvation and our Savior for granted?
What I am driving at here is the coming to grips with the reality of my/our personal contributions to the suffering of our Lord!
Would any of us, if present during Jesus’ torment, imagine ourselves laying hold of the scourge and adding stripes to His back or laying hold of the hammer to pound in a nail? Surely not!
But what thought do we give, as we live day-to-day, secure in the Grace and Salvation we have found through Him, to our actions and deeds in the context of His suffering? Would we be less likely to stumble over a future temptation if we kept ever in the forefront of our awareness the extra burdensome pain we will heap on our precious Lord by way of our next sinful act?
To be sure, the time of Christ’s suffering has passed, He has died, and He has risen (Praise God!), yet it boggles the mind (at least mine) to comprehend the time-line-connection between the past events of the crucifixion and the impact of yet-to-be, future events of sin.
How many times in the past have I sinned, before I accepted the awesome and unmerited Gift of Salvation? How many times in the past have I sinned even after being saved?? How much might I have lessened the anguish of my Lord and my God had I considered not just the Forgiveness of my sin when I came back in repentance, but the consequence of my sin to Him?
Oh, Heavenly Father, I thank you for the Gift you have given to so wretched a one as myself and I pray that you keep fresh in my mind, and the minds of my brothers and sisters in Christ as the future unfolds, the personal responsibility we have to guard our thoughts and our deeds for the sake of and the love of our Lord and Our Savior, Your Precious Son, for we were bought with a price that is levied…by us.
In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.
Proverbs 21My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee; 2So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding; 3Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding; 4If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures; 5Then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God. 6For the LORD giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding. 7He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous: he is a buckler to them that walk uprightly. 8He keepeth the paths ofjudgment, and preserveth the way of his saints. 9 Then shalt thou understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity; yea, every good path. 10When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul; 11Discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee: 12To deliver thee from the way of the evil man, from the man that speaketh froward things; 13Who leave the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness; 14Who rejoice to do evil, and delight in the frowardness of the wicked; 15Whose ways are crooked, and they froward in their paths: 16To deliver thee from the strange woman, even from the stranger which flattereth with her words; 17Which forsaketh the guide of her youth, and forgetteth the covenant of her God. 18For her house inclineth unto death, and her paths unto the dead. 19None that go unto her return again, neither take they hold of the paths of life. 20That thou mayest walk in the way of good men, and keep the paths of the righteous. 21For the upright shall dwell in the land, and the perfect shall remain in it. 22But the wicked shall be cut off from the earth, and the transgressors shall be rooted out of it.
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“The Cross in the Middle should have been mine”