Sunday worship

We woke up as usual at 5.30 a.m. went for our walk, had our breakfast, quiet time and before long we were all dressed up in our uniform for another Sunday's meetings. We thank God we have freedom of worship and we are well enough to join in worship with fellow believers. Sunday reminds us again that Jesus lives and we adore Him.

For our Bible study this morning we did Joshua 22 and I used for the title – ‘Spreading out and staying united.’ We are almost near the end of the series on Joshua and today we saw how misunderstandings can arise because of wrong perception. Those on the western side of Canaan almost went to war with their brethren on the eastern side when they found out the latter had built a replica of the Shiloh altar. It was clearly a misunderstanding and they were able to sort things out when wise sense prevailed.

We learned some important lessons. We sometimes make the mistake in forming opinions and passing judgement on our brothers and sisters based on perception. We jump into wrong conclusions. Paul exhorts us ‘love thinks no evil.’ We all must learn not to impute motives and also to communicate with each other.

There was good discussion and I personally learned a lot from the contribution made by the participants.

At our Holiness Meeting, the sermon this morning was on “Called to a life of integrity.’ The Major is doing a series on the Letter to the Ephesians and has come to the part of ‘The Armour of God.’ Last Sunday she spoke of the “Belt of Truth” and this morning “The Breastplate of Righteousness.”

This breastplate covers or protects the most vital part of the body – the heart. It symbolises the believer’s righteousness in Christ. Or to use a more modern analogy – the bullet proof coat! This is the believer's breastplate - his right standing with God and his right state before all people.

There is the contrast of two kinds of righteousness – our righteousness and God’s righteousness. Our righteousness emphasises on ‘DO’-for example, the Pharisees who boasted about their own righteousness based upon the keeping the Law. We think we need to DO something to gain this righteousness. Man’s own righteousness is like ‘filthy rags.’ The righteousness Paul talks about is God’s righteousness. He means first that we must be rightly related to God through having received His free gift of salvation provided by the death of His Son Jesus Christ. He has DONE it all for us! The emphasis is not on ‘DO’ but on ‘DONE.’ And we cannot go to heaven unless we have this righteousness of Christ referred to as ‘the breastplate of righteousness.’

The message ends with the plea from one of the beatitudes – ‘to hunger and thirst for righteousness and be filled.’ When we sincerely seek after righteousness, we are guaranteed success - satisfied or filled!

If you do not attend another place of worship, you are cordially invited to join us every Sunday. Start the day with the Word of God at our Bible Study – 9.30 a.m. - 10.30 a.m. and after half an hour break we join in worship at the main worship hall which begins at 11.00 a.m.