NOVEMBER ANNIVERSARIES

 

Ron & Donna Colby                        41 years on the 24th   

Bill & Kym Tome                                28 years on the 28th

 

Congratulations and many more blessed years are wished for you! 

                             NOVEMBER     BIRTHDAYS

 Eric Heath                   1st          Laura Sears            23rd        

 Tim Marhekfa           6th          Cassie French         24th

 Shannen Tome        13th          Ann Serzynski         25th 

 Noah Heath              13th         Mary Braat              27th 

 Michael Horvath    15th          Eric Doerge              27th

Sylvia Shymske        16th          Pastor Schroeder  28th 

 Jim McClure               18th         Shelby Cinco             29th

                                                        Aimee Moffat           30th  

 

 

NOVEMBER NEWSLETTER ARTICLE BY 

     PASTOR JONATHAN C. SCHROEDER

 November 11th is Veterans’ Day. So let’s talk a little bit about the calling of “soldier”.  How can a soldier be a Christian? Doesn’t the Bible say, “Thou shalt not kill”? True, but who does have the authority to kill? The Government does (Romans 13) as God’s punishing instrument of wrong! any member of the U.S. military is part of the government, and as such, they have the right to use force, even force that kills. The government punishes wrongdoing committed against its citizens. On the local level this is handled by police and the judicial system, on a national scale this is usually handled by the soldiers of the military.
Being a soldier is not condemned in the Bible. In Luke Chapter 3, soldiers ask John the Baptist what should they should do to bear good fruit for God. John the Baptist does not say, “Don’t kill anyone or use violence; he does not say, “Don’t carry a weapon and quit your job.” John the Baptist simply tells the soldiers, “Don’t extort money from anyone by threats or by false accusation, and be content with your wages.” In other words, “Don’t take advantage of your position for unjust gain (soldiers have the “muscle” to get things others can’t) and remove greed from your life.”
Jesus compliments a Roman centurion for his faith and says nothing negative about his position (Luke 7).
In Peter’s dealing with Cornelius, even though Cornelius is a Roman centurion, he is presented as an upstanding man of whom God shows His grace too, even though he is not Jewish. No criticism of his position as a Roman officer comes up at all.
Obviously, being a soldier can be a nightmarish experience. The heat of battle can be harsh and yes, sometimes soldiers do things they know they should not have done. (God’s forgiveness in Jesus Christ is for them, too.) But the basic job of a soldier (killing opposing soldiers) is not wrong. Perhaps we should think of it like this: A surgeon has to assault the human body for the sake of the health of that body and he has been called to do so. This can be messy and bloody and, in a way, even unnatural. But still this activity has God’s backing. The same thing goes for a soldier, he assaults and kills people and that can be bloody, and messy, and even unnatural, but the calling of the soldier still has God’s backing and its purpose is not the health of one body, but the health of a nation.
Blessings!

Pastor Schroeder

 

 

VETERANS DAY CELEBRATION

Please join us after the Sunday, November 15th service for cake and coffee to honor all of our members who have served their country!