
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!
