Garden Grove Church of the Nazarene
Our people - Our church
Once again, we look at Peter’s instructions to a house church struggling to maintain their integrity in the face of false teachings. He says that we must “add to godliness mutual affection, and to mutual affection, love.”
To measure our love for God by the attitudes that lurk in our hearts about other people becomes a harsh measuring stick, and it is as true within the family of God as it is everywhere else.
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The Apostle Peter was helping a group of believers dealing with issues within their church body that were bringing confusion caused by teachers of false belief systems who had been infiltrating the house churches for the purpose of destroying their faith. They were believers who were seeking to live out their lives of faith in Christ in a way that is consistent with the teachings of Christ in a culture that sometimes made it very difficult to do so.
Peter gives us a list of seven “ingredients” that must be added to faith – stirred into the mix (so to speak) – that will enable us to be faithful to God. He teaches us that a declaration of faith is not the end of the journey… it is the beginning. And a declaration of faith that is not fortified with the necessary ingredients to make that faith strong enough will quickly fall.
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Last time we talked about the need to evaluate our spiritual immune system…to make sure we are doing all that we need to do to live healthy Christian lives in a world where there are many forces that would seek to pull us away from our faith.
To be truly Christian we must be able to be IN the world as the fragrance of Christ…as ambassadors for Christ…as the hands and feet and heart of Christ…while at the same time not allowing ourselves to be OF the world…succumbing to pressures that are not of Christ…yielding to the influences that would destroy our relationship and our relationship with Christ.
Let’s go to school in these verses of scripture to see what Peter was teaching that would help those early believers evaluate their capacity to stand strong in their faith even though they were being attacked from those outside the church, and confused and disillusioned by some within the church.
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A passerby named Simon, who was from Cyrene, was coming in from the countryside just then, and the soldiers forced him to carry Jesus’ cross. (Simon was the father of Alexander and Rufus.)
(Mark 15:21 NLT)
In our continuing examination of the Stations of the Cross, Pastor Jim asks the question,
How did Mark know that a pilgrim from North Africa named Simon had two sons, Alexander and Rufus?
As we reflect on a letter to the Romans written many years later, it becomes quite possible that this brief mention contains the story of a man who unwittingly became a living example of service for all of us. He wasn’t asking to have his life interrupted by this gruesome task, but this first act of service seemed to have led to a lifestyle that influenced his wife, sons and some of the most notable leaders of the early church.
‘If any of you want to be my followers, you must forget about yourself. You must take up your cross and follow me.’ (Mark 8:34 CEV)
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See more of the beautiful hand-cut, marble mosaics like the Stations of the Cross mosaics at:
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