Prayer is requested for Rod Matthews, GCI Mission Developer for Southern Asia and the South Pacific.
Ruth and Rod Matthews
Rod, who is battling prostate cancer, is scheduled for surgery on October 20. It is likely that he will be hospitalized for 3-4 days followed by several weeks of recuperation at home. Rod reports that he is in good health otherwise, and is feeling well. He wrote that, “It’s a real blessing to be part of a worldwide caring family, all in the measureless care of our Heavenly Father.”
Cards may be sent to:
Rod and Ruth Matthews PO Box 402 Varsity Lakes, QLD 4227 AUSTRALIA
Tom Smith, pastor of GCI’s congregation in the Pittsburgh, PA, area, was admitted to the hospital recently experiencing shortness of breath. Initial tests indicated he had a mild heart attack. A heart catheterization confirmed the diagnosis and stents were inserted to open two blocked arteries and medications were prescribed to deal with his congestive heart failure.
Pam and Tom Smith
The doctor told Tom’s wife Pam that if Tom had not come in immediately when experiencing shortness of breath, he “probably would have come in on a stretcher.” Thanks to the many who already have been praying for Tom. Prayer is requested for his full recovery.
Card’s may be sent to:
Tom and Pam Smith 346 Steele St Monroeville, PA 15146-4656
We were saddened to learn of the recent death of Donna Bechthold, wife of GCI elder and former pastor Glenn Bechthold. Here is an announcement from GCI Pastor Mark Stapleton.
Donna and Glenn
Donna died on October 1 at age 67. She had been battling leukemia since 2009. In 2011, she had a bout with bacterial meningitis, resulting in a coma from which she miraculously recovered. She battled the leukemia bravely, and was holding her own when, just after Christmas 2015, an MRI revealed numerous brain tumors. After multiple rounds of radiation, Donna’s tumors where at bay. However, she returned to the hospital recently with complications and it was determined that she had a septic infection that ended up being the cause of her death.
Starting in 1976, Donna and Glenn had served the GCI church in the San Diego North County area. Glenn served as the bivocational pastor of North County Christian Fellowship from 1999-2003, while Donna managed their plumbing business and served alongside Glenn in pastoring the congregation. Donna was a strong, courageous and competent woman, full of love and life. She laughed easily, loved people and really knew how to throw a party. She will be deeply missed.
Donna was preceded in death by her father Don Turk and her mother Rosalie Turk. She is survived by her husband, Glenn, two daughters, Brandy Bechthold and Daiquiri Rankin, and her grandchildren Drake and Bailee.
The family knows that many of you have been praying for Donna’s healing since her condition was announced in January 2016. They are grateful for those prayers, which brought comfort and intervention on many occasions. Prayer is requested for Glenn and the family during this difficult time. The couple would have celebrated their 47th wedding anniversary on December 5. Instead, the family will hold a Celebration of Life on December 3. It will be open to everyone.
Cards may be sent to:
Glenn Bechthold 2420 La Costa Avenue Carlsbad, CA 92009-7301
We were shocked and saddened to learn of the recent, tragic death of Carole Grinnell, wife of GCI elder Bob Grinnell who serves as the facilitator of our fellowship group that meets in Good Hope, AL.
Bob and Carole, along with their daughter Debbie, were on a camping trip to attend automobile races at the Talladega Speedway when Carole accidently stepped on a bed of fire ants and died suddenly—apparently from an allergic reaction. Bob and Carole had recently celebrated their 59th wedding anniversary. Carole, who was 77, was in good health overall.
Though God’s amazing forgiveness is one of my favorite topics, its reality is difficult to fully grasp. Its foundation is God’s freely-given, yet costly act of atonement through the Son, in the Spirit, culminating at the cross. It is there that, not only are we acquitted, we are restored—made “at-one” again with our loving triune God.
T. F. Torrance
In Atonement: The Person and Work of Christ, T. F. Torrance put it this way: “We must clap our hand upon our mouth again and again for we have no words adequate to match the infinitely holy import of atonement.” T. F. recognized that the mystery of God’s forgiveness is the work of a gracious genius—a work so pure and great we are unable to fully comprehend its glory.
According to the Bible, the glory of God’s forgiveness is seen in its multiple, related benefits. Let’s take a brief look at four of those gifts of grace.
1. With forgiveness comes the remission of sin
“Christ Crucified” by Velázquez (public domain via Wikimedia Commons)
The necessity of Jesus’ death on the cross for our sins helps us not only understand how serious God views sin, but also how we should view sin and guilt. Our sin unleashes a force that would obliterate the Son of God himself and destroy the Trinity if it could. Our sin requires the Son of God himself to overcome the evil that sin allows by giving his own life in exchange for ours. As believers, we don’t see Jesus’ death for our forgiveness as a mere “given,” or “right”—it is what leads us to a humble and deep appreciation for Christ, which leads us to go from simply believing, to gratefully receiving, then ultimately to worshipping him with our whole lives.
Because of Jesus’ sacrifice, we have total forgiveness. This means that all injustice is taken over by the impartial and perfect Judge. All that is wrong is identified and overcome—undone and made right for our salvation at God’s own expense. Let’s not just gloss over this stunning reality. God’s forgiveness is not blind—just the opposite. Nothing is overlooked. The evil is condemned and done away with and we are rescued from its deadly consequences and given new life. God knows every detail of sin and how it harms his good creation. He knows how sin harms you, and those you love. Further, he sees beyond the present to how sin impacts and hurts to the third and fourth generation (and beyond!). He knows the power and depth of sin and that’s why he wants us to understand and rejoice in the power and depth of his forgiveness.
Forgiveness allows us to see and know that there is more to living than what we see and experience in our present temporal existence. Because of God’s forgiveness, we can see and look forward to the amazing future God has prepared for us. He has not allowed anything to happen that his atoning work cannot redeem, renew and regenerate. The past has no power to determine the future that God has opened up for us though the door of his beloved Son’s work of atonement.
2. With forgiveness comes reconciliation with God
“God the Father” by Conegliano (public domain via Wikimedia Commons)
Through the Son of God, our elder brother and high priest, we know God as our Father. Jesus invited us to join him in calling out to God our Father as Abba, an intimate term meaning Papa or Dearest Father. He shares with us the intimacy of his relationship with the Father and ushers us into the closeness the Father desires to have with us through his Son.
To lead us to this intimacy, Jesus sent his Spirit, and it is by the Spirit that we become aware of the Father’s love and we begin to live as the Father’s beloved children. The author of Hebrews emphasizes the superiority of Jesus’ work in this regard:
The ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs [the priests of the old covenant] as the covenant of which he is mediator is superior to the old one, since the new covenant is established on better promises…. For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more. (Heb. 8:6, 12)
3. With forgiveness comes the undoing of death
“The Resurrection of Christ” (detail) by Tintoretto (public domain via Wikimedia Commons)
T. F. Torrance’s nephew, Robert Walker, in a GCI You’re Included interview, noted that the proof of our forgiveness is the undoing of sin and death as proven in the resurrection:
The resurrection is an almighty event. It’s not just the raising of a body from death, it’s the beginning of a new creation—the beginning of the renewal of all of space and time… The resurrection is forgiveness. It’s not just the proof of forgiveness, it is forgiveness, because in the Bible, sin and death are linked. So for God to undo sin, means to undo death. That means the resurrection is God’s undoing of sin. It’s raising somebody up who has taken our sin out of the grave, so that it is our resurrection. That’s why Paul says, “If Christ is not raised, we are still in our sins.” …The resurrection is not just somebody being raised from the dead, it’s the beginning of the reconstitution of everything.
4. With forgiveness comes restoration to wholeness
“Christ Pantocrator” by Cefalù (public domain via Wikimedia Commons)
In our election to salvation, the age-old philosophical dilemma is unwound—God sends the one for the many and the many are incorporated into the one. As Paul wrote to Timothy:
For there is one God; there is also one mediator between God and humankind, Christ Jesus, himself human, who gave himself a ransom for all—this was attested at the right time. For this I was appointed a herald and an apostle… a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth. (1 Tim. 2:5-7, NRSV)
Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s purposes for Israel and for all humanity. He is the true servant of the one God, the royal priest, the One for the many, the One for all! Jesus is the One in whom and through whom God’s purposes of forgiving grace are worked out for all people who have ever lived. God chooses or elects the One not to reject the many, but as The Way to include the many. In the saving economy of God, election does not imply rejection. Rather, the exclusive claim of Jesus is that only in him may all be restored to God. Note these verses from the book of Acts:
There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved. (Acts 4:12, NRSV)
Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. (Acts 2:21, NRSV)
Let’s share the good news
I think you’ll agree with me that all people need to hear the good news about God’s forgiveness. All need to know that they have been reconciled to God and are being drawn to respond to that reconciliation by the proclamation of God’s Word, empowered through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. All need to understand the invitation to receive and then participate in what God has done and is doing so they can live in personal union and communion with God in Christ. All need to hear and know that Jesus is the incarnation of the eternal purpose of God to bestow his pure and infinite love upon us, to undo death, and to gather us back into eternal life in him. All humanity needs to hear the gospel because, as T.F. Torrance notes, it is a mystery “more to be adored than expressed.”
Rejoicing that our sins have been atoned for, and we have been forgiven by the God who loves us perfectly for all time, Joseph Tkach
On September 27, the youth group at New Beginnings Christian Fellowship (GCI’s congregation in Big Sandy, TX), gathered on the track of a local football stadium. The reason was to raise funds for the national St. Jude Children’s Hospital Run/Walk to End Childhood Cancer and the Gladewater, TX, Truman W. Smith Children’s Care Center. New Beginnings challenged their group of 50 young people to be a “Force4Good” by accumulating as many laps on the track as they could in 20 minutes. After a light sack-lunch supper, they took off, carrying with them a 3×5 card, which adult members of New Beginnings then punched each time they completed a lap.
The adults present cheered them on and weren’t disappointed—when the cards were tallied, the youth had run or walked 253 laps, or over 63 miles! The church pledged to donate $1 per lap and several corporate and individual sponsors made donations that brought the total raised to over $1000. The young people were reminded that, as Jesus said in Matthew 25, whatever you do for the least of these, you’ve done for Jesus.
New Beginnings Lead Pastor Jerome Ellard explains the details of the fundraiser
As noted last week, several GCI members in the Caribbean Island of Dominica sustained property damage. We’ve now received a detailed report listing damage to the homes of several members, including roofs torn off, interiors flooded, etc. Though most have property insurance, they struggle to secure needed supplies, food and medicine due to long lines and limited hours of service at supermarkets, pharmacies and banks.
Thankfully, GCI members from other Caribbean Islands are helping. Supplies have been sent from Barbados, Grenada and Martinique. The hall where the Dominica church meets suffered water damage. They met briefly last week and have decided to meet every other week for now since the Public Works Department is limiting traffic on weekends in order to clear the roads of debris.
Damage from Hurricane Maria in Dominica (ABC News photo)
GCI Disaster Relief Fund
The GCI Disaster Relief Fund provides members in disaster areas with emergency needs such as food, water, medicine, clothing, temporary housing, home and/or church hall repairs, temporary local pastoral salary expenses and other emergency needs. Monies received into the Fund that are not immediately needed will remain in the Fund to be allocated in future disasters. In previous years, money from the Fund was used to help members recover from Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, storms and flooding in Bangladesh, an earthquake and tsunami in the Solomon Islands, typhoons in the Philippines and an earthquake in Haiti. If your congregation would like to donate to the Fund, your treasurer can set up a one-time or monthly donation through the GCI-Online system (http://online.gci.org) by logging in and clicking on Donate under the Manage tab. If your congregation prefers to send a check, make it out to Grace Communion International, indicating on the memo line that the donation is for the GCI Disaster Relief Fund. The donation should be sent to:
GCI Disaster Relief Fund Grace Communion International P.O Box 5005 Glendora, California 91740
Mission Developer Rod Matthews talks with GCI Pastor Wong Mein Kong from Malaysia concerning recent mission developments in Myanmar (formerly called Burma).
In a recent post on the LifeWay Pastors blog, Todd Gaddis states that “‘followship’ must take precedence over leadership if the church expects to maximize its influence and growth.” To read his post, click here.
