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ward. Stress challenges our every movement unless
'we keep our focus centered on God. He relieves
our stress by bringing peace into our life through His
Holy Spirit who overcomes the situations which try
to draw us from our center. Fear comes at us from
all sides, but holding our focus steady on God we
Will persevere while leaving the worry behind.
Martial Arts aren‘t about how the opponent is
destroyed, but about how your reactions to life are
Conquered by centering them on God. It’s more
about keeping life focused on allowing God to use
the talents He’s given to conquer your situations
tit
rialme and peacefully. Holding on to the love of
Jesus Christ in all situations and clinging to the
peace which comes through the teachings of the
Holy Spirit in your life.
THE JOURNAL, Thursday, July 4, 2019 35
Stay centered on God throughout everything you
encounter and persevere to the end.
Located at the corner of Diamond Valley Rd
and HwySl. five miles east of Stillwater. Sunday
School 10:00 a.m., Sunday Morning Service 9 a.m.
Quincy Morris. Pastor: Wednesday Bible Study 7
pm.
Friends Chapel Church
By Bobby Garringer, pastor
IN SEARCH OF A CHRISTIAN WORLDVIEW
PART 10. A friend contacted me to say that, this
past Sunday, her pastor told the congregation that
the word, sanctified. in 1 Corinthians l:2 indicates
that Christians are sanctified one time in the past,
and that the act of being sanctified is permanent.
We willial's’o be open fer
these special events:
'S'at‘u rd ay, 5 '
(Old Settlers Day)
8:00 AM to 1:00 PM
Thursday, December 12
(Old Fashioned Country Christmas)
5:00 PM to 8:00 PM
if you would like to help
show off this magnificent
piece of history to many
interested visitors,
please contact:
Therefore, “Once saved, always saved.”
This verse is a part of Paul’s greeting to the Corin—
thian church and is translated, in the World English
Bible, “to the assembly of God which is at Corinth;
those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to
be saints, with all who call on the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ in every place, both theirs and ours.”
The word, translated “sanctified” in this verse,
depicts what scholars call a “perfect” action in the
original Koine Greek. Such verbal expressions indi-
cate an act completed in the past with results that
continue into the present from the perspective of
a speaker or writer. It has become a common mis-
take to conclude, as the lady’s pastor has, that this
means the results of the action will continue into
the unending future. But the verb tense says nothing
about the future.
, Leading Greek scholars, including those who
believe “once saved always saved”, are on a mission
to tell pastors, Sunday School teachers, and popu—
"lar evangelists to stop saying that the perfect tense
implies that a particular action (such as being born
again. or being saved, or being sanctified) necessar-
ily has no end to it. Some of these scholars believe
that salvation is unending, permanent, and guaran—r
teed once a person trusts in Christ — some of them
do not — but all of them know that the perfect tense,
in itself, does not carry this meaning or imply it.
It is very easy to demonstrate the limited time
references of perfect actions in Koine grammar.
Three obvious examples follow:
(1) The centurion’s request that Jesus heal his
servant includes the statement, "‘Lord, my servant
lies in the house paralyzed, grievously tormented”
(Matthew 8:6). The word, lies, in this verse speaks
of a perfected action. The servant laid down and,
from the centurion’s perspective, is — still - laying
down. However, this Was not a permanent, unend—
ing condition because Jesus healed him, and the
servant got up. ,
(2) in Matthew 12:47, Jesus is told, “Behold, your
mother and your brothers stand outside, seeking
to speak to you.” In this case, stand is a perfected
actionyJesus’ brothers and mother came and stood
outside, and they are still standing there- at the time
Jesus is informed of their presence. However, they
did not permanently remain outside the house where
Jesus was speaking. Eventually, they went home.
(3) Another example of “standing” in a perfected
state is recorded in Revelation 3:20. The verse
begins, “Behold, I stand (perfected action) at the
door and knock (present, ongoing action).” Then,
the verse continues, “If anyone hears my voice and
opens the door, then‘I will come in to him, and will'
dine with him, and he with me.” Obviously, Jesus
— who had stood for some time — didnot intend to
keep standingr'at' the door forever. ‘
So the fact that the Corinthians to whom Paul
wrote had been sanctified tells us nothing about
whether or not they will cbntinue to be sanctified.
In fact, Paul warns those who. had been “washed,
sanctified, and justified” (i Corinthians 6211), “Or
don’t you know that the unrighteous will not inherit
the Kingdom of God? Don’t be deceived. Neither
the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers,
nor male‘prostitutes, nor homosexuals, nor thieves,
nor covetous, nor drunkards,‘ nor slanderers, nor
extortioners, will inherit the Kingdom of God” (1
"Corinthians 629—10).
St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church
By Fr. Brian O’Brien
Is Jesus mean? Is Jesus unkind? It seems that way
in how He treats the men in the Gospel. Jesus invites
the men to follow Him. The man says “Let me first
go and bury my father.” and another says, “Let me
saysgoodbye to my family.” Jesus basically says
“NO!” Follow me, now! ‘
‘ This seems unkind. It seems almost cruel. Or was
Jesus making a larger point? I think He was.
Jesus shOuld be the center of our lives! lill say it ~
again, Jesusshould be the center of our lives. But
often He isn’t. Where do find Jesus? We find Him
in the Mass and yet many times Sunday Mass is not
a priority for us. We have opportunities everyday
to pray, to speak to the Lord and tell Him what’s
going on in our lives and to pray for people in need.
We have the time and yet we do other things. We,
have opportunities to serve 'other's. To find Jesus in
the poor and sometimes we ignore those in need.
These are opportunities to put Jesus at theicenter
of Our lives.
He wants us to follow Him and He wants it now!
He doesn’t want us” to wait or to do anything else.
Our relationship with Him is our #1 priority, even
more important than burying a father or saying
goodbye to your family.
There’s another point too. We don’t need to wait
to follow Jesus. Some of us think that we need to
have everything in order to follow Him. No! Jesus
wantsus to follow Him now! Even though our lives
are messy, even though we are sinners, even though
we often get distracted, He wants us to follow Him
with all of that going on. “No one who sets a hand
to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit
for the kingdom of God.” A high standard for sure
but also a great challenge nto make Jesus Christ the
center of your life and to do it now!
There is freedom in Jesus Christ. When we follow
Him, we put our lives in His hands and we are then
free to love, free to serve, free to follow Him, not
later but. right now! ,
St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church is,lobated-at
‘ ~71‘1"N.'Country Club Rd., Stillwater. Mass Times:
Saturday 5 ‘p".m.; Sunday 8:30 a.m., 11:15‘ am.
(Nursery available during ll:15 a.fn. Mass); 1 pm.
Spanish’ Mass. More info online at sfxstillwatercrg ‘
