Anderson

Do you lack the unity in community? All Christians share a common bond—a belief in Jesus. But unfortunately that bond is often overlooked or damaged by strife and discord. However, the Bible instructs Christians to live in harmony with one another and to bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another (Romans 12:16, Colossians 3:13). This need for love, harmony, and forgiveness is important because we, as Christians, cannot be an effective community without unity—and that means helping each other, forgiving each other, and walking in love with one another.  Galatians 6:2 says, Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. This means that if we help each other—in other words, walk in love—then we, as Christians, will fulfill Christ's law, which is to love one another (see John 13:34-35). Any Christian community must have unity. Watering down God's wrath dilutes God's love. In an effort to make the Gospel more seeker-friendly, some Christians avoid talking about God's wrath, anger, and hatred toward those who have sinned against him. By watering down the wrath of God such people cheapen and diminish the love of God. Such a faith void of God's wrath was characterized in the early 1900s by a movement called Protestant Liberalism. In 1937, H. Richard Niebuhr, professor at Yale Divinity School, gave this description of Protestant Liberalism's theology: "A God without wrath brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgment through a Christ without a cross."  As Niebuhr pungently demonstrated, eliminating God's wrath minimizes the cross, which is the ultimate manifestation of God's love (see Romans 5:6-8). Because God is holy, perfect, and sinless, he deserves all glory, honor, fame, praise, and exaltation. However, when we sin—and every one of us sins—we insult God's holiness. Sin is fundamentally an offense against God, and so he hates sin and punishes all who sin against him (see Psalm 78:19-21, John 3:36, Psalm 5:5, Isaiah 13:11, Psalm 7:11). The Apostle Paul, in Romans 1:18-19, describes the ubiquity of God's wrath: "The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of human beings who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them" (see also Romans 1:18-31). So, if we all are godless and wicked, deserving of God's wrath, how can he accept us? Does God say, "Well, at least you're making progress"? Does he grade on the curve: "You're better than average, so I guess I'll give you a passing grade"? No. God can't forgive like that because his holiness and justice demand that perfect satisfaction for sin be made. Instead, what God does is this: He sends his son, Jesus Christ, to bear all our sins so that our sin is paid for by Christ. What an amazing act that the very one who you hated, scorned, reviled, and scoffed at is the same one who took upon himself the death penalty you deserved, and because all your sins are placed on him God declares you righteous. That's good news! If you don't realize that the bad news is that you, because of your sin, are an enemy of God who deserves the death penalty, then you won't realize the full magnificence of God's love for you expressed through Christ suffering the death you deserved. Because the bad news is worse than you think it is, the good news is better than you think it is.

Happy Birthday have a blast.

Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight. 1 Peter 3:3-4 (Read all of 1 Peter 3)

Thanks for the friendship Anderson. I hope you have an amazing day filled with sweet music!
Michael

KILLA

G'day ,
Just wanted to let you know we currently have 2 tracks up for free download (one live recording) from our myspace if you're interested. We will be rotating the 2 free tracks every couple of weeks just to find out which tunes you guys like the most, so feel free to let us know what you think.
You can also check out our latest live acoustic session on Balcony TV below.
Hope all's well!
Cheers,
Dave.