I wish to thank Mike Feazell for his most enlightening and understandable message on sin, grace and eternal life (June WN).
It shows us real freedom. The Holy Spirit is guiding us into all truth. How sweet it is.
John Shrewsbury
Seattle, Washington
Thank you for such great articles in the last few issues of The Worldwide News. They have lifted and encouraged my soul: "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free."
I have been a member of our church for 25 years and I have never been more excited. Thanks for letting God speak to us through your writing.
Colorado
A big thank you to Mike Feazell for his article in the July WN titled "Standing in Christ Alone."
Reading it has helped me see just how grace-full Jesus Christ is, and has cleaned off all the "yes, buts" that we attach to the gospel.
My understanding of Jesus' loving act of salvation is much deeper and clearer.
Thanks be to God!
Peg Casale
Syracuse New York
Thank you for your articles on sin, repentance and forgiveness. Through them you surely will have given a huge boost of encouragement to so many people.
God's wonderful grace gives an inner glow of peace, joy and thankfulness, and this shines through your articles. Thank you for all your articles over the past year or so--all helpful and encouraging. They are much appreciated.
Eileen Davies
Kingston Surrey, England
I was reading Mike Feazell's article "Trusting God With the Problem of Sin" (June WN). A paragraph reads "and the One who writes names in the Lamb's Book of Life has already written absolutely everybody's name in the Book of Life with the Blood of the Lamb."
I am having a problem reconciling this with Revelation 20:15, which reads "and whosoever was not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the Lake of Fire." This would appear to indicate that there are some whose names are not in the Book of Life.
Ted Hunt
Prescott Valley, Arizona
Even though Christ paid for the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:1), God has granted humans the freedom to reject his love and grace. God says "yes" to us, but he gives us the freedom to say "no" to him. If a person refuses to acknowledge and accept that grace, if they spurn God's love, then they will not be able to enjoy life with him.
The book of life is an apocalyptic symbol of God's gracious gift of redemption and salvation. That gift, through Christ's perfect and complete sacrifice, applies to the whole of creation. Those who reject it, even though it applies to them, in effect blot out their own names from the book.
No sins are so big that the blood of Christ does not cover them, and no sinners are so big that the blood of Christ does not redeem them; but some sinners reject God's mercy and refuse that redemption, and so remain in league with the devil.
Mike Feazell
It was a milestone event and I was there! Early this morning, June 25, a small group of members met to participate in the first communion service of the Watford, England, congregation.
I drove home from it with a wonderful sense of belonging and kinship with my family in the Worldwide Church of God and the Body of Christ at large.
I walked back to the cross this year after four years of spiritual wilderness and intense doubt. My pilgrimage began in earnest at the Lord's Supper this year, which I went to having not attended a WCG congregation since May 1996.
I went to the Lord's Supper because I wanted to return to Christ. I wanted that communion, but it was very much between myself and God. If nobody else had been in the room, I would not have noticed. It was a case of first things first.
Three months have passed, and today I was privileged to eat bread and drink wine with fellow Christians, in a warm, loving, family environment. This time round I could fully appreciate the sharing of the experience. I was not standing alone at the foot of the cross anymore--and how wonderful it was to realise that.
My wilderness years are well and truly over! Watford is my home and I am so glad to be back.
I had spent four years away from the church, and I was hesitantly walking back. I knew I wanted God back in my life, but I had my reservations about what kind of community I wanted to be in. I wondered what kind of environment I was coming back to.
I needed to be amongst caring and supportive people in a loving Christian community who would nurture my regained and fragile faith. It was a somewhat daunting prospect.
I need not have feared. I was coming home and those who remembered me made me feel so welcome. The tolerance of different viewpoints was noticeably greater, and the Watford church seemed to be the right place for me after all.
The love and acceptance that is the core of Christianity was there in abundance. I was drawn to it like a moth to the light.
Lynne Strong
Watford, England
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