Christ’s Commission Fellowship (CCF) celebrates 26 years of God’s love, grace and faithfulness with a string of the usual six services from 8AM until 6:30PM at its main worship hall in Saint Francis Square.

Pastor Peter Tan-chi, senior pastor of CCF, delivered God’s message of the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20, and reminded believers of Jesus’ last command while on earth. In the message entitled, “What’s so Great About the Great Commission?”, Pastor Tan-chi says that as followers of Jesus Christ, we need to make disciples of all nations. “The Great Commission is not just a job to be done. It is a call for God’s people to submit to the absolute lordship of Jesus. And that’s why Jesus began by saying, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples.’”, he says. “The Great Commission is great because the One giving it is the greatest being there is. Jesus is more than a man.”

He further reminded the congregation that the mission of CCF is to make Christ Committed Followers who will make Christ Committed Followers.

Aside from the message on making disciples, CCF was also briefed on the updates for the building project at Fontera Verde with Phase 1 (the whole skeleton and structure) being finished this December 2010.

The worship service was beamed live to all the satellite churches in the country and was also watched live on the internet via livestream.

Question:

Hi! I have this friend. He keeps on telling me that God’s requirement for salvation is through having full faith and trust in God’s commandments and obeying them. He told me that If we love Him we must keep his commandments. And that’s why we must worship on the seventh day, God’s chosen day to worship.

Answer:

The Bible says in Galatians 2:16, “nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified.”

Notice how it mentions 3x for emphasis the fact that we will not be justified before God by obeying the Law (referring to the commandments and the other legalistic requirements in the Old Testament).

Notice also that the verse mentions how man is justified before God—it is “through faith in Jesus,” a declaration that the verse also mentions repeatedly. The Apostle Paul says that “even we have believed in Christ” to stress the fact that he himself has put his faith in Jesus “so that we (meaning Paul and the others who likewise believe in Jesus) may be justified by faith in Christ.”

You can say that the Apostle Paul was MAKULIT (annoyingly persistent)! He was repeating himself so that there won’t be any mistaking what the Word of God really teaches about this matter.

Please also look at Galatians 1:6-9. The “gospel of Christ” mentioned by Paul in verse 7 is what is spelled out in 1 Corinthians 15:1-4, which is “Christ died for our sins” (v. 3)! That is the simple gospel preached by the apostles “by which also you are saved” (v. 2).

Paul’s letter to the Galatians chapter 1 exposes the false teachers who come and distort that simple truth for which Jesus died. Concerning these false teachers Paul says if they teach another gospel or a distorted gospel, “he is to be accursed!” (vs. 8, 9 NASB).

We do not suggest that you confront your friend and declare him anathema or accursed. You need to be sensitive in approaching him. First you need to pray about God giving you the power to explain, share and witness to him. Pray also for the Holy Spirit to prepare his heart. You need also to prepare yourself by studying the Bible (the GLC can help you in this). Your friend may have been preparing himself for maybe a period of time in “sharing” to you. If you are just starting to prepare now he might make you look silly because you might not be able to defend your faith from the passages that he shows to you which, in the first place are taken out of context, And worse you might be converted by him. As a good soldier of Jesus you need to be ready “accurately handling the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15).

Concerning worshiping on the 7^th day, again we see that he is coming from a theology of obedience to the law to merit salvation. We are not saying that the Law or the ten commandments are bad. In fact the ten commandments, just like the other commands in the Bible continues to provide for us a moral standard for us to follow. We still are guided by them and follow them because of our love for Jesus. We do not follow the commandments believing that in doing so we will be saved! We follow them BECAUSE we are saved! It is through faith in Jesus that we are saved not by obeying the ten commandments (Galatians 2:16), not by deeds of righteousness (Titus 3:5), and not by good works (Ephesians 2:8-9).

By the way, this subject will be expounded more by Pastor Peter in the coming weeks starting around the third Sunday of September when he begins a new series of messages based on the book of Galatians. We suggest you invite your friend to CCF when the series starts. God bless!

Jonah is the story of God’s pursuing love toward imperfect people like us. It is always motivated by love because He intends to orchestrate all that happens in our life for our highest good. So when God assigned Jonah to go and take His message to the Ninevites, God was motivated by love. When God allowed him to make tampo and run away and board a boat, God was motivated by love. When God pursued Jonah and allowed the storm and the events on the boat to happen, God was motivated by love. When God allowed the fish to swallow him, God was motivated by love. And when God prepared the hearts of those wicked Ninevites to respond to His message of repentance and restoration, God was also motivated by love.

God’s Will for Children – God’s will for children is for them to obey and honor their parents, with love as their motivation. Deuteronomy 5:16 is the only commandment with a promise. The verse says, “Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God has commanded you, that your days may be prolonged and that it may go well with you on the land which the LORD your God gives you.” To honor your parents means to respect them, to elevate them and to seek their highest good. We are to be proud of them, value them, listen to them and cherish their counsel. And we are, at a certain point when it becomes necessary, also to care for them physically and financially as well.

Sadly, during the last days, “men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy.” (2 Timothy 3:2) Pastor Jack Graham paints a picture of what this Scripture teaches rebellious children will have a miserable life, a life without God’s joy, peace and blessings.

There is a tendency for some people to blame everything on the parents but this is a sign of immaturity. We must accept responsibility for our actions and decisions. As God’s children, we are assured that He will set us free from the bondage of the sins of our parents and forefathers. We are to obey our parents not because they are always right but because “this is right” and it pleases God (Ephesians 6:1). Even if your parents can be the worst of their kind, as unloving and brutal as they can get, God says love and honor your parents because this is right. Never be disrespectful to your parents. Do not criticize or demean, mock or insult your parents. Always speak to or of your parents in a way that honors them, because this is right, and this pleases the Lord. God will use them for good in your life as He promised.

God’s Will for Parents – Disciplining your children must be motivated by love. Sometimes rebuke is not enough as in the case of Eli the priest. He rebuked his wicked sons but did not restrain them (1 Samuel 2:22-25). “Why do you … honor your sons above Me?” (1 Samuel 2:29) When children are unrestrained, parents have committed the sin of omission. God holds them responsible. Proverbs 22:6 instructs parents to “train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old he will not depart from it.” Children are under the stewardship of their parents. God expects parents to discipline and to disciple their children relentlessly, not sparing them the rod when it is required because they want them to be blessed and to keep them from harm.

God’s Will for Spouses – The Bible instructs a husband and a wife to be subject to one another in the fear of Christ. This submission must be motivated by love that is long suffering. Submission is surrendering your will to God’s will. At times, a wife may struggle with submitting to her husband because she thinks that she is right, better, and smarter or because her husband is unloving, uncaring, cold and undeserving of her respect and submission. But she is to submit to her husband in reverence to Christ. Wives must be motivated by love that seeks the highest good of her husband. For the husbands, God expects him to love his wife, to make her holy and to present her radiant, without stain, without wrinkle, without blemish and blameless before Him (Ephesians 5:28-29). The husband must be motivated by love that seeks the highest good of his wife, even if his wife may be rebellious, a nag, a gossip, irresponsible, etc.

The encouragement is that God will reward us for all that we do in love for Him and for others. “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.”(2 Corinthians 5:10) We are to obey God, to act in love, and to leave the results in God’s loving hands. Like Jonah, we are to turn back from following our own will and to follow God’s will. With God, nothing is impossible! When we obey Him, God who changed the hearts of the Ninevites, can change the hearts of our parents, children, spouse, but most of all, our own heart!

We are a people constantly in want. Cellular phones, computers, clothes these are some of the things we would work, skip meals and save up for just to own. The simple act of purchasing always involves sacrifice in exchange for complete ownership. While this might seem risky, our consumer generation knows that when it really wants something, when it is convinced of an object’s immeasurable value, no cost is ever too extravagant.

Once upon a time, we too, were on sale.

Death sought to own us but God stepped in and made a radical sacrifice: He sent His one and only son – Jesus. He purchased us with His own blood. He saw our value and so it gave Him great pleasure to pay such a high price.

Today, we can declare that we have been sold. Sold to love, sold to freedom, sold out to Christ. The risk was great and the cost was extreme but Jesus believes you are worth it.

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P2,500
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