• Home
    • Gathering Guidelines
    • Ways to Give
  • Prayer Corner
    • Share a Request
    • Memorial Tribute >
      • Hetty Postma
      • Edna Kirby
      • Norman Hunter
      • Ina Rottier
      • Dennis Brommeland
      • Norris Thompson
      • Irv Wood
      • Ann Vander Kooi
      • Jack Demorest
      • Yde Vander Kooi
      • Ainsley Rose Wollf
      • Dick Mayer
      • David Rusnell
      • Bob McKay
      • Guy Deschatelets
      • Chloe Kroeger
      • Ida Barisoff
      • Gerard Zandee
      • Nick Dikur
  • About Valley
    • Annual Reports >
      • 2022 Annual Report
      • 2021 Annual Report
      • 2020 Annual Report
      • 2019 Annual Report
      • 2018 Annual Report
    • Membership Information
    • Who We Are
    • What We Believe
    • How We Are Governed >
      • Constitution & Bylaws
    • Where We Are Going
  • Ministries
    • Leadership Team >
      • Nomination Committee
      • Benevolent Ministry
    • Finance and Property >
      • 2023 Budget
      • Current Quarterly Report
    • Missions >
      • Missions Guidelines
    • Caring and Connecting
    • Christian Education >
      • Library
    • Worship >
      • Heritage House
  • What's Happening
    • Bulletin
    • Links
  • Photos
    • Annual Celebration >
      • 2022
      • 2021
      • 2020
      • 2019
      • 2018
      • 2017
      • 2016
      • 2015
      • 2014
      • 2013
      • 2012
      • 2011
      • 2010
    • 30th Anniversary
    • 25th Anniversary
    • Follow the Duck 2014
    • Mexico 2013
    • Follow the Crown 2013
    • "The Bridge"
    • 20th Anniversary
  • Messages
    • Archived Messages 2023
    • Archived Messages 2022
    • Archived Messages 2021
    • Archived Messages 2020
    • Archived Messages 2019
  • Blog
  • Contact Us
    • Directions
    • Directory
VALLEY CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH

A Better Kind of Confidence

8/12/2015

0 Comments

 
I could see they were heading up our street and I knew it was only a matter of time before a knock came on our door.  They were dressed smartly and carried themselves with all the confidence of a high-powered executive.  Complete with brief case in hand, these two ladies made their way from house to house.  The ‘sale’s pitch’ was always the same; a politely worded offer of the latest issue of their magazine; a tactic designed to pique the interest of the listener. 

I remained silent as they went through their opening remarks.  The youngest one reached into your brief case to reveal the latest issue of ‘The Watchtower’, the magazine of the Jehovah’s Witness.  Part of me wanted to dismiss this intrusion but the subject matter caught my attention, so I decided to engage these two defenders of their faith.  The issue at hand…the afterlife. 

Feeling adequate to defend my case, I allowed these two ladies to share with me their version of the truth.  I listened carefully, strategically planning my cross examination.  I asked a few well-placed questions along the way and after agreeing the subject matter was indeed worthy of our examination, I asked them one simple question:  ‘What’s going to happen to you the first five minutes after you die’?  ‘What does the afterlife hold for you’?  

The younger one looked baffled; the older one, stumbling for words began down the same path we had just been. I interrupted and said, ‘I understand the teaching you are presenting but I want to know, what’s going to happen to you; can you tell me with certainty what the afterlife holds for you? 

After several attempts to reiterate the party line and my calling her back to the question at hand, I said to her, ‘let me get this straight, you’re asking me to consider embracing a faith that teaches about the afterlife but offers its followers no real certainty about their final destination nor does it offer any certainty regarding their standing / their relationship with God. 

I spend the next few minutes sharing with my friends from the Jehovah’s Witness that maybe, just maybe, Christianity offers a better kind of confidence.  The Apostle John writes:  I write these things (the truth about Jesus Christ)…so that you may know that you have eternal life.  (I John 5:13) 

John writes to clarify matters about our standing before God, about our eternal security and to provide for us a confident faith; to take any confusion out of the equation.  The promise of God is simple, yet wonderfully profound:  For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  (John 3:16)   John writes:  This is how God showed his love among us:  He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.  This is love:  not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.  (1 John 4:9-10)  The cross of Jesus Christ is the only way man can be reconciled to  God; it is because of the cross we can receive the gift of eternal life.

My friends at Valley, have you embraced the cross of Christ?  Jesus said, I am the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.  (John 14:6)  Christianity really does offer a better way; a better kind of confidence…the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.  (Romans 6:23)

0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Ken Clarke has been the Pastor at Valley since 2007. He lives in the Oliver area 
    with his wife Janice. They have three adult children, Lisa, Scott & Tiffany (Riley, Charlie), Andrea & Jason (Noah, Luke).

    Categories

    All
    Christian Living
    Christmas
    Church
    Creation
    Easter
    Finishing Well
    Leadership
    Mexico
    Most Viewed
    Nature Of God
    Our Stories
    Parenting
    Prayer
    Relationships
    Worship

    RSS Feed

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012

4312 Black Sage Road Box 1235 Oliver, BC V0H 1T0 250-498-4829 valleyccc@hotmail.com