Spring Outreach Meeting Report, Thursday, Apr 26, 2007

Approximately 35 people gathered together for the second night of the Spring Gospel Outreach Meeting. There was much singing, both individually and as a congregation, and rejoicing as we sang songs such as “When the Savior Reached Down for Me”, "Love Lifted Me" and “Since Jesus Came into My Heart.” 

Tonight’s message took another look at sin, this time from God’s perspective.  Sis Debbie Rude spoke about “The Suffering of God” and how He hurts over man’s sin and rejection.  Taken from I Cor. 13:4 , Charity suffers long and is kind, she explained how God suffers long with us and “hopes” that we will come back to Him.  Because of His expectation, He repeatedly suffers grief when He is rejected over and over.  Just like an estranged parent – child relationship where the wayward children bring the parents untold grief, as His creation, we are all God’s children and cause Him pain when we go our own way. 

God had to send His son in the image of the father (Col.1:15) to show us ourselves.  Jesus’ death on the cross was like a mirror in front of us where we could “see” just how we are hurting God.  Every whip and lash was a demonstration of how your rebellion is affecting God.  You helped put Him on the cross.  So did I. 

Do you see how much you are hurting Him?  Do you care enough to stop?   

When we realize what the cross means, it should break our heart so we never want to hurt Him again.