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About Illinois Valley news. (Cave City, Oregon) 1937-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 25, 2017)
Page A-6 Illinois Valley News, Cave Junction, Ore. Wednesday, October 25, 2017 America’s pain - tomorrow you? Northern California has suf- fered some of the worse fires in that state’s history. Twenty-three people have been reportedly killed with at least 285 people reported missing. Communities and over 170,000 acres have been burned. Over 8,000 fire- fighters were reported to be called to fight the deadly fire engulfing Napa Valley, wineries, vineyards and communities. Over 20,000 people were ordered to evacuate including the city of Calistoga and parts of Geyserville. Media clips of horror stricken families losing their homes to this blazing inferno have been heart wrenching. Growing up in Appalachia I am all too familiar with fires. In dry weather the hills are prone to be set on fire sometimes by accident or sometimes maliciously. I can remember fighting fires as a kid try- ing to protect our property and help others. Watching fire encircle your house is a scary sight. As a nation we will help California just like we are helping, Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico and any hard hit area in America. We have had our share of devastation in this country lately from the mass murder massacre of Las Vegas to suffering people in Puerto Rico. There are plenty of hurting people all around. Its gut wrenching to lose your house whether by wind, flood or fire. Nobody wants to experience either. At the same time too many Ameri- cans over the last few years lost their homes because of unemployment or they had a payment they couldn’t afford. Having someone force you out of your home because of life’s unfortunate circumstances is also painful. There is plenty of pain to go around right now in our country. The loss of some of our finest soldiers serving our country in Niger was by Dr. Glenn Mollette traumatic news this week. To those families the pain is almost more than they can bear. Yet, there will be more news of soldiers dying from Iraq and Afghanistan. How much more can we bear? What awaits us with North Korea? Massive killing unlike any- thing we have ever comprehended? As Americans we suffer with the families of Las Vegas, the Vic- tims of Hurricane Harvey and Irma and those burning in California. Yet, the pain for many of us is in another town or is not impacting our family. Our generation only knows the wars that we have seen on the television. The pain and all the dying looked bad but we could turn the televi- sion off. However, occasionally a soldier’s funeral would be held in a nearby town or our own town and suffering and pain was brought closer to home. Fire is very scary, hot and scorching. Fire is deadly but never hurts nearly as bad unless it is burn- ing you. A lot of people have been burned lately in America literally or figuratively. People without flood in- surance will never recuperate. Loved ones who lost children or parents in Las Vegas will never get over what happened. They will try to go on but they will never get over it. However you are burned you never get over it. You go on with God’s help and the mental wherewithal to not give up but the scars are there. With all the hurt we have in our country right now we need more than ever before our leaders on Capital Hill to find ways to help our country. Millionaire politicians should be helping us find solutions. Millionaire football players and team owners need to be good examples. Police brutality of African Ameri- cans must cease and all of us as Americans need to hear what they are saying and work together for all America to be able to walk or drive down the road safely and without harassment. Victims of bullying at school to people stalked on social media to people harassed by the far right and the far left bear the wounds of emo- tional and sometimes even physical pain. Today take a step back. Say a prayer, or utter an uplifting thought. Do something monetarily or physi- cally volunteer. Find some way to help make all this pain a little better. Try to be a friend. Encourage and be helpful when and where possible. Tomorrow it could be you. Glenn Mollette is a syndicated columnist and author of 12 books. He is read in all 50 states. Read his new book “Uncommon Sense.” Contact him at GMollette@ aol.com. Learn more at www.glen- nmollette.com Like his facebook page at www.facebook.com/glen- nmollette. Church News Good Shepherd Lutheran Church The Currency of God Politics, anger and fear makes for strange bedfellows. Mortal enemies, the Pharisees and the Herodians, teamed up to try to trap Jesus by asking him whether or not it was lawful to pay Roman taxes. Because if Jesus says yes, he risks offending and losing his followers. He says no, he risks being charged with insurrec- tion and treason. The Pharisees were probably chuckling to themselves, thinking they have it all locked up because Rome’s supporters, the Herodians, are there as witnesses. But this question isn’t just some political trap. It isn’t just about taxes, the government, Roman occupation of the Jews, or even the separation of church and state. It’s about an agenda. The Pharisees and Herodians really don’t care what his answer is, as long as they can beat him up with it. It’s no different today, even though the questions may not be the same. The same tag-team is still at work in our modern world. It’s played out every time we over-simplify complex issues; categorize people; pigeon hole parts of our lives; and try to manipulate Jesus. For instance: is homosexuality lawful? Say yes and you’re a revisionist; a progressive who denies the authority of Holy Scripture. Say no and you’ll be accused of being homo- phobic, prejudiced, and denying the gospel’s message of love and inclusivity. Is abortion permissible? Say yes and you’re a supporter of killing babies; some- one who ignores the commandment against murder. Say no and you contradict a woman’s constitutional rights. Do you support America’s wars? Say no and you’re unpatriotic and failing to support our troops. Say yes and you’ll have to answer for the violence, death, and destruction that seem so contrary to Jesus’ life and teaching. In whatever form it takes, the collusion between the Pharisees and the Herodians is about power, manipulation and agendas. And sadly, it’s not just limited to our political and economic systems; our churches suffer from it as well. But Jesus won’t allow himself to be used, manipulated, or co-opted by anyone: the Phari- sees, and Herodians, or us. Instead, he deepens the question into one about faith and life. He asks whose image is on the tax coin; who do we belong to? Sometimes it seems like we belong to Caesar: taxes; restrictions on freedoms; impris- onment for civil disobedience. Or, maybe we feel like our job or our business owns us; or our families. Sometimes, we even feel owned by our “stuff”, by our material possessions. God is the one who claims us; God made us in his own image. We don’t – and shouldn’t – belong to anything or to anyone else. “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” Jesus isn’t separating the secular and the sacred, spirit and matter, divine and human. He’s inviting us to hold them together; to unite them and in so doing become the currency of God in the world. Community Bible Church October 31, 1517 Romans 1:16-17 (NKJV) 16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.” While people are impersonating ghouls and goblins and filling themselves with candy as they celebrate what we call Halloween, there should be a far greater celebration and rejoicing for the born-again believer in Christ. Oct. 31, 2017 is the 500th anniversary of a born-again monk, named Martin Luther, nailing what is called the 95 Thesis to the church door in a town in Ger- many called Wittenberg. Thus began the Protestant Reformation, not originating in riots or political intrigue, but coming from the heart of one to whom God spoke through the book of Romans in the Bible. The following is Luther’s own testimony: “I had been possessed by an unusually ardent desire to understand Paul in his epistle to the Romans. Nevertheless, in spite of the ardour of my heart, I was hindered by the unique word in the first chapter. ‘The righteousness of God. . . .’ I hated that word ‘righteousness of God,’ because in accordance with the usage and custom of the doctors I had been taught to understand it philosophically as meaning, as they put it, the formal or active righteousness according to which God is righteous and punishes sinners and the unjust. As a monk I led an irreproachable life. Nevertheless I felt that I was a sinner before God. . . . Not only did I not love, but I actually hated the righteous God who pun- ishes sinners. . . . Day and night I tried to meditate upon the sig- nificance of these words: ‘The righteousness of God is revealed in it, as it is written: The righteous shall live by faith.’ Then, finally, God had mercy on me, and I began to understand that the righteousness of God is that gift of God by which a righteous man lives, namely, faith, and that this sentence – ‘The righteous- ness of God is revealed in the Gospel’ – is passive, indicating that the merciful God justifies us by faith, as it is written: ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’ Now I felt as though I had been reborn altogether and had entered Paradise.” Just as intensely as I had before hated the expression ‘the righteousness of God’, I now lovingly praised this most pleasant word. This passage from Paul became to me the very gate to Paradise.” As God spoke through the Bible to Martin Luther, he responded, and his life was forever changed. Not just his life, but many others’ also. God is still in the business of changing the lives of those who by faith believe God’s promises found in that Holy book. There are so many distractions in this day! May God grant you openness to His truth (John 14:6). Hope to see you Sunday. In Christ, Pastor Dave Places of Worship BRIDGEVIEW COMMUNITY CHURCH 5181 Holland Loop Rd., CJ 541-592-3923 “Come Join the Worship!” Sunday Worship 10:30 a.m. Pastor Sonny Moore www.bridgeviewcc.org * * * 7th DAY ADVENTIST 265 S. Old Stage Rd., CJ Sabbath School - 9:30 a.m. Saturday Worship 11 a.m. Pastor Christian Martin Church (541) 592-3218 Madrone Adventist School 541-592-3330 * * * IMMANUEL UNITED METHODIST CHURCH 200 Watkins St., CJ Phone 541-592-3876 Pastor Charles Chase Sunday School - 9:15 a.m. Sunday Worship - 9:15 a.m. Child-care for small children *** Illinois Valley Praise Center 28569 Redwood Hwy. CJ Non-denominational Bible-believing Church Sunday school - 9:30 a..m. Sunday Service 10:30 a.m. Thursday Seekers 7 p.m. Youth group Thursday - 7 p.m. www.ivpraisecenter.com COMMUNITY BIBLE CHURCH Pastor Dave Gordon 113 S. Caves Ave., CJ Office: 541-592-3896 Email: cbccca@gmail.com Sunday Worship - 10:30 a.m. Christian Academy Pre-K to 12th grade Awana - Wednesdays - 6 p.m. * * * ST. PATRICK OF THE FOREST CATHOLIC CHURCH 407 W. River St., CJ 541-592-3658 Fr. William Holtzinger, Pastor Mass - Sunday 11 a.m.. Sacrament of Reconciliation Sunday - 10:30 a.m. Holy Days TBA * * * TAKILMA BIBLE CHURCH 10343 Takilma Road, Takilma Pastor Dan Robinson Bible Study / Prayer Time 9:30 a.m. Morning Worship 11 a.m Wednesday Bible Study 7 p.m * * * First Baptist Church of Selma 18285 Redwood Hwy., Selma 541-597-4169 Pastor Monty Pope Sunday School - 9:45 a.m. Worship - 11 a.m. GOOD SHEPHERD LUTHERAN CHURCH East River Street & Lewis Court, CJ Annemarie Richardson Lay Pastor. Sunday School - 9:15 a.m. Sunday Worship - 10 a.m. Church Phone: 541-592-2290 www.goodshepherdlutheraniv.net * * * VALLEY EVANGELICAL FREE CHURCH 498 Laurel Road, CJ P.O. Box 1248 Pastor Marvin Porter Sunday School - 9:45 a.m. Worship Service - 11 a.m. evfree@frontiernet.net 541-592-6160 * * * FOUNTAIN OF LIFE ASSEMBLY OF GOD 451 S. Junction Ave., CJ 541-592-3956 Pastor Mark McLean Morning Worship 9:30 & 11 a.m. Wednesday - 7 p.m. Adult Bible Study * * * ST. MATTHIAS EPISCOPAL CHURCH 25904 Redwood Hwy., CJ 541-592-2006 Rev. Bryant Bechtold Sunday Worship Service 10:30 a.m. THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS 209 S. Junction Ave., CJ Sacrament Meet - 10 a.m. Sunday School - 11:20 a.m. Priesthood, Relief Soc. - 12:10 p.m. Bishop Larry Hammersmith 541-592-3919 * * * Illinois Valley Baptist Church 541-592-6149 102 S. Redwood Hwy. (in the County Building) Sunday Worship 10:30 AM Wednesday Bible Study, Prayer & Youth Program 7:00 PM Ladies Bible Study Call for info * * * Wonder Bible Chapel 11911 Redwood Hwy. Wonder, Ore. Sunday worship 10 a.m. Non-denominational Bible believing Church Sunday School Nursery Youth group meets Sunday 6:30 p.m. Ministry at CBC Sunday Morning Worship 10:30 a.m. Praise and Prayer 6 p.m. Wednesday AWANA 6:15-8 p.m. Preschool to 6th grade Free Senior Exercise Class Monday, Wednesday, & Friday 9-10 a.m. Dining Room Community Christian Academy Preschool – 12th grade
