• A Church Moves On

  Contributed by Michael Walther on Jul 29, 2011 (message contributor)

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  Scripture:  None

  Tags:  Forgiveness For Others

  Denomination: Lutheran

A CHURCH MOVES ON

"Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good" (Romans 12.21).

A church that was already struggling financially suffered a loss of $5,000 which one of its members had embezzled. This put the church in even greater peril because of its difficulty in meeting financial obligations. The church was torn apart by the scandal. Accusations were flying but nothing could be proved.

Finally, at one of the meetings, a member stood up and offered to make up the loss with a special personal gift. But there was one condition, and that was that the church would give up its search for the culprit, institute better accounting procedures, and strive to go on in the love and life of Christ. He urged that the matter be left into God’s hands knowing that His justice would be delivered either in this world or at the end. But for now the church needed to go on.

As we heard in again in the lesson from Romans, "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed in us" (8:18), sometimes we just need to endure knowing that God will preserve and protect His church at all times. Amen.