Sunday Services: 10:30 AM
505 South Sixth St. Burbank, CA
91501

FaithView, For Storm Riders:
“And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.”—1 John 5:11-12

No need to complicate this.

It only gets hard when we have to live it out and share what we believe. If we said something like, “I have the Son, and you have the Daughter, and you have the Earth,” that might work in our present society.

But to declare, “If you don’t have the Son then you don’t have life…Life everlasting…The Father…Eternity…” Well, that can gum up the works with our Jewish, Muslim or liberal Christians who don’t see a necessity in the cross, the blood or the resurrection.

It can be frustrating to have this discussion because the people who don’t believe in anything that you believe, who might even be atheists, will get all hot and bothered when you share something like John 14:6

For the record: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

They’ll accuse you of condemning them to Hell…Even though they don’t believe in Hell or God…And somehow have articulated their brain chemistry to believe, you—you personally—have the power to send them to a Hell…A Hell that they don’t believe exists.

Of course, the requirement of this Son of God that they fail to see and we—too often—fail to share is that we have to love them. Love them through their sin, their flaws and through our many imperfections.

I get it. You’ll never see anyone angrier than an atheist worried that they might be going to Hell…

What I don’t get though…What I don’t get is why we, as believers, feel the need to compromise what we believe for those who don’t believe. I’m not talking about how we do church, how we dress for church, the battle between drinking wine or not drinking wine…I’m talking about why we compromise on a Scripture like 1 John 5:11-12? Why do we back off of John 14:6?

Is the world too much to bear or are we just gutless when it comes to our faith? Gutless translating to having a weakness in our faith…Faith descending from weakness to no faith at all…But we’ll still identify as Christians.

We can compromise and change, but the problem is the Word of God doesn’t change. We don’t get to re-write the Scriptures. God’s already given it to us…And if we truly have the Son…and the Life that is found in that Son…Then the Scriptures are a no brainer.

Denominations and many 21st-Century believers will go to any means or lengths to appear and be ecumenical and spiritually homogenized.

Ecumenical: Worldwide or general in extent, influence, or application. Of, relating to, or representing the whole of a body of churches…Promoting or tending toward worldwide Christian unity or cooperation

Homogenized: To blend (diverse elements) into a mixture that is the same throughout. To make uniform in structure or composition throughout. To reduce to small particles of uniform size and distribute evenly.

Meaning, in a nutshell, if Jesus offends or is too controversial then we’ll de-emphasize his plan for salvation and emphasize his more appealing—less constricting/life influencing—acts of goodness and charity…So we all come to the same conclusion that, “Love Wins!”

I hate to tell my kids no, but if I don’t tell them no when it comes to drugs, playing with matches, dating a Satanist or worshipping the earth…am I really showing them love?

When we are asked about our faith and expected to give a reason for the hope that we have, are we demonstrating the requirement of love in our faith when we hold back the truth because it might be upsetting?

We all want to be liked. We all want to stay on the good side of people…But do we want these things more than we want to be obedient to Christ?

That’s something for all of us to think about.

Boom!
***

A VBS Unlike Any Other:

VBS Goes to Rome: The theme for Vacation Bible School this year is “Rome: Paul & The Underground Church”

The dates are June 26-30…Look at your calendar…share with your friends…Pray for Seana Zilbert, who is directing…Make plans to volunteer.

You can sign up your child and their friends here on our website. Look the button up top, click, and follow.

***

Burbank Faith now has a Twitter account. You can follow us at; @BurbankFaithNaz

***

Eric Canto has created a Burbank Faith channel on YouTube and has placed all of our recent services there. Go check it out.

***

July is Camps Month: Remember July is camps month…Junior High, High School & Kids will all have separate camps at Granite Ridge.

District Assembly is July 12-14
(It is one month later this year due to General Assembly (Indianapolis) being held June 21-30.)

SrHi Camp: July 16-21
Kids Camp: July 23-28
JrHi Camp: July 30-August 4

***

Did You Know?
On this date:

…In 1961, English apologist C.S. Lewis, offering an evaluation of English Bible translations, wrote in a letter: “A modern translation is for most purposes far more useful than the Authorized [i.e., King James] Version.”
***
Church Calendar:
May 9: Women’s Bible Study—7:00 PM
May 10:
All Church Prayer Time: 7—to—7:30 PM
Worship Team Practices: 7:30 PM
Adult Bible Study—1 Samuel 18—7:30 PM
May 14: Mother’s Day Sunday Service, 10:30 AM…Sunday evening “Prayer Hour” from 6-to-7:00 PM
May 21: VBS planning meeting, following morning worship.
May 29: Memorial Day
June 3: Men’s Breakfast at Harry’s, 8:00 AM
June 26-30: VBS Week

As believers, we have to remain in continual prayer for all of our first responders…all our leaders…not a political party but for those carrying the heavy burden of leadership in our country and communities.