Blessed are the peacemakers

Dear CBC Family,

Happy Wednesday to you! This has been a great week so far! I was privileged to participate in a baptism at La Jolla shores on Monday evening. The weather was fantastic and it was such a blessing to finish the day honoring God at sunset with a baptism. These public expressions of faith are really a powerful testimony to the unbeliever. If you haven’t been baptized since becoming a believer you simply should obey the Lord and do so.

We have a few more projects that will be starting soon so I will try and keep you all updated as we begin. I realize they can be a bit inconvenient but when they are all finished, I think you will all be blessed by them. While we wait for the concrete guys to come back and stain and seal the new patio, we will begin the landscaping. It will have some small palms and colorful topicals and a Mexican bird of paradise on the island by the playground. This bird of paradise is a tree and not like the plant of the same name. It is a beautiful flowering tree with bright red and yellow flowers with a lime green bark and fern like leaves. Very stunning.

The sermon this week will be from the same text as last week (Romans 10:5). There are a few more points to explore from Paul’s Old Testament texts used to support his assertions regarding the failure of the ethnic Jews of his day to receive eternal life. This week he quotes from the heavy hitting prophet Isaiah and the prophet Joel that Peter used at Pentecost. There is an amazing line about “the called” in it which we will look at.

As we are moving back towards normal operations there is still a slight risk to COVID exposure, that happens in the store or any gathering, so we are trying our best to mitigate it. We will have communion this weekend but it will be done a bit differently to keep all safe.

Speaking of COVID, I am constantly sent things to read or look at to give my “opinion” on so I want to set a general principle here. My opinion doesn’t really matter. God’s however does. The misinformation spread about the vaccines is really quite unconscionable. The latest charge of the Pfizer vaccine containing the poison graphene oxide is completely false and preposterous. “Dr” Ruby Brown who makes the claim isn’t even a medical doctor. The sowing of fear and division over these matters I believe is sinful. The issues here are not about facts, as the facts are in. The issue is trust. People don't trust each other and no amount of “facts” is ever going to change that. If you want to make advances here, work at establishing trust. Trust will grow where love and care are demonstrated. To me, the biggest victims of COVID have been love and trust and it isn’t likely they will return, even after COVID is gone, unless the true believer determines that Jesus meant what He said about peacemaking and loving our enemies.

Agapē to you all,

Pastor Scott