Welcome to First Christian Forest Grove! Since 1882 First Christian Church has been a lighthouse of God's love on the corner of 19th and Cedar in Forest Grove.The building has changed over the years and the congregation has grown in size, but the timeless values of Faith, Hope, and Love found in the life and ministry of Jesus Christ are still alive and unchanging here.

             8:30 am                SERVICE in the MAIN SANCTUARY

(Masks and Distancing are required by law)

10:00 am

DRIVE-IN PARKING  LOT SERVICE broadcast over your CAR RADIO. Please enter the parking lot through the 19th Avenue entrance. 

SCROLL DOWN TO THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE FOR OUR

WEEKLY BIBLE STUDY DEVOTIONAL

FOR THE ONLINE SERMON    THIS WEEK Click HERE OR ON THE "SERMONS" TAB  

( NOTE: Due to Bandwidth limitations the online sermon and the in-person sermon will not be the same length. Click the "Sermons" tab on the right and scroll to the bottom of the page for the brief online sermon)

 CLICK HERE  or on the "NEWSLETTER" TAB for the October Newsletter

        We confess that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God and Lord and Savior of the World

                       

                

          Wednesday October 28th Bible Study Devotion

The Wager 

By Rev. Spencer King

First Christian Church

Forest Grove, Oregon

Matthew 13: 24-30 “Jesus presented another parable to them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went away. But when the wheat sprouted and bore grain, then the tares became evident also. The slaves of the landowner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ And he said to them, ‘An enemy has done this!’ The slaves said to him, ‘Do you want us, then, to go and gather them up?’ But he said, ‘No; for while you are gathering up the tares, you may uproot the wheat with them. Allow both to grow together until the harvest; and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them up; but gather the wheat into my barn.”’”

Some are betting their eternal destiny on the belief that there is no God, no heaven and no hell and we know they are going to lose that wager. This is not a clash of opinions; the difference between belief in God and atheism is not like the difference between the belief that vanilla ice cream tastes better than chocolate ice cream; it's not an opinion or a matter of taste. When it comes to this issue someone's right and someone is wrong. If you are an atheist your beliefs about the nature of reality are catastrophically in error.

God is real. The Bible was inspired by the Holy Spirit and your decision to reject God is not an innocent mistake. We know that those who wish to believe will be provided with adequate proof. God can read your mind and He knows whether or not you really want to believe. I've heard people say, “I want to believe this but I just can't make myself believe it to be true.” Yes you can, you're lying to yourself. Seek and you absolutely, positively will find and if you haven't found it's because you haven't sincerely sought.

Make no mistake about it, this is a dispute between two competing views of reality and only one view can be correct. I'm not telling people that if they truly want to believe then they will believe and that it is just a matter of being willing to force yourself to believe in something you find incredible. I'm saying that the evidence necessary to come to faith will be provided for all those who are genuinely willing to receive it. And so, if you've not received that evidence it's because you are not willing. 

Or it could be that you are willing to believe but only on your own terms. In other words, you've asked God to reveal Himself to you but you've also made it clear that if God does reveal Himself then you think that means God has also confirmed some of your worst and cruelest tendencies.  “God, if you're there, then that must prove that it’s all right for me to be hateful and judgmental” some think. If those are your preconditions for faith then why would you be so surprised that God won't reveal himself to you? After all, I've heard people say, in effect, “My God is a god of love therefore my God endorses sin,” and to that the only honest response would be to say, “Then your God doesn't exist.” The only God that exists is the God of the Bible and if you want proof that the God of the Bible exists then you will receive it. Are you willing to believe in God on God's own terms without any preconditions or requirements? Win the bet and believe, or lose everything and remain an unbeliever But if you decide that God doesn't exist you're just plain wrong.

Spencer