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 Brief letters, that include the writer’s name and address, are welcome. The Herald will not publish letters sent anonymously, though we may withhold names at our discretion. Letters may be edited for purposes of length or clarity.
Issue a blessing
I was really blessed reading the July 16 issue. It was one of your most interesting and informative issues. Thank you for the excellent job you perform. God bless you in your work.
A.C. DeFehr,
Winnipeg, Man.
Appreciation for MBH
After several years of “meaning to,” I decided today was the day to express my appreciation for MB Herald. I devour the entire magazine, usually the same day it arrives, then pass it on to my pastor/husband. (The one who picks up the mail first gets to read it first.)
I follow the differing opinions expressed with great interest, and I am always blessed by the editorials. Articles on depression, abortion, divorce are among those that are cut out and shared with others.
Although I am not a member of the Mennonite Brethren organization, my heart has been melded with yours. You struggle with many of the same things we do, and your determination to remain true to Jesus Christ and His Word matches ours. I am one of those authors who, although not MB, has been published in the Herald. I count it a privilege.
Keep up the good work, and keep on being faithful to truth!
Linda Wegner,
Stoughton, Sask.
Holy Spirit essential for witness
Reading “Jesus of Nazareth” (Aug. 27), Mark 10:21 came to mind: “One thing you lack. . .” The article, so well written, speaks of the disciples continuing the work Jesus began. However, no mention is made of the Holy Spirit who produced this tremendous change in the disciples. Jesus told His followers not to leave the city until they were clothed with power from on high (Luke 24:49).
Power for witness comes from the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 5:18 is not an option but a command for every believer. Unless He fills us, our work is ineffective because it’s done in our own strength, and unless the Spirit controls every part of our life, He will not fill us. Is it possible that MBs shy away from this teaching because of some churches’ excesses? Could it be that our neglect of Him is the reason the membership of the General MB Conference is 82,130 in 368 churches [Actually, 54,155 members in 379 churches. Editor.] while that of the Assemblies of God, starting 50 years later, is 2,467,588 in 11,884 churches? The words in John 16:13 that the Holy Spirit “shall not speak of Himself” (KJV) have been misconstrued to mean that we shall not speak of the Spirit either. The NAS translation states: “He will not speak on His own initiative,” which is exactly what Jesus says in John 5:30: “I can do nothing on My own initiative.”
Henry P. Poetker,
Edmonton, Alta.
God loves sinners
The Mennonite Brethren Church is in danger of falling victim to Satan’s lies. One of Satan’s lies being promoted in the Herald is that we must accept the sin if we love the sinner. Jesus loves the sinner but hates the sin. Satan loves the sin but hates the repenting sinner. Homosexual sin is not the only sin Satan uses to destroy the church, but it carries the AIDS virus and destroys the sinner as well as the church.
Henry Koop,
Winnipeg, Man.
Scripture is clear
I respond to Helma Schmidt (Letters, Aug. 27). She makes the comment, “If homosexuality is sin.” Satan still uses the same tactics he did in the Garden of Eden when he said, “Did God really say”? He told Eve, you will not die, but they did.
In the Old Testament law, homosexuals had to be killed. Romans 1 clearly says it is sin. I Corinthians 6:9-10 clearly says they will not inherit the Kingdom of Heaven. Verse 11 says, “Such were some of you.” Apparently, they were that no longer. I John 3 says, “No one who is born of God continues in sin.” I agree homosexuals can go to heaven, but only if they repent and accept Jesus.
Ernest Penner,
Hepburn, Sask.
Christian life is livable
I agree with Don Ratzlaff’s assertion (“Desert Wondering,” Sept. 10) that all believers must walk through deserts and valleys in their faith journey. We’ve all been there. But Ratzlaff also compares “dynamic Christians” and UFO abductees. Is it really so preposterous to believe that we can live the kind of life the Bible describes? Should we place Hudson Taylor, George Mueller, A.W. Tozer and many others amongst the fiction in our church libraries? Ratzlaff implies that the only viable explanation for the multitudes of barren professing believers is that our malaise is actually normal Christian experience; we should receive comfort from the untold thousands just like us.
Ratzlaff quotes Mike Yaconelli, who has also confessed, “My faith has truly taken a beating.” He once believed that as a Christian, “people would see a marked difference in my life! And . . . that the closer I was to God, the more spiritual I was, the greater and more visible that difference would be. . . . I don’t believe that anymore” (“The Terror of Inbetweenness,” The Door, 126, Nov./Dec. 1992). We can’t lower the bar of faith to assuage our guilt and rationalize our spiritual state. Frangipane said, “If we have been indoctrinated to believe that the Kingdom of God, and Christianity itself, does not really have to work, or if the absence of holiness and power fails to trouble us, something is seriously wrong with our concept of truth” (Holiness, Truth and the Presence of God, p. 66). A wise man once said that “the path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining ever brighter till the full light of day. But the way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not know what makes them stumble” (Proverbs 4:18-19).
Brad Huebert,
Winkler, Man.
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© 1999 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
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