A Beekeeper's Wife (to Bee)

As of Sunday, October 17 I officially have dual church membership. I am part of the pilot program at Trinity as they try to work out the kinks but I think it is an amazing idea. Basically I will be a member of the Lethbridge Church and will be able to partake of Lord's Supper and I will have an elder that will be watching over me and the church in edmonton will receive consistent letters regarding my church activities. This way when I go home for the weekend or for the summer (maybe) I will be able to do so easily. I think it is brilliant and I know of several churches that have this program in place for students.

And now that I am actively involved in the Lethbridge Church I have joined the young adults group and my experiences have been amazing. In the beginning of the study we all open our hymn books and we sing together and it's not the everyone is embarrassed that someone else will here them sing type but rather everyone sings loudly and joyfully. I just love that, its pure communion of the saints. Then we spilt off into little groups to discuss the weeks lesson. This year we are doing Respectable Sins by Jerry Bridges.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! I started to read the first chapter and didn't put it down till the end of the book. Its an easy read and its packed jammed with a lot knowledge and will have you reevaluate your whole life and view on sin. Here is some excerpts from the first two chapters.

In the biblical sense of the term, sainthood is not a status of achievement and character but a state of being — an entirely new condition of life brought about by the Spirit of God. Paul describes it as “[turning] from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God” (Acts 26:18) and again as having been “delivered . . . from the domain of darkness and transferred . . . to the kingdom of His beloved Son” (Colossians 1:13)... (p14)
He then goes on to speak about how even though we are set apart by God, we still struggle in the flesh with sin:

The Bible has a word for conduct unbecoming a saint. It is sin. And just as “conduct unbecoming an officer” covers a wide range of misconduct, so the word sin covers a wide range of misbehavior. It covers everything from gossip to adultery, from impatience to murder. Obviously, there are degrees of seriousness of sin. But in the final analysis, sin is sin. It is conduct unbecoming a saint. (p16)

[sin] has, in many instances, been deflected to those outside our circles who commit flagrant sins... It's easy for us to condemn those obvious sins while virtually ignoring our own sins of gossip, pride, envy, bitterness, and lust, or even our lack of those gracious qualities that Paul calls the fruit of the Spirit (p19)...

The result, then, is that for many morally upright believers, the awareness of personal sin has effectively disappeared from their consciences. But it has not disappeared from the sight of God. (p 22)

I do believe that this is a necessary read and everyone should read it. It is just a reminder that sin is sin. It doesn't matter if you murder someone or tell a little white lie, the consequences are the same. It certainly made me think about the all the sin in my life.

My memory is nearly gone;
but I remember two things;
That I am a great sinner, and
that Christ is a great Saviour.

John Newton (1725-1807)