Pastor's Corner

for Sunday 17th January
Some thoughts on Haiti
Are you struggling with questions about God in the light of the earthquake in Haiti? Are you confused as to how a good God could allow such a tragedy to fall on a country already struggling for survival? Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and therefore the least equipped to cope with a disaster of this magnitude. How this country will recover from this tragedy we can only speculate. However, the earthquake in Haiti is a reminder to us that we live in a fallen world. God brought judgment on this world when our first parents, Adam and Eve, sinned. Ever since then all of creation has been groaning under the weight of God’s judgment against sin and longs for the day when God will bring in the New Creation. Until then earthquakes will happen and disasters will fall upon mankind. All of this reminds us that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the only real message of hope. Only through the gospel do we come to understand that although God judges sin He loves the sinner. We know that Jesus loves the Haitian people because of the cross. God declares, the He so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16) Since God loves the people of Haiti He would have us, His children, show them His love in tangible ways by helping to alleviate their suffering, bind up the wounded, comfort the grieving and share the gospel with them. Everything about the tragedy in Haiti points to our need (theirs and ours) for redemption. May God grant the people of Haiti a new openness to the gospel of Jesus Christ and in bringing many to salvation God will be glorified.
Pastor Don.