Heart Smart

JOSH BOOTSMA

Have you ever forgotten to pay for something? What an awful feeling. From realizing the credit card payment was due yesterday to discovering that your child smuggled a ring pop out of the convenience store, it feels terrible to realize that we owe something and haven’t paid for it.

It feels bad because we know what justice looks like in our day-to-day financial obligations. When we make credit card purchases, we’re agreeing to pay our credit card bill. When we enter a store, we (and our children) are agreeing to pay for whatever we walk out with. We understand that we need to pay what we owe. This intuition comes from God, who is the ultimate standard for what is just.

But when it comes to our sinfulness, God helps us realize that we can’t pay what we owe. And we owe a lot.

Our careless words, our deep selfishness, our impure thoughts — all are debts against God and require payment, a payment we cannot provide. Instead, God sent Jesus to take our debt and pay it through his death on the cross — a payment that will never expire or be exhausted.

You might wake up one night remembering you still owe a debt to your bank, but you will never wake up and owe anything to God for your salvation. The 18th century hymn writer Augustus Toplady said it well: “Payment God cannot twice demand, first at my bleeding surety’s hand and then again at mine.” That “bleeding surety” is Jesus, and his payment has already been made in full — all you need to do is accept it.

COVENANT UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST

1130 East 154th St., South Holland 708-333-5955 www.covucc.org

PASTOR REV. DR. PATRICK L. DAYMOND WORSHIP SERVICES

RECONCILIATION CHURCH

833 East 168th St., South Holland 708-331-7755 www.reconciliationchurch.org

PASTOR GLEN MCCARTHY WORSHIP SERVICES Sunday Worship 10:00

Study 7:00

REDEEMER LUTHERAN CHURCH

651 East 166th St., South Holland 708-331-4100 redeemer-lutheran@sbcglobal.net

The chorus of our lives, then, is this: “Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe; sin had left a crimson stain, he washed it white as snow.”

Josh Bootsma Member, Covenant Fellowship Church cfcsh.org

FIRST CHURCH (PCA) 3134 Ridge Rd, Lansing 708-474-9610 www.firstchurchpca.org

PASTOR WYBREN OORD

FIRST ORTHODOX PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF SOUTH HOLLAND

16248 South Park Ave., South Holland 708-333-8211 www.firstchurchsh.org

PASTOR REV. DANIEL SVENDSEN WORSHIP SERVICES Sunday

ESPIRITU DE DIOS

16400 S. State St., South Holland 708-439-1220 sogfchurch.com

PASTORES Jose & Paula Lopez

SERVICIOS: Grupo de Oracion de Hombres Jueves ........................................... 7:30 p.m. Sabado Alabanza y Predicacion.....6:00

UNITY OF NORTHWEST INDIANA

Plum Creek Center

2138 Moeller Street Dyer, IN 46311 (219) 931-5284