{"id":31037,"date":"2024-05-02T12:00:08","date_gmt":"2024-05-02T19:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/gospel-express\/2024-center-copy\/"},"modified":"2024-05-02T21:12:40","modified_gmt":"2024-05-03T04:12:40","slug":"2024-away","status":"publish","type":"portfolio","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/gospel-express\/2024-away\/","title":{"rendered":"Take It Away"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"flex_column av_one_full  flex_column_div av-zero-column-padding first  avia-builder-el-0  avia-builder-el-no-sibling  \" style='border-radius:0px; '><section class=\"av_textblock_section \"  itemscope=\"itemscope\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/CreativeWork\" ><div class='avia_textblock  '   itemprop=\"text\" ><p style=\"text-align: right;\">by Max Lucadoo<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><em>Take It Away<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Denalyn and I enjoyed a nice dinner at a local restaurant one night. About the same time we received our bill, we received a visit from a church member. After we chatted for a moment, he reached down and took our bill and said, \u201cI\u2019ll take this.\u201d Guess what I did? I just let him take it away.<\/p>\n<p>Someday we will all stand before God. All of us will have to give an account for our lives. And were it not for the grace of Christ, I would find this to be a terrifying thought. Yet, according to Scripture, Jesus came to \u201ctake away the sins of the world\u201d (John 1:29 Phillips). On the day when I appear before the judgment seat of God, when my list of sins is produced, I will gesture toward Christ and say, \u201cHe took it.\u201d Let him take yours.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-31066 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/away-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"220\" height=\"220\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/away-1.jpg 220w, https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/away-1-80x80.jpg 80w, https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/away-1-36x36.jpg 36w, https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/away-1-180x180.jpg 180w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 220px) 100vw, 220px\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><em>Everything is being cancelled<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Everything is being cancelled\u2026NBA games, NHL games, March Madness, Broadway shows, flights, cruises\u2026cancellations everywhere! Can I tell you the one thing that has not and will not be cancelled? God will never cancel his promise to take care of us!<\/p>\n<p>Do not interpret the presence of problems as the absence of God. God has promised\u2026never will I leave you; never will I forsake you. He is with us, he is for us, and he offers us peace in the face of uncertainty and hope in exchange for heaviness.<\/p>\n<p>The question of this crisis is simply this: <strong>What is God saying to us?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Among the answers must be this promise from Matthew 11:28, \u201c<strong>Come to me all of you who are weary and carrying heavy burdens and I will give you rest<\/strong>.\u201d Turn to Him today.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-31067 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/away-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"211\" \/><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":31066,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","tags":[],"portfolio_entries":[29],"class_list":["post-31037","portfolio","type-portfolio","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","portfolio_entries-29"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/31037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/portfolio"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31037"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/31037\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31068,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/31037\/revisions\/31068"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31037"},{"taxonomy":"portfolio_entries","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio_entries?post=31037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}