Adultery is sin, fornication is sin, homosexuality too is sin. All must come to Jesus to be warranted freedom from all sins and salvation in Jesus Christ alone, writes Bishop Tutai Pere of Apostolic Church Rarotonga.

John 15:4, “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in Me (Jesus Christ) … Ka topiri mai Kiaku, Naku e topiri atu kia kotou. Mei te rara kare e ua koia anake ra, kia kore e piri ki te Vine ra; kare katoa kotou, kia kore e piri mai Kiaku ra.”

We are a blessed nation in that we are slowly moulding ourselves together into ‘One Mould’, 3 pillars – traditional, religious and government but ‘One Mould’. 1. We have set in our Cook Islands Constitution, Ariki Day a public holiday, which recognises the nation’s traditional leaders – te Ui Ariki, Aronga Mana, Ui Kavana and so forth.

2. We have also long set in place Te Ra Taeanga mai o te Evangelia ki te Kuki Airani nei, (the day Christianity first arrived into the Cook Islands) which recognises the Arrival of Christianity into the Cook Islands (26 October, 1821) which is called Gospel Day.

3. And lastly Constitutional Celebration Day (August 4, 1965) recognising the day we first became internal self-government but still in association with New Zealand.

We are not into a one strong united mould yet, but we are slowly working our ways towards it. But one thing for certain that we all share in common, is our one faith in our One God of the Bible, not any old kind of God but the very Judeao-Christian Creator God, Redemptive and Saving God who revealed and manifested Himself in the person of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Our traditional leaders of old, first laid aside all of their idol and ancestral gods and embraced this new God of the Bible which our London Missionary Society (LMS) introduced and started mission schools to teach our local indigenous people how to read, write, count and so forth, long before government schools were established and some Church schools also started.

Every traditional formal ceremonies do acknowledge the importance of holding prayers before and after every function. Government Parliamentary sittings and formal occasions always call for prayers to start and end. I can honestly testify and declare that we are, if not the remaining few, perhaps and maybe the only one that’s still able to hold a National Thanksgiving Service like tonight (Sunday), where all Christian churches and fellow Christians from all walks of life are invited to come and join together to pray for our nation and people of the Cook Islands.

Let me conclude on this last scripture from 2^nd Corinthians 5:19, “To wit, that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation”. God in Christ is always reconciling the world unto Himself, not letting to cope and manage on our own the sins and wickedness in our lives, but has committed unto us, through Jesus Christ the word of reconciliation – te akaongi akaou anga ia tatou ki te Atua, tetai ki tetai, te tane ki te vaine, tungane kit e tuaine, metua ki te tamariki, I te akakore anga atu I ta tetai ke atu au ara – reconciling us sinful human beings back unto our God – one unto another, husband and wife, brother to a sister, parents unto their children, forgiving one another’s sins.

We are all sinners by nature. There is absolutely no escape from that nature of sin in us – without the shed blood of Jesus Christ. Sin is sin, big or small, mild or serious, it is sin, the penalty of all sins is death. A Pastor and woman stood at a lake, while the Pastor tried to explain to the woman the seriousness of sins. He asked the woman to throw her rock into the lake while he also threw a tiny pebble. He then asked the woman to describe the difference in the fall of a big rock and the tiny pebble. She said, “the big rock caused big ripple effect but the pebble only little ripples”. But the Pastor explained, but both sunk to the bottom of the lake. Such is sin, whether big or tiny, both sinks to death.

Criminalised or decriminalised, sin perishes without the reconciliation, restoration, justification and sanctification power of the blood of Jesus Christ. All must come to Jesus to be warranted freedom from all sins and salvation in Jesus Christ alone, forever. Murderers, thieves, liars, gossipers, drunkards, drug and smoking addicts all need reconciliations. Adultery is sin, fornication is sin, homosexuality too is sin. What best Church and Christians can do for them and us – no one is exempted, even all our righteousness put together is but as filthy rags. We cannot judge the beam that is in somebody else’s eyes while we have the biggest trunk in our own. A worst off scenario is when a husband abandons wife and children yet not criminalised. A young innocent girl gets sexually violated without consent, she gets scarred, stigmatised, humiliated for life – while her family too bears the shame, trauma, humiliation for life, yet the accused is not criminalised but runs free. Let’s adopt the attitude of Christ, who when he confronted a leper (meaning untouchable, isolated from society) embraced him, hugged and forgave and commanded him to be healed. We the churches and fellow Christians should reach out more to pray, reconcile and forgive one another’s sin just as Christ has forgiven our own sins too.

God bless the Cook Islands.