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Where would you be if your friend or relative didn’t ask you to come to church or attend a Christian event? Think about it. Your friend was most likely your friend first before asking you to hear about Jesus. How we seek people, how we listen, how we engage and invite can make all the difference. It can soften hearts to hear the good news of the love of God through Jesus Christ.
Our God is not only a pursuing God, he is a sending God. Jesus’ great commission is for his people to go and do likewise. To go and seek those who are lost and share their witness, their testimony of who Jesus is and what he has done in and through our lives. God calls us to be part of the rescue mission, the search party, the body of Christ to love those who are lost.
We begin a new series in this new year. It’s entitled, “The One.” This first we we think and talk about ourselves being the one who Jesus sees. Before we become passionate about sharing Christ with others, we have to become secure in the fact that He first loved us. We have to personalize His promises and to a heartfelt understanding that we are God’s dearly loved children.
It’s essential that our prayers be controlled by the word of God. When our prayer life is soaked in the word of God not only are our prayers renewed and fresh, our mind is renewed as well. And when our minds are renewed by the word of God our lives are renewed by the Spirit of God.
Our prayers need to be seasoned with the word of God. When we pray using the Scriptures we talk to God in His language, using His way of speaking. With it, brings power. When we pray through the Bible, we are bringing God’s word directly into our prayers and His power into our praying.
As the hymn testifies, “To God be the glory great things He has done.” The greatest act of God besides creation is sending Jesus Christ to redeem the world from the slavery of sin and death. Through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God is to be glorified and worshipped. He is the only one who deserves our praise and adoration.
Out of His holiness, God sets up the norm for acting, thinking, and living that is very different and separate from the patterns of our times. He does this through His Word. The Holy Spirit leads us as we consume God’s word to trust and obey. We as Christ-followers, as Christians living in this world, ought to be led by God’s word in our decisions, in our actions, and in our speaking. The Prophet Amos was given a vision of a plumb line in reference to One who would come, the One who is aligned with God’s desire for all humanity. Jesus came to show us how to live what He taught through love for each one of us.
The Wisemen long ago were guided to the house where Jesus was in order to worship the King of kings, the Lord of lords, the light of the world. Let’s think about that Light. Light cannot be anything other than what it is. It's bright; it dispels darkness; it enables people to see what they are doing. If we look at the moon it glows, but it doesn’t glow because it has a light, it glows because the sun’s light is reflected by it upon the earth. When we follow Jesus, the Light of the world, we are to reflect His light in the world.
We end our series on Understanding Spiritual Gifts this Sunday as we gather together to celebrate Holy Communion. Through this series, we’ve discovered that our spiritual gifts are given by God, used for His glory, and each one of us has a different one to build up the Body of Christ. Now that we know that, what are we going to do about it? Each one of us has a passion, something that burns inside of us to do, a heart to change our world. That fire is connected to the use of our gifts for the glory of God.
Put your Sunday groove on because we are coming together as a Church to worship, praise, and thank God for all He has done and will do through you and me in this new season. Have you ever seen those commercials where people press a reset button? We aren’t resetting things, we are moving forward with a Fresh Start, a new step in our walk with God and one another. Be sure to join us this Sunday as we see new faces, make friends, and take that fresh step in your spiritual journey. We have a ton of opportunities to make connections, learn more about God, and serve in our community!
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