May 2023

               Some people have a warm and fuzzy relationship with God. There’s nothing wrong with feeling comfort from your relationship with God, I do. The reality is this comfort should come from the realities that God tells us, realities that precipitate our relationship with him.

               I always thought I was a Christian. I said I believed in God, believed Jesus but the sad truth was for a long time it had no emotion behind it, it was as if I was saying the sky is blue. Thirteen years ago God finally opened my eyes and I saw the truth of my situation and the real path to salvation. The Old Testament prophet Joel explains this path in his book.

               First, we must realize that we all disobey God. We may like to say we don’t, we may tell ourselves we are doing the best we can, but the truth is we all disobey. Once we acknowledge this point, we must then concede there are consequences to this disobedience. “God won’t punish me, I try.” We really don’t, not to the best of our ability and yes, God will punish us for it. Punishment is not what God wants to dole out so he gives us a mechanism for reprieve, Jesus and the cross.

               There are those who will say Jesus saves everyone. Jesus has the ability to offer salvation to everyone, but it is not automatic. We must repent to God, that is admit to him we have disobeyed him. We must look to Jesus and acknowledge we need him and we accept his sacrifice and that we turn our life over to him. By these actions God gives to us his mercy and grace. By these actions God forgives all our sins; past, present and future. By these actions we are glorified, sanctified, forgiven and saved. Somewhere in our lives we must decide that what we are told of God is true, what we are told of Jesus is true. That decision is individual to each of us and there is no right or wrong way to accept Christ, it just has to be sincere.

               Once we make this decision we are instantly God’s adopted sons and daughters. Once we make this decision we are instantly the beneficiaries of the promises made by God to mankind. We are inheritors of heaven. We will live eternally with our savior Christ Jesus within the realm of the throne of God.

               All of this, acknowledging my need of God, accepting Jesus, knowing in my heart God has accepted me and blessed me with all he promised; this is what gives me comfort, this is what precipitates the type of relationship I have with God.

               I believe it is good to remind ourselves of these things on occasion. It helps us in our relationship with the Father. It helps us when we speak of our faith to others. 

               If anyone has questions about this or their relationship with God, please see me or any leader of our church.

May the love and blessing of our Lord Christ Jesus and his Father in heaven be on you all.

Pastor Jim