In Galatians 3:26-29 Paul writes, “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. That there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise.” NKJV. In other words if we have accepted Christ as our Savior we now belong to God and are called His people.

Romans 12 gives us a blueprint on how we are to live as close as possible to the way Jesus lived. Titus 2 also speaks of such things, as does many other verses. We live in this way because we love God so much for all that He has done and all that He means to us. We realize we were bought with a price and God expects us to live for Him. Pastor Justin’s sermons have “talked to us” about growing in Christ, growing in our daily walk as a Christian, taking part in fellowship and our relationship with Christ.

We pray for the Lord to change hearts, here in America. We have prayed that He would do much to change the people in Washington and the corruptness there, to change the entertainment community and many other area’s of evil in our land and if it is in His plan, to heal our land. We still pray for these things, but I have realized “or maybe I should say reaffirmed” the knowledge that it is God’s people “His church” that needs to change. Just as the Jews had to follow after God and keep their worship as pure as possible to continue in good favor with God as a nation, He expects nothing less from America.

We hear the saying “life is short” and indeed it is. A lot of it is unproductive for Christ and we run around as if it was all about us and not the plan that God has for all Christians, to be about His business. In my life, I realize how much of a 24 hour period of time is spent on what I want and how much is spent in Bible reading, prayer and doing His work here on Earth. Yes, many of the things are good and needed, but many I could do without and endeavor to change.

A lot of churches that say they are Christian seem to be just giving lip service to God. The members put in their Sunday morning appearance and maybe a couple of more hours sprinkled around during the week. It was almost as if Christians did not want to be seen together. There was a time when Christians were happy to gather together for men’s groups, women’s groups, prayer meeting and they even had church twice on Sunday. We hear “life is so busy”. Who made it busy? The men and women of past generations had little free time, but gathered together. We read in the NT of the many hours spent in prayer, meeting together in fellowship and the many things that the first churches did. We read of Paul “Acts 20” preaching so many hours that a man fell asleep and fell from a window, died and was made alive again by Paul. Christians today tire after a one hour church service.   

Other churches in America have watered down the word so much, it bears little resemblance to the true Word of God. They say Christ is not the only way to Salvation, or that homosexuality is not wrong, or do not get upset when babies are killed and their parts are sold, or find it hard to see black and white in the pages of Scriptures. Then they wonder why their life is such a mess and their churches in decline. They have given up taking a stand for the truth. They have lost their first love. They would rather be seen as everyone's friend. They confuse showing love to everyone (which we are to do) with going along with the crowd. There is a price for following the Lord. It is a steep price.

As we reflect over our daily routine, our stand for God, our reaching out to others in need, our time in prayer and Bible reading, striving to not waste so much time; let us redouble our effort to serve Christ as He should be served. We have what we have only because of Him, let us show Him that we know that.

Dale Heminger

Pastoral Shepherding Assistant