4-22-2018

Good Morning All,

  Romans 1:16; “ For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile”.

     It is amazing to me how fragile our world really is.  Think about what happens when the electricity goes out for a while.  Most of us cannot prepare food, heat or cool our houses and, as darkness settles in, we cannot see, even in our own houses.  If the power outage lasts very long, the area can actually begin to shut down as businesses cannot conduct business and sometimes traffic controls do not work. 

   This is one of the interesting facts about our faith.  Christianity is not about “finding serenity” or “finding myself” or “connecting to the cosmos”; our faith is about power.  Our faith is about being connected to the power.  This is what Paul is telling us in this verse and elsewhere in his epistles.  Paul doesn’t call the gospel “good advice”, “a nice path to follow”, or even “a viable lifestyle”; Paul calls the gospel “power.”  It is the power that God uses to save us.  It is this powerful statement, Christ died for your sins and you receive it by faith; that connects us to God.  It is God’s power given to us.

    Our faith is about power.  It is about the power of God to forgive us.  It is about the power that God gives to us to forgive others.  It is about the power that God gives us to change our lives.  It is about the power that God gives us to reach out to others and change their lives.  Never doubt for one moment that when the Gospel of Jesus is spoken to a heart that will receive this message in faith; lives are changed.  The Word of God in the hearts of men (and women) changes lives.  The Gospel of Jesus is the power to change lives and to do so in a most dramatic fashion. 

    Our faith is also about the relationship we have with this powerful God.  This relationship is one that God promises to never break or walk away from.  It is this relationship, with this most powerful God, that can give you the comfort for the hope that Jesus gives to us.  It is this relationship, where God looks upon you as his beloved child, that gives us the peace, the wholeness the at-one-ness with God.         

   Our lives are never the same when we hear the Gospel of Christ.  We either receive it and live a life of faith or we fight it and try to keep pushing God out of our life.  Either way, your life is different; changed forever.  The Gospel is the power to change your life; receive it as God’s mercy to bring you into his kingdom as his redeemed child.

 Almighty God of power and might, you give us the power to change by your Holy Gospel.  Use us as the agents of change in this world bringing your message of hope and forgiveness.  Bring your power to change lives to those who suffer the most and are desperate for your mercy.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,                

Pastor Bret