Good Morning All,
Acts 16: 30-31; “Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I
do to be saved?” And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will
be saved, you and your household.”
When discussing the Christian faith, we face a
rather profound conundrum. Our faith is
simple but it is not easy. Whenever I
share this thought, you can see the light bulb above the head light up. It is as accurate as we can state.
It is simple. There is not a simpler religion than
Christianity. Oftentimes children grasp
it better than we adults do because children take things on faith far better
than adults do. Adults often try to
equivocate truths and ideas; children just accept them on faith. This is usually part of the thought behind
having a children’s program at Christmas.
The whole thought process of Christianity can be clearly explained by a
group of 6 year-olds. We have years of
study and doctrinal understanding but the basic truth is simple. God loves you; God saves us from our sin
which we cannot pay for by having Jesus die in our place. If we believe that God did this, that Jesus’
death for my sins is payment enough; then we are saved. “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be
saved!!” It is simple. We do not need years of study to grasp this;
most of us grabbed hold of this while sitting on our parent’s or grandparent’s
knee. It might have been in a Sunday
School class where a grandmotherly figure who loved you like her own told you
that God loves you. It really is that
simple.
Yet it is not easy. The world and the devil does everything it
can to destroy this simple truth. We are
under constant attack by the devil. We
are bombarded by those who would seek to marginalize, undermine, ridicule,
belittle and to destroy our faith. We
are constantly being told how we are wrong, how our actions are “unloving” how
we are simpletons from the Stone Age who lack even the most basic capability to
understand simple science. We are called
intolerant, arrogant, uninformed and unenlightened. Every time I listen to each round and each barrage
I remember how Jesus told his disciples, “You will be hated because of me” and
we are. So what do we do? How do we get smart enough to argue and
with? The simple answer is; we don’t.
Jesus never tells us to
defend or explain him. We are simply to
witness to what we believe. Does this
mean going up and down our streets knocking on every door? Not necessarily. What it really means is that as Christians,
you and I are different from the world.
We look to our neighbor and we don’t see someone who we can cheat or
take advantage of but we see one of God’s children, perhaps yet lost, but a
child of God who may need our help and encouragement. We don’t look at creation and see something
to be exploited and misused but rather we see something that God has entrusted
us to take care of. You don’t have to
speak rather you have to do. You have to
love as Christ loves. We are a
compassionate people who reach out in love to those in need. That is what we
do.
Father, make me your light
and your hands, your arms and your voice in a world that desperately needs your
grace. In Jesus’ precious name we pray,
amen.
God’s Peace,
Pastor Bret
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