10-9-2023

Good Morning All,

              John 3:5; “Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit.”

          “You put your right hand in, You put your right hand out, You put your right hand in, And you shake it all about, You do the hokey pokey, and you turn yourself around That what it's all about.”  Do you remember this?  I think most people at one time or another, in their youth, sang this little ditty.  The thing about this song that is curious; I read it on the internet (naturally) one time.  It asked the question: “The Hokey Pokey; what if that is what it’s all about?”

    I giggled, at first, but then thought about the many people in the world who do not know or believe in the redemption of Jesus.  Without faith in your life, what is your life all about?  These people have no meaning of or in life.  When we do not live in a faith relationship with God, or maybe we have lost sight of that relationship, we cannot understand the ultimate purpose in our lives.  We do not see the true purpose for our life.

    This is where many often go off and look for other ideas.  Some seek total sensual satisfaction.  It might be drugs and alcohol; it might be sex; it might be seeking all the wealth you can find.  Some seek some form of introspective self- religion which leaves them empty.  Through it all, searching for what they will never find.  The good thing is that God is seeking them.

    We find our purpose, not through some strange life or actions; rather we find it because God gives us new life and restores our purpose.  Through Baptism, we have new life, and we live in Christ.  Our life has meaning, it has purpose.  We get a new beginning.  God gives us the gift of a “do over” every day.  Every day we get to live as his dear children.  We see our life as being one that is blessed by him.  We look forward to eternal life with him.  With this new life, with us being born of the Spirit, we now have a new desire in life.  We no longer desire the sinful and the emptiness; we desire to live in God’s grace. 

    Now that doesn’t mean that we don’t occasionally slip back into that destructive mode, we still have a sinful nature.  But we do know that it is wrong, conscience and the Holy Spirit will tell us that.  Being shown that it is wrong, we are then shown how to fix it; by trusting in God’s mercy and forgiveness.  We are made his holy children by Baptism and with this we are given new life with a new purpose; to live the life that he has laid out for us and to show his love to those around us and THAT is what it’s all about!

Father of all mercy, we are overwhelmed by your grace and love.  Guide us by your Spirit to trust in you.  You give us new life each day.  Through you we have new birth.  Lead us to rejoice in that new life.  Lead us to live the life of purpose for you.  Lead us to be your light in this dark world.  Guide us by your grace. In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret