July 30, 2023
Greetings and blessings to all of you. A well-known Pastor said, “The more of God’s truth we know and want to obey, the more we will fortify our relationship with Christ.” The seeds of Truth have to fall into our hearts to grow from babies to the spiritually mature; hearts that are made ready by God to receive the Word. Once we receive the Word, meditation, prayer, reading the Word, obeying the Word, attending church, and a commitment to live the church life; that is fellowshipping with other practicing believers will help us to grow and mature. And isn’t that the goal of being a solid believer? When we attend church, we come to Listen. It is sad but true that we may be sitting here but our minds are somewhere else. What kind of listener are you passive or active? Do you show up out of habit or is it just to make you feel better about yourself? Or just maybe you come to look at people, socialize or to cut business deals? I don’t know but you know. Saints, if you are truly convicted (not having a false guilt) all you have to do is switch gears to becomes an active listener. When we walk into church, we expect to hear what the Lord is saying to us. Some of us usually are taking notes trying to capture the meat of the message…. milk is not enough for them. We wonder as the message is being given, “How does this apply to my life and can I use this to glorify God? Listening is a discipline that takes practice. Our minds have so many ‘windows’ opened at the same time. We have to constantly close ‘those windows’ and open the ‘window of the message’ that is being given at the moment. We have to call on the Lord to help us to refocus and to keep our mind from wondering. God wants us to obey Him but first we have to learn to listen. They go hand in hand. In Jer. 7:23-24 “Obey my voice and I will be your God and you shall be My people. And walk in all the ways that I have commanded you that it may be well with you. Yet they did not obey or incline their ears but followed the counsels and the dictates of their evil hearts and went backward and not forward.” Saints, do you come into the Lord’s house saying what Jeremiah said in 15:16 “your words were found and I ate them and your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart.” We hear so many voices in a given day. It is easy to fall prey to deception unless we renew our mind with God’s word. Let’s say…Step up Pastors. Read the Word to us. We will actively listen. Amen.
With the Love of Christ
First Lady Vivian C. Currie
Pastor ALC