September 24, 2023
Greetings and blessings to all of you. For such a time as this. It is a time when we as believers must begin to shine a bright light in our dark world. We are called to Holiness; to begin to live out our new nature in our secular- pluralistic culture. In Psalm 119:10 it says, “I seek you with all my heart do not let me stray from your commands.” We need to stop making excuses for our living in sin or spiritual immaturity like the carnality that was found in the Corinthian’s church. Stop saying and acting on thoughts such as… I’m only human. God knows my heart….so I need not change. What I’m doing works for me and makes me happy. Only God can judge me. There are more ad nauseum. But Christians are called to a battle even though we are exiles from our heavenly home. In our secular society we forget who we are and who we belong to. We tend to show our shallowness and weakness. In First Peter 2:13-18 the Word says to us “therefore prepare your minds for action and being sober minded set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance but He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct since it is written, you shall be holy for, I am holy.” What does Holy look like? Holiness is fellowship with God; it means loving the unloving; it means loving your neighbor as yourself. Since we are children of God in exile, we are to fear God because we have been ransomed from the futile ways of our ancestors not with perishable things such as gold and silver but with the precious blood of Christ. So with that in I Peter 2:1-3 it says, “so put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk that by it you may grow up into salvation if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.” We live in the service of two kingdoms. One is the kingdom of self, which revolves around us-our wants, pleasures, and desires. The other is the kingdom of selflessness, better known as the Kingdom of God. This kingdom revolves around His agenda, His will and His glory. We have been given our assignments when we were Born Again. So as the critics continue to assault the Gospel with human reason; it cannot match the truth of God’s Word. Saints, is our faith founded on God’s Word or the shifting sands of this world? Think about this.
With the Love of Christ
First Lady Vivian C. Currie
Pastor ALC