A big “Thank You!” from Jack and Yolanda to our new church family for a wonderful welcome to Cheraw! Although moving can be a difficult task, your love and warm embrace have made us feel quite at home here already. Our prayer is for this to be a nurturing and productive ministry as well as life journey together for years to come!
As part of the Body Challenge/Spirit Challenge clergy group, I sat outside of the Starbuck’s in Mount Pleasant early one morning last fall and wrote on a single sheet of white paper. There alone with coffee, pencil, paper and God led me to complete our assignment of writing on a single page what I would want the world to hear from me.
God created the heavens and the earth. Creation did not happen by chance! God loves you and God loves me and wants a close relation-ship with each one of us for eternity. The way for us to have this most special relationship is through God the Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior! “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. John 3:16” For us to have this saving relationship, we must accept Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior, confess our sins, and lead a changed life not on our own power or will, but by the power and will of Jesus Christ through the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Each and every day we must put on the full armor of God which will be strengthened as we spend more time working on our relationship with God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit through prayer, worship, study and meditation over the Bible, and living in Christian community. This all sounds so simple, but it is not.
You will be tested in so many ways, such as family, finances, relationships, vocation, keeping Christ as your focus versus things of the fallen world as your focus. I have been and continue to be tested and impressed upon by the evil one, as you may or may not be, so keep your faith in God above all else knowing there is an eternal home for all who are faithful, all the while knowing we fall short of the standard set in Jesus Christ.
We must over and over again repent of our sin and rely on the love and grace of God through Jesus Christ who paid for our sins to pick us back up and help us move forward in our faithful service of obedience to the one true God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
There is a song I appreciate a lot, not an old hymn, but one that reminds me I was carefully created for use in the Kingdom of God.
I shared the words of “Rushing Wind” with the group and hope to share this song with you someday such as on Pentecost Sunday if you will indulge me.
Peace and blessings to all!
Yours in Christ, Pastor Jack