February 2019 Article

Dear Church Family and friends,

How many times, in everyday conversation, do problems or challenges come up? Some of these may be personal—marriages, death, finances, addiction, depression—you name it. Then there are larger issues facing the world around us. There is so much pain, yet there seems to be so little hope! These very conversations present us with opportunities to share Jesus! How?

First, we can share that this brokenness was never God’s design for this world, or for us. We were created for one thing – love. Love of God and love of others. Tragically, sin entered into creation. Along with it came fear, guilt, shame, and all that goes with it. The love that was for God and others became focused on self. We seek that love in the world and the things of the world. We are slaves to our own appetites. We lust after the new and the beautiful. We long for the honor and praise that comes from people. From there flows all the pain and dysfunction in our hearts, lives, and world. That’s the bad news. Here’s the good news.

The same God who created us for love showed us that love in sending His Son Jesus Christ to die for us. Through faith in the blood of His cross, our sins can be forgiven and we can be reconciled to God. We are then restored to a right relationship with the God who first loved us. What’s more, that love is set up in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who comes to live in us. It brings healing to our hearts, lives, and to our world as it is revealed in what we think say and do.

This is February. This month, much will be said about love. My prayer is that the love of God in Jesus Christ will be poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, so that our friends, families, neighbors, and associates will see the transformation in us and be come to know that love themselves! What a different place the world could be!

Make it so, Lord!

Cecil