Good Morning,
As I write our weekly letter to you the sun is coming up and I am greeting the day with a prayer on my heart for all our church family and friends.
Do you ever feel sorry for the people who do not know the Lord Jesus as their personal friend and savior? I am sure that you feel the same as I do, when our Christian conscience is being stabbed with controversy, regarding Biblical morality and ethics. We all have heard and read that in the last days, “men will go fast.” I might add we have observed mankind flying past ancient landmarks to its own destruction. I think we could agree society has literally out-clevered itself. (Clevered) is a relatively new word that has to do with Artificial Intelligence coding. Fifty years ago, men were writing about sinister forces at work which are designed to bury the church and even suggested that God was Dead. There was then, and now, an agenda which is anti-Christ in its roots.
Paul wrote to the Church at Ephesus these chilling words, Ephesians 2:2:
“Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now is at work in the children of disobedience.”
I think it is a danger for the church to sit around talking about it. Talk is cheap, but action will cost you dearly. Holy huddles never change anything unless they are accompanied by a movement to make a difference in the landscape of the present hour. What we need (and it appears we are beginning to see) is a Jesus Revolution worldwide; a THOU SHALT HAVE NO OTHER GOD BEFORE ME MOVEMENT. This should be the cry of our hearts; for the next generation to encounter God as we were privileged to do in the early 1970’s.
We need a “Man shall not live by bread alone” awakening. The Bible speaks of a day when there would not be a famine of “no bread,” but rather of “not hearing the Word of the Lord.” I don’t think I can overemphasize enough, however; it cannot be just a hearing, but a doing movement we need. We need a movement where the Word of God can be easily read in the lives of the believers.
I don’t come to church faithfully, to escape the reality of what is going on around me. I rather come to face the reality of what is going on in the world around me. I learn how to not only face it but do my part to change it. The church is to be the panacea for the ills of the community. The church message is to create a culture of change within the vulgar morass of a dying world. It is to start with the dynamic, which happened in us when we came to Christ. I think I am writing this letter to an audience that understands the conflict between light and darkness; good and evil. I think we understand as well, it is our ultimate intention of our lives to live in perfect harmony with the will of God. To do this we must live by every word that proceeds’ out of HIS mouth. I like that word (proceeds) because it implies that the Word of God is on the move, and it is.
In closing, I have found that liberty is not living independently. That would be considered, lawlessness. Liberty for the Christian is to live in such a way that leads to law. James wrote it this way and I concur, “the law of liberty”. It is only in obeying the law of God, not legalism, we find ourselves enjoying true freedom. It is to be found in what is called, “living by the fruit of the spirit.” Against such there is no law. True freedom comes from being in Christ. “For there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit of the living God.”
Free Indeed,
Pastor Cleddie Keith