8002 U. S. Highway 301 South, Riverview, FL 33578 813-677-5995
If we are “in Christ”, then we have been made a new person altogether! The old ways of thinking, acting, and doing are put to rest. The old life has passed out of existence. In its place the new life has come. The life of a Christian is qualitatively better as compared with what existed before. A much better way of looking at things has come. A new set of standards and attitudes has come-and it has indeed come to stay. Why is all this true: because we now belong to Christ!
Let’s all be reminded as we begin the New Year that, as believers, we have the responsibility to actively live out our Christian faith. We have an important role to play in the new life God gives to us. Scripture says that we are “to work out our salvation with fear and trembling” (Phil. 2:12) Once we accepted Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior, He began living in us through the presence of the Holy Spirit. Living for Christ means that we surrender to his will and ways for our lives. The Holy Spirit gradually con-forms us to the image of Christ. We remain uniquely ourselves with regards to personality, but our conduct, conversation, and character will become holy.
What does it mean to “work out our Salvation with fear and trembling?” First of all, this does not mean we need to be afraid of God or worry about losing our salvation. Instead, it indicates that we must take our faith seriously. We should be committed to faithfully attending Church, tithing, praying, service, and sharing the Good News--the life-changing Good News of Jesus Christ. We should not be lazy regarding our commitment to Him.
Thankfully, our Heavenly Father will never command us to do something that he will not enable us to accomplish. Living the new life, the Christian Life, is not up to us alone. We are promised in Phil. 2: 13, “I can do all things through Christ, who gives me strength.”
My friends, the Almighty guides and leads us for his good pleasure--and also for our own benefit. In this new life, if you and I truly rely on the power and presence of the Holy Spirit, we will always be able to fulfill His plans for us, and for our Church, even though the outcome may not be what we initially expected.
I pray in this New Year that is upon us that you and I will allow the Lord to strengthen and equip us to be the church family that He desires for us to be. Let Him mold and shape our lives, our new lives, into what pleases Him, because that is living at its very best!
May 2012 be the very best that our church family has ever experienced.
In Christ’s Love & Service,
Pastor Merritt
The Old Year Has Passed,
and a New Year Has Begun
Happy New Year to each one of you, my brothers and
sisters in Christ!
It simply does not seem possible that 2012 has arrived does it? But it most assuredly has. The old has passed and the new has come. It reminds me of what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life and the old ways have gone; a new life with new ways has begun!”
Do you see the Good News in this verse? Are you embracing the New Life that Jesus Christ has given you?
“Kaines” (New) denotes what is fresh or newly made. We are “new”--not to the world’s standards or the people’s evaluation; but by the standard and evaluation of our awesome God and savior.
It’s a Small World
Most of us will never see all of this world. Our world
really is a huge expanse of real estate, so much larger
than we can truly comprehend. Even so, with the
internet, computers, cell phones, and planes, trains and
automobiles, the world has become a much smaller place
in many ways.
All this technology and all these inventions have made
many things possible that only existed in the realm of
science fiction less than a hundred years ago, and yet
much of the benefit of this progress remains unreachable
to more than half the people on earth.
It is hard to imagine a place where every child of school age does not use a computer and own a cell phone and actually know how to use it! I am guilty too; in fact, I am writing this article taking full advantage of a laptop computer twice as smart as I am and with ten times the memory.
I fully believe that there are many people in countries not so blessed as ours who are much smarter than I am, and could do so much more if given the chance. Most of them will never even know the extent of everything they are missing out on, and they have no way of seeing how the other half lives.
We, however, can see them. Through the wonder of the internet and television, it is almost as if we are watching them through a giant two-way mirror where they cannot see us and they have no idea that we are watching.
Now that we see, we can no longer pretend that we don’t know. When God presents an opportunity for us to help in some small way, and He will, we have to be willing to sacrifice a little of all the blessings he has given us to help those in less fortunate circumstances. We can not ignore any part of the body of Christ and expect that it will not affect the whole body in a negative way.
It is easy to become discouraged because the need is so great, and those willing to help so few, but God can work great miracles out of meager beginnings. Small churches can become bigger churches and have an even greater impact on more lives if all the members are willing to sacrifice a little piece of themselves for the greater mission of God’s faithful church.
Sometimes we all get too focused on the small picture, and our own small little world and its problems, and we forget that God is so much bigger than any of that. Our souls are bigger than this life, bigger than our physical presence and eternity is even longer than forever. God promises to cast our sins as far as the East is from the West, and we are only somewhat impressed because we know that if we go east far enough, we will meet west.
There’s that “small World” thinking again. When God says “East” He means a straight line from any point on earth in the direction of the rising sun and “West” is towards the setting sun. If we do not curve that line to follow the contour of the globe, “East” will be a straight line out into the heavens and it will only get farther from “West”, and the two will never meet.
But here in our ever-shrinking small world, East can meet West and South can meet North, and if we reach out far enough in every direction in God’s name; we can one day cover the planet with His holy love and mercy. It is a small world after all.
In Christ,
Rick Phillips
inside out and backwards
head down
focus on poor mirror, inward
see limitations
what i wish i was
sad, self-loathing
evil
head down
bowed in repentance
see human limits
see Christ’s power in my limitations
glory in infirmities
no complaint
no pity
Jesus
head up
He made me
and my limitations /infirmities are gifts/strength
I offer my gifts as a sacrifice
thanksgiving
Dora Becker,
Prague, Czech Republic
