How are you? How is your week going? How has this pandemic been for you?
I have heard this stay-at-home order be described as a “pressure cooker.” We are ordered to stay at home with all our relationships. There is added pressure on our marriages, on our sibling relationships, on our parental relationships, and on our children relationships.
When two or more sinners are confined to a certain physical space and are forced to spend time together, conflicts and tension are bound to happen. One’s sins will rub other sinners the wrong way. This pressure can be avoided, but its presence will remain. Either we will grow closer together in the pressure or we will be driven further apart from the pressure.
I believe that this period of pandemic is a “pressure cooker” for our faith and our relationship with Christ as well. Either we will walk out of this pandemic with greater faith or with lesser faith. The way we live when we feel the weight of the pressure will dictate the way our hearts will go.
What is our place of refuge? What is our place of escape? Are there certain habits that have become addictions? Have we taken good things and made them ultimate things?
Pastor Dan shared this past Sunday about how we are sinful. It is in our sinful nature to gravitate toward rebellion and idolatry. But there is hope.
Pastor Dan proclaimed to us the hope that is found in the truth that Christ died and was raised back to life. He carried the weight of our sins and died for our condemnation. He was raised back to life, because he defeated sin, shame, and even death. Hallelujah!
Through His death and resurrection, we have the power now to choose good over evil. We have the power to die to our sin and to live unto Christ. We have the power to not live for our temporal pleasure but to live for our everlasting joy, which is found in the glory of God.
That is the process of the growth for the Christian. It is a continual dying to our sin and living unto Christ. It is a constant choosing God over our “gods.” It is the journey of being conformed into the image of Christ instead of being conformed into the image of our idols.
If a baby stopped growing, we would be very concerned. That level of concern should be applied to our hearts. Have we grown in our faith? Have we grown in our intimacy with Christ? Have we grown in the truth of God’s Word?
Growth is the last why of the spiritual disciplines in our sermon series. We disciplines ourselves to grow as a person united to Christ and as a beloved child of God.
We will start our look at specific disciplines this Sunday with the discipline of hearing and reading God’s Word. Please pray for our worship and for one another.
There will be a FB Live Video TOMORROW @5:30pm in our FB group! Also, we have our Topical Study on Sunday morning @9:15am through GoTo Meeting (https://global.
See you on Sunday for Lord’s Day Worship!
In Christ,
Pastor Tim
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