Greetings,
When the Holy Spirit comes into a person’s life through salvation in Jesus, it is a powerful moment. There is an equally powerful moment when the Holy Spirit awakens you to the gravity of the sin in your life and shows you the victory that we already have in Jesus. We no longer have to be slaves to sin. The power and consequence, spiritually speaking, have been paid for in full and are no longer counted against you as unrighteousness.
When we look at the armor of God in Ephesians 6:10-20, we see that the helmet of salvation and the breastplate of righteousness are given to us. Jesus gives them to us and He is the one responsible to ensure that they always are perfectly placed. We must trust that He knows what He is doing and walk in confidence that we are walking with His salvation and His righteousness adorning our humble bodies. The belt of truth is also given to us and we must accept it as Jesus wraps His arms around us and tells us of His deep and abiding love for us.
The shield of faith is a gift -- we can choose to believe in and trust the armor we are given, or believe the enemy's lies and take up an alternate shield, one of pride, money, power, self-reliance, doubt, discouragement or anything other than faith. When we have a confident faith in God through Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit, there is nothing that can stand against us. The shoes of the gospel of peace would be a wasted gift on us if the enemy convinces us to hide behind a false shield. It is only in trusting in the Lord that we can be confident that He is leading us. The shoes of the gospel and the sword of the Spirit, the word of God, work together to destroy the lies from the enemy and allow us to understand and walk in the victory that is found in Jesus.
As a pastor, there is little that is more exciting than to see someone who has been a believer “get it” -- when a person understands that sin no longer holds victory over them and you see people walking in the light of the gospel and using the word of God as an offensive weapon. What joy can be found in knowing that there is nothing that we could do to earn the favor of God but that God, in Christ, through the Holy Spirit calls you His own. There is no fear when we confidently walk in the full armor of God!
Notice there is no armor for our backside. Jesus is our rear guard and our strong tower and we can find comfort and confidence to move forward in Him because He has already won the battle, disarmed the enemy and claimed victory. The enemy is a defeated foe, death has lost its sting, the grave holds no victory, and standing in front of us, a multitude of people wanting to hear the joyful sound of the gospel of peace marching up to them and the sword of the Spirit cutting lose the bonds and setting them free from bondage to sin and death.
The beauty of a person reconciled to God is overwhelming. The free power found in a soul that lives life moving forward in the full armor of God is unstoppable!
"Then my head will be exalted above the enemies who surround me; at his sacred tent I will sacrifice with shouts of joy; I will sing and make music to the Lord." ~Psalm 27:6
"Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation." ~Psalm 95:1
"Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting: “Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns." ~Rev. 19:6
Praise God that if you trust Jesus as your savior, you share that victory.
Love ya,
Chris
Greetings,
Welcome to spring! Isn’t spring wonderf..... er, wet? This last week our family was really blessed with beautiful days at the beach and then... rain and clouds for a camp that I was speaking at. The weather can really change your mood. Some people handle the drastic Oregon weather changes really well and others not so much. When it’s gray and gloomy or sunny and cheery, often our mood matches.
I recently heard someone say that Salem as a city has two characters, a sunny and friendly one and a gloomy and private one. It definitely feels like a different town when the weather is nice. The great news is that no matter what the weather is like, this is the only hell that we will ever have to endure if we have Jesus as our Lord. And in this spring time we celebrate his most precious gift to us. His sacrifice for our benefit of eternal life. Easter Sunday is coming soon.
The weather isn’t always cooperative on Easter. Imagine being at the crucifixion of Jesus when the sky grew dark as Jesus breathed his last breath. The authority of Jesus is so complete, and he is so vital to humanity's reconciliation to the father that the weather reacted. Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection are so important to all of humanity that it would be irresponsible of us to not tell others about the beautiful sacrifice that Jesus made that should brighten every one of our days.
I believe God is moving in our area. He is listening to the prayers of His people and He is preparing the hearts of folks to turn to Him. We must be faithful to love people enough to share the beautiful story of Jesus with them. Easter is a great opportunity for you to invite them to turn to Jesus!
This year our Easter service will be held at a different location. This beautiful setting will provide the space for us to invite lots of friends and family, as well as enjoy breakfast together before the service! We'll gather at 10:00 a.m. (half an hour earlier than normal) on Sunday, April 21, at the Spinning Room at Willamette Heritage Center (formerly Mission Mill). A delicious breakfast buffet will be provided, followed by a special service to celebrate our risen Savior. Please invite others to join us for this time of celebration.
Have a beautiful day!
Love ya,
Chris
Greetings,
For the last several days Yvonne has been healing up from a surgery and people from our church family have been providing great meals for our family. It has been an incredible demonstration of love and hospitality. We thank each one of you so much for your love and support. Acts of love like this are a great way to feel a part of the community.
Community is where discipleship is incubated. All throughout scripture, wherever there is discipleship, there is deep community, and wherever there is community there is discipleship. The question in this culture is, what does community look like? How do we manufacture community? In a culture where divorce is normal, family time is foreign, virtual reality is more appealing than real reality and busyness seems to be the scapegoat for every reason to not connect, is there any wonder why our culture is starving for community and why there is a struggle to understand true community?
Community requires time, effort and energy. Therefore, if community is important to us then we must make room for it in the rhythms of our lives. Since we are called to disciple and we are called to community I think we ought to work hard at making the room. When we live in community with fellow Christ followers, discipleship is a natural byproduct.
Every other month or so we get together with the elders and their wives to talk about the church, pray and eat. We always eat and we always eat really well. Last week we had an amazing dinner together and we always say the same thing, “why don’t we do this all the time?”
I know how hard it is to get schedules to line up, but the more opportunity we have to spend together with church folks, the better we will know them. And the better we know them, the more likely we will be to trust them. And the more we trust people, the more burdens we will share and the more people will feel like family. And when that type of one anothering happens, people see it and they crave it. People crave community and we have the opportunity to provide a gospel centered community for people. That’s really exciting.
There are 94 verses that talk about one anothering in the New Testament. We will be going through a lot of them after Easter as we begin our Community sermon series. Stay tuned! Maybe invite some people to join us in the series.
Love ya,
Chris