Atm

He had a message of hope and salvation. The word gospel means “good news.” Jesus was telling people good news.

Our message should be good news. I think it is awful when people take the good news of Jesus and make it sound terrible. We’ve got the message of good news, and we should proclaim it.

When I look ahead, I see this church doing wonderful things for the Lord in the months and years ahead. I am not so naïve as to think that it will all be easy and pain free. We will encounter things and roadblocks. There will be obstacles that will get in our way, but we must remember why we are here. We are here to proclaim the good news of hope and salvation to a world that lacks hope. It is not a hopeless situation, but there are many people who see no hope. Our job is to show them that there is hope.

Our trials may come in the form of people who give us trouble when they come to Jesus. They will struggle. Some may backslide. But we cannot be discouraged. When the deputy sheriff came out after the break-in, he said that it was probably a kid from the church. I found myself wishing that we had kids in the church capable of doing something like that. That’s why we are here. We are here to offer hope to kids who have no hope. We are here to offer hope to kids who think stealing is the only way to get what they want. That is why we exist.

The key is to stay on course. We must have continual anointing of the Holy Spirit. Often in the Church of the Nazarene we talk of two works of grace: salvation and sanctification. The unfortunate thing about that is that in many churches people are saved, sanctified and petrified. I believe in many works of the Holy Spirit. We must continually be filled with Holy Spirit, if we hope to do anything positive for the Lord. God is sufficient to meet our needs daily. What we had yesterday isn’t good enough for today. We need to be continually filled with the Holy Spirit.

Challenge

This last Wednesday was Ash Wednesday. Often in the Church of the Nazarene we don’t make a big deal out of Lent. It has for many become just some routine that means little. It really is a time of preparation for Easter. It’s a time of prayer and fasting. Prayer and fasting should be a part of our lives year round, but this time of year there is a special emphasis on it.

I want to challenge you to pray and fast for those friends and relatives that you wrote on your bookmark two weeks ago. The time is right. The Holy Spirit has visited us. We know our mission. We know it will not always be easy, but we also know that God is with us and will be with us.

As we sing that song, “Find Us Faithful,” if you would like to come and pray for the people on your list, please do so.