Streaming Services
Every Sunday at 10am
Isaiah 61 foretells the life and work not only of Jesus, but of His body, His Church, His people. The Spirit of the Lord is upon us! Humanity has been given the opportunity of an upgrade. Will we as the Body of Christ embrace that upgrade and live into all He has for us; the love, the joy, the peace, and yes, the challenges to be His Body on earth.
As we move forward as the Body of Christ, we take encouragement from Paul to stand firm in Christ, faithful stewards of the gift of the Gospel entrusted to us and sharing it with others. We must share in the ways it can best be received.
While we remember all Saints, that great cloud of witnesses for Christ, let us be mindful that each of us is part of that cloud, called to be the Body of Christ, to make salvation in Jesus known to the world.
As psalm 32:1 one tells us: "Blessed be the one whose unrighteousness is forgiven, and whose sin is covered”
Saints are those who humbly come before the cross, confess their sins to Jesus, and are forgiven and now live facing Him.
In chapter 9 of 2 Corinthians, Paul turns to a metaphor of seed. There are three things you can do with seed: consume it, store it, or sow it. When we think of our money as ‘seed’, we can spend it on ourselves and enjoy its benefits right now or we can save our money so that it isn’t lost and can be used when we have need. When we ‘sow’ our money, we put it to its most proper use, investing it in productive work for the sake of others. Prosperity gospel proponents would wrongly claim this as God’s promise that in sowing this seed, we will reap rewards. In fact, the text here says that we will gain more seed to sow, not bread to consume. We will be “enriched in every way to be generous in every way.”
This leads to the “inexpressible gift” of God’s grace to us in Christ. As John writes, it is His love that generates all of our love and it is for His kingdom and for His glory that we labor. We do not give to the church for the sake of a building or the sake of a program. Nor do we give toward missions or community to fill needs. We give because we have confessed the lordship of Jesus and fully submitted to his call on our lives in all things. The joy of Jesus fills our hearts to overflowing, empowering us further to be cheerful givers. Grace upon grace.
