PASTOR'S CORNER

Acts 4:1-31 I want to start off by saying something to you and I think it’s going to bless your heart this morning “You are a fool”  Yes you and I are fools and tomorrow you will continue to be a fool and the next day and so on and so on.  And you’re probably thinking to yourself “Our pastor goes away for 3 days to a “pastor’s conference” to be challenged, refreshed and encouraged and you come home to tell me that “I’m a fool.”  But before you throw me under the bus and start complaining to Brent, Steve and John please let me continue.  A “fool” by definition is “a person who lacks good sense or judgment: a unwise or silly person a harmlessly deranged person or one lacking in common powers of understanding.”  That’s why you are “a fool” because this is how the world perceives you me today, tomorrow, the next day and so on and so on. What does it mean be a foolish Christian in our postmodern world?  It means that you and I are extremely different than those around us. 

Gal 5:13-15 We are living in a culture that is yelling from the rooftop   “We want freedom and more liberties”  A culture that is demanding more personal rights and freedoms, just as the Israelites did from years past. “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” Judges 21:25 Whether it is what sex I want to be this week. What washroom I’m allowed to us. Who has the right to bake a cake or sell flowers? Who has the right to take one’s life? Those are just a few of the issues that plague under the freedom of rights act!  But the freedom that Paul talking about is   none of those things ! It’s a supernatural rest and security the believer finds in Christ alone.  If you are a true child of God you are FREE!  I want you to think about this as we continue in this letter. Always understand and embrace the joy that grace is God giving us precisely what we don't deserve, and what we could not earn through the Law. W

Gal 5:1-12 There are many in the church today who treat the Christian life like is a race they have to try and win on their own or better yet by their own effort or standard of goodness. Out the gate they are excited and full of energy. They study well and have a real (so they thought) joy to read and worship privately and corporately. They had a on the surface a joy and seriousness to pray and have fellowship with other Christians. But, something happens along the way, and they begin to slow down to the point of giving up and to retreat back to the starting line again where it was comfortable and familiar. From the grandstand! You think to yourself or scratch your head, they start out so well, but you can’t believe what you’re seeing as they retreat to go back to their old ways. See, the problem isn't what we see on the surface; because from the surface we see a person who looks like you and me. We see a person who is possibly a church goer, a co-worker, a neighbor in