The Weekly Epistle 11/3/21

A lot of our problems are not only because we do the wrong the things, but because we believe the wrong things.  Some Christian counselors were sitting talking with each other when the question was asked, “If you could give your counselees anything, what would you give them?”  They batted around several ideas and then agreed that the one thing they would give the people they are trying to help would be a correct view of God.
 
Does that sound overly simplistic?  Is there a connection between seemingly practical problems and our view of God?  Consider God as Creator.  It is the first truth about God mentioned to us in Scripture.  The Bible opens and ends with God creating.  As you read through God’s Word on your own, note how often it speaks of the Creator God.  A strong theme throughout the Old and New Testament is that God is both Creator and Redeemer.  
 
To believe that God is our Creator suggests we live as dependent beings on Him.  To believe God is our Creator means we trust Him rather than ourselves on how to live as the creatures He designed us to be.  It means that we believe what He says in His Word about life, the world, His Sovereign purposes, His control of all things, His provisions, and of our own limitations as His creatures.  
 
My view of God matters!  I am His creature and creatures by definition are less than their Creator.  Yet at times we live as though we are in control, infinite, and can manage life on our own.
 
This past Sunday we sang, “Nothing without you.”  We said the word, “Nothing” in that, I have or am nothing, twelve times.  Was that an overkill?  Don’t I want to tell myself and portray to others that “I am something”?  This is where a correct view of God is critical.  God made me in His image so I am something, but not without His knitting me together in my mom’s womb.  To 
believe this, frees me to be the person God wants me to be and to live according to the Maker’s instructions.  
 
In the same way, I can accomplish many things in my lifetime.  But if God isn’t in it, it isn’t worth it!  Without Him, all that I do and achieve and become amount to nothing in the end.  Jesus said in John 15, “Apart from me you can do nothing.”  Yet how much of what I do is independent of Him?  
 
What we believe matters.  Coming in 2022 will be a greater focus on what we believe as a church.  A sermon series, “True North” (beliefs that define who we are), will begin in January.  It is the desire of the leadership team of elders to align ourselves as a church with the Evangelical Free Association, so it is a great opportunity to work through what we believe.  
 
In this world it is challenging, to say the least, to know what to believe.  It has turned truth on its head.  It has left the Creator’s design.  Church, we need to know what we believe.  It defines who we are and where we are headed.  Our beliefs determine our behaviors.  
 
I look forward to seeing you Sunday, if not sooner at the cornhole tournament this Saturday at 5:00.  Oh!  Don’t forget to turn your clocks back an hour or you will be very early to the service!
 
Blessings, Pastor Brian