God is Good

Don’t faint!

I know it has been a long time since I have posted to the blog.  

This last Sunday we stepped out of our “Sunday norm”. The “Sunday norm” is typically being involved at a fairly large church. I say fairly large, others have described it as a mega-church; but, for us it is, home. Although, for the long Labor Day weekend, we went to visit some friends in a different state and attended their church. It is actually a large church for where it is located. As the music director/pianist started praise and worship, I thought, “We are not in Kansas anymore.” Hymns! I had not sang hymns in several years. But the words to those old songs flooded back to me like cherished memories. And, even though the words were projected onto a screen, I could sing them with my eyes closed. As the pastor preached, I thought, this man is not contained to a twenty minute time slot. It was kind of a breath of fresh air, not to be in the typical “production”.

The pastor brought a message from Matthew 5, focusing on verses 13 to 16. This passage speaks about how the children of God are salt and light to the world. He taught how it is chemically impossible for salt to lose its ability to be salt. And, just as it is impossible for salt not to be salt, it is impossible for the child of God to be anything less than, His child. The pastor then showed how children of God are the light of the world. As children of God, we were created to be “light,” but when we choose to not live out our God given purpose, we chose to conceal “who” we were created to be. Just like in the passage, Jesus says that people do not light a lamp and put it under a basket, but put it on a lamp stand so that it shines.  Children of God were created to shine. 

The pastor pointed out that, in this passage, Jesus does not focus on what children of God are to “do”, but on “who” children of God are. We are the salt of the earth and we are the light of the world. And, just as salt and light influence what is around them, children of God are to influence those around them; not particularly by “doing” something special but by “being” the reflection of Christ we were transformed to be. Jesus did not transform us just for us but Jesus transformed us to influence the world through “who” He created us to be.

The pastor ended with resolutely saying, “God is good.”

It was a great word but what makes this something to cause me to actually write?

This was the first Sunday that this pastor had preached since his wife, of almost 20 years, had died in a car accident two weeks prior. That, child of God, is an example of it being impossible for a child of God to be anything less than who they are created to be.

                                        You are the salt of the earth! You are the light of the world!