“What’s With the Rules?”

As many of you know my family was on vacation last week at the beach.  The place we where we were staying requires that you wear a colored wristband at all times while on the property and there are security guards that walk around the property hourly checking.  If they catch you without a wristband, either you go back to your room and get it and show it to them or leave the property.  This is the rule!  Not a bad rule either.

So during our stay there I noticed one particular family, a large family of 8, that never had on a wristband.  At the pool each day, walking around the property, etc. none of them ever had on a wristband.  Now I know they were not trespassing because the room balcony overlooked one of the pools where we would often swim and family members would often yell back and forth to one another from the pool area.  I thought, why don’t they have to follow the rules?  Why aren’t the security guards catching them, I’ve seen them question others.   That’s not fair!  Do I turn them in or ignore it?  Do they have special privilege?  

Then something a friend from my High School days said to me came to mind, “We don’t have to follow God’s ‘rules’ because we are under grace not His law.”  He was drawing off Romans 6:14 “For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law, but under grace.”  I can tell you that my friend saw that verse as a sure way of not following God’s ways, God’s law, God’s “rules” for living.  “Why not enjoy life?” he would say, “Isn’t God’s grace sufficient?” he would ask me.  “Yes” I would say, but then I would remind him that the Apostle Paul did not only write one verse of scripture.  In fact, if you continue on to the next verse, Romans 6:15, you read, “What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law, but under grace?  May it never be!”  Paul’s answer was an absolute NO!!!  Just because our sins are forgiven as believers in Jesus Christ, it does NOT give us the authority to keep sinning, doing whatever we want, ignoring God’s way of life He has called us to live.

If we sin, and we will, God’s grace is sufficient.  But because we belong to Him, because of His grace and mercy shown to us by His Son’s life, death, and resurrection, by His indwelling Spirit, we should never want to continue to live a sin filled life.  In giving our life to Him, we die to our old self, and rise to a new life.  And while we are not under the law, but grace, our inward desire should be to be more like Christ.  Paul writes in Ephesians 5:1-2 “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a flagrant aroma.”  I would encourage you to take your Bibles off the shelf or table and continue reading that chapter through verse 21 and see what it means to be imitators of God.

You see, you cannot just pull one verse of scripture out to justify your way of life.  Many do that as my friend does.  To know God, you have to read His Word, otherwise you would be ignorant of His Word.  Questioning my friend, I found out He was told that verse by his pastor.  He never read it for himself, but lived his life by way of this verse.

When I was a cop in the Air Force, I would stop people for a traffic violation and they would often say, “But officer, I didn’t know the speed limit was 35.”  Ignorance of the law does not change the fact that the law exist and for a good reason.

The family during our vacation never followed the rules.  Maybe because they didn’t want to.  Maybe because they forgot.  Even maybe because they thought, we don’t have to.  But any of those reasons never changed the rule.

We are under God’s GRACE - Thanks be to God!!!  But don’t be ignorant of God’s desired way of life for you!  He has set these “rules” for life in place for our good.  And you can know these rules by reading His Word, attending Worship, attending Bible Studies, Sunday School, and prayer time.  By doing these things your faith will grow and your desire to follow Him (even His rules for life) will grow and that desire to sin will wane.  He is SO good!

Blessings, Pastor Marty 

Worship - Grow - Serve

“Is This How We Live?”

“Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some, letters of commendation to you or from you? You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men; being manifested that you are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.” 

2 Corinthians 3:1 - 3 (NASB)

I want you to read this passage using the “The Message” paraphrase version of the Bible.

“Does it sound like we’re patting ourselves on the back, insisting on our credentials, asserting our authority? Well, we’re not. Neither do we need letters of endorsement, either to you or from you. You yourselves are all the endorsement we need. Your very lives are a letter that anyone can read by just looking at you. Christ himself wrote it—not with ink, but with God’s living Spirit; not chiseled into stone, but carved into human lives…”  

2 Corinthians 3: 1 - 3 The Message (MSG)

We just finished another Vacation Bible School at HOPE EPC Raleigh.  By all measures, I think it was deemed a success.  But what do we mean by that?  Success?  Was it well laid out, organized?  Well, Yes!  Was the story of Joseph well conveyed, taught, presented biblically?  Again, Yes!  Was there fellowship and fun along the way?  Absolutely, Yes!!!  And all that is great and should be a goal that we strive for.  But, is that really how we would measure success?

I watched as my wife, who is the Children’s Ministry Director at HOPE and directed and organized VBS, received some pats on the back this past Sunday.  While I am so happy the congregation felt she had done a great job, I saw her uncomfortableness.  Yes she, like the rest of us, like to hear things went well, that everyone enjoyed it and had a great time, but for her, she is looking for the transformation in lives from the event.  And to be honest, I am too.

In all we do at HOPE we hope to prepare everyone of us to live our faith in God in our daily lives.  Our desire is that each worship service, each Sunday school class, each Prayer Meeting, every Bible Study, VBS event, etc. prepares us in a way that “Your very lives are a letter that anyone can read by just looking at you.”  This is a letter “Christ Himself wrote,” and “not chiseled into stone,” but by the Holy Spirit of God, “into human lives” or hearts.  All we do, how we live everyday, is about Him and reflective of Him.  It is really not about us!!!

For example, worship is a must.  God commands it and as followers of Jesus Christ we should desire it.  Worship is about Praise, Relationship, Growing in Christ, Surrender, Fellowship both with our Savior & others.  As we worship Him, His Spirit connects to us in such a way that others cannot help but see Him in us.  His letter (Word) written in our hearts.  I read a quote the other day that said, “If parents view worship as a option then their children will view God as unnecessary.”  God should be the most “necessary” person/thing in our lives.

How are we living our lives?  Is our life each day pointing to Jesus?  Can others read HIS letter that is on our hearts?  I love that image.  What a powerful statement.  This is what God meant when He said, love God and love others.  His love needs to show daily through our lives.  When we make Him the priority in all things, people will begin to notice.  Your very life will begin to point to Him.  Others will be able to see the “love letter” of God written on your heart.

Is this how we live or has the world around us wrapped us up in “self” instead of Him?  This just may be something you want to think about.

Blessings, 

Pastor Marty - Pastor, HOPE EPC - Raleigh

Worship - Grow - Serve

      "Freedom to Belong"

     As I write this article it is July 4, 2017 and I know many of you know the story of this day, but let me give a brief summary for this article’s purpose.  Independence Day or Fourth of July, as it is often referred, is a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence 241 years ago on July 4, 1776. The Continental Congress declared that the thirteen American colonies were a new nation and would be called The United States of America.  These colonies were declared no longer part of the British Empire.  The fact is, Congress actually voted to declare independence two days earlier on July 2, 1776.

     The Second Continental Congress voted to approve a resolution of independence that had been proposed in June by Richard Henry Lee of Virginia declaring the United States independence from Great Britain rule.  After voting for independence, Congress turned its attention to the Declaration of Independence, a statement explaining this decision.  The document had been prepared by a Committee of Five, with Thomas Jefferson as its principal author. Congress debated and revised the wording of the document.  The final approval came two days later on July 4, 1776.  Ironically, historians say the actual signing of the document mostly likely did not happen until August 2, 1776.  That little fact did not nor has ever changed the date of celebration which was the “approved” date of The Declaration of Independence.  

     Every year, as I read the history of the event and hear that the colonies were declared no longer a part of the British Empire, it reminds me of God’s call for the believer.  I know, you think I’m stretching, but it really does give a reminder of where I belong.

     You see, as a believer, I am in the world, but not of the world.  I am a part of the Kingdom of God, adopted into His family.  In fact, because I am a believer in Jesus Christ, the world will hate me.  This fact is growing more evident day by day.

     Just this past week I read of a University in Oklahoma that took all the Bibles, all the hymnals, all the crosses, any signs of Christianity out of their University Chapel that had been built in 1957.  They said they did not want to offend other faiths, but be inclusive and that signs of Christianity were offensive.  Really?  Me carrying my Bible in my hand in public is offensive?  Me wearing a cross around my neck is offensive?  Yes, to a lost world it is.  Jesus predicted this would happen.

Take a look at the High Priestly prayer of Jesus on the night of His arrest before His crucifixion.  

“I have given them Your Word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.  I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.  As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.”  John 17:14-16;18

     So when I read that the colonies are no longer a part of what they were before, but now a new nation, I too am no longer a part of what I was before, but a new creation in Christ Jesus my LORD!  I love that!  I have been set free.  The Apostle John puts it this way: 

“So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.” John 8:36  It is in that freedom that I live.  So while I will continue to share my faith, preach His Word, carry my Bible, wear my cross, I know whatever I face in this world does not define me.  I belong to Him.  I am free even though I am living in a bound up world.  I am free because of Him.

     I love the USA.  I served to protect it years ago and I am proud to have done so.  I am thankful for all those who have fought and continue to fight for our freedoms.  It comes at a cost and it hurts me to see how many degrade those who protect the freedoms of those who protest.  My prayer is that believers around the world will continue to share Christ so Christ’s freedom will be known.  “So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.”  I am in the world, but not of the world.  I am FREE and belong to Him!

     Happy 241st Birthday to the United States of America.

Blessings, 

Pastor Marty - Pastor, HOPE Church - Raleigh

Worship - Grow - Serve