HAVE YOU HAD A SPIRITUAL CHECK-UP LATELY?
Have you given any thought to your spiritual health? We are fearfully and wonderfully made creatures, yet we were made to be in fellowship with our Creator.
PLEASE, before you put this down… ask yourself if you have ever thought about what life might be like after death or if there is another side of life beyond the grave? Do you not look at the vastness of the universe on a starry night, or the majesty of the mountains, or the beauty of a sunset or sunrise or the miraculous birth of a newborn and say, “This is just too awesome to have just happened by accident; there must be a creator!” Does your life need deeper fulfillment? Have you tried to find happiness and contentment in things or drugs or alcohol only to find the satisfaction short-lived? Afterwards, there still remains this ache in your heart; a void that yearns to be filled?
Congratulations! You have just discovered you are a being created by God with a heart shaped vacuum He alone can fill. I want to be very frank with you as life is really quite short. We do not have any guarantee the sun will come up for us tomorrow. What I have for you can literally change your life today and forever. Thank you for getting this far! A few more paragraphs and life might begin to take on new meaning! Does this sound too good and too simple? What if I told you it was free!
Life is complex. Life is not fair. Life is uncertain. Life is a gift. How do I know this? The Psalmist David said, “O LORD, you have examined my heart and know everything about me. You know when I sit down or stand up. You know my every thought when far away. You chart the path ahead of me and tell me where to stop and rest. Every moment you know where I am.” He goes on to say, “You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.”
Your Creator created you. He breathed life into you and knew you completely. He created you the highest of all His creation with will, intellect and emotion that vastly separates you from the animal kingdom. He created you this way so you might with your emotion, intellect and will give honor and glory back to the Creator. He did not make you a puppet but gave you a powerful tool called choice.
The Creator God is perfect. He is surrounded in complete holiness in His heavenly realm and you can only live forever with Him if you are also perfectly holy. Most of us know we are people who sin; those wrong things we continually do that would disqualify us from being in God’s presence. God knew this. God is a God of love who loved His creation so much He sent His One and only Son to die for us. Jesus took our sins and punishment upon the cross. God can now look at us totally forgiven and our sin is removed as far as the “East is from the West”.
Some of you are saying, “Well, that is just too simplistic”. Some of you are saying, “That may be true but you don’t know what I have done”. The writer of the Psalm above was basically a murderer. If you read the Bible it is full of rascals. I invite you to just bow your head and say, “God, if all of this is real, please begin to reveal yourself to me.” I believe this can start you on a path of great discovery and contentment.
God will lead you to a point where you must understand you are a sinner having done many things He would not approve. You must be sorry for your sin. You must desire in your heart to turn from your sinful ways and seek His way. You must ask Jesus to forgive you of your sin, ask Him to come into your life as your Lord and Savior and to be your Master to guide your remaining days. This is the very reason Jesus left Heaven to come to earth.
Yes, it is simple. God did not make it difficult for us to be in fellowship with Him. A small child can even understand. The problem is the older we get the more hardened we become toward the things of God. Did you know if you are not a Christian by the time you leave High School the chances of you yielding to God as mentioned above is statistically very slim? You can beat the odds. You can call out to Jesus today and He will give you the gift of eternal life and begin to fill a void in you that has existed since you were born. You have nothing to loose and eternity to gain!
I farmed for thirty years before being called by God to harvest men. I have lived in the real world. A life with Christ is the beginning of a wonderful journey. A life without Christ is the beginning of an eternal life apart from God in a very awful place. He gave you a choice and it is before you today.
Want some help? Call me or come to Lincoln Community Church every Sunday morning at 10:30 a.m. and we will talk about real things in life and how a life of faith fits in the real world. LCC offers Sunday School classes from K-2nd, 3rd – 5th , and 6th Grade up and Adult with childcare for preschool. An evening session is also in the works for Sr. High youth. We have a Wednesday home study group(s) and an early morning men’s group that runs 6-7 a.m. open to any man in the community.
LCC is starting a “Kid’s Gathering” one day a month after school and our “The Gathering” will continue one Sunday night per month for any in the community. We are trying to meet people where the rubber meets the road. Our saying is we are “real, relaxed and relevant”. Come in your jeans, come in your suit and tie - just come and find out more about Christ. Discover why we are growing in numbers and more in love with our God! I believe you will also like our worship music led by Merrell and Debbie Nelson.
You may discover the new beginning for which you have been searching. Join some people like yourself who have discovered contentment in Christ! Remember to pray that God would begin to reveal Himself to you. He will because He loves you! Hope to see you Sunday.
A Christian in the real world,
David Scott
Lincoln Community Church