I have just finished participating in Dallas First Methodist’s 12th annual River of Life mission where we spend four days working on different families’ homes in Paulding County and worshipping every evening. It is a marvelous time when almost everything else in life seems suspended and we get a glimpse of the Kingdom of Heaven. Youth and adults from churches all over Georgia and Tennessee who barely know each other form bonds as they work together in Christian love. We are welcomed into people’s homes and lives because we come in the name of Jesus. After working all day we share stories, sing songs of praise and hear the word of God in a new and powerful way. This is the way that we should be growing as Christians at all times in our lives and we must seek out ways in which to serve thusly. We remember that Scripture teaches us, “The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.” (Galatians 5:6). Look for opportunities in your life to use your spiritual gifts and graces to serve others and grow in faith and thus experience real life in God – faith expressed through love. In our salvation by faith we are freed by Christ from our self-centered lives to experience this life: “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery . . . You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love.” (Galatians 5:1,13). Christ will bless you tremendously as you live out your faith in serving others in love. Selah
Steve