"Changes & Choices"

Dear Friends,
This month represents change in many of those in our congregation.
Graduation from high school or college is just around the corner for many young people who are seniors from these age groups.
Change affecting our congregation represents those graduating from kindergarten to those of our congregation that are downsizing and moving from a house to an apartment or even another town with a new address!  And the reverse is true on another scale, a young married couple moving from an apartment or rental property to their first new home.
Change fights for our attention from politicians to resetting our clocks for day light savings time!
Not long ago in my morning devotions I came across Philippians 2:9-11 this verse declares “at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.”  This verse reminds me that in the midst of all the change we face, some good some bad, and all the uncertainty that can loom around us, that someday Jesus Christ will step into the world scene and bring all of this to a conclusion.  His presence and appearance will bring all of us to our knees.  I’m not sure when it will happen, I’m not sure how it will happen, but I am certain it will happen!
Every person who leaves this life will bow before Jesus.  You will account for yourself.  You will answer for the choices you have made.
We can recover eternally despite some bad choices, but we cannot get this one wrong.  We can avoid God but not for more than an earthly lifetime!  Jesus Christ is Lord, and someday every knee will bow to Him as the Master.  The ultimate authority.
If life is about one thing, it’s about getting this ultimate authority relationship figured out!   Who is really in charge!?  Of my life? My choices? My changes? I pray it is Jesus Christ your Lord!  No matter what we accomplish in this world, if we don’t get this figured out, we will have nothing!
The ultimate test of lordship is not the crisis of your deciding to believe, but the process of submitting your will to His will!  Whose will wins: yours or His?
Everybody serves somebody!
What do you bow down to?  You’ll find the answer to whom you serve in your response!
What does your choice look like?  If it doesn’t include Jesus Christ, there is still time to change your choice! Do it today!

Blessings!
Pastor Wayne

“Love Letters”

     Scattered in the top drawer of my desk in my office are colored and crumpled post-it-notes that reveal a child’s handwriting. They are notes from my grandchildren and one in particular!

     In the only way a child could express themselves, they reveal love, encouragement and compassion! They also tell of a relationship between a granddaughter and her grandpa!

     I save them for a couple of reasons.

     First, they remind me that I am not alone. I have grandchildren that love me.

     Second, when I open my drawer looking for something else, they are an unexpected surprise that pop up to bring a smile to my face when I reread their little messages.  They bring back memories of a little face missing two teeth smiling back at me!

     These “love letters” are also precious to me because I know that they will end. I know as the years go by they won’t get written as frequently as they did.

     Does that mean my grandchildren don’t love me as much as they used too? No. It just means that as their lives get pressed with more activities it’s quicker to call or to text!

     And so these notes become more precious to me than gold coins!

     As we celebrate Easter this month, I am reminded of God’s love for his children. That is you and me! I am reminded that God sent his Son, Jesus, so that we might have life!  I am reminded that I am loved! I am reminded that I am not alone. “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life” John 3:16

     Easter reminds us that as a child of a living God that our Creator wants a relationship with us. The cross of Christ, his death and resurrection, bridges the gap that sin wedged between our God and who we are as individuals who need salvation.

     Maybe it has been a long time since you have had a conversation with God that expressed your child like faith or maybe life has bruised you and pressed your relationship with God into a distant shell of what it used to be. If you have felt this way, it is not too late to reach out to Him!

     This Easter may you praise God for his resurrection power that includes you in His plan of salvation through Christ!

     Now that is the ultimate post-it-note!

     Have a Blessed Easter!

Pastor Wayne Sneller