Pastor Deb’s Page

Here we are already looking forward to the  fall season and I hope that we are falling upward!!  Just as some of the trees let go of their dead leaves in the fall we too are constantly learning the lesson of letting go….letting go of whatever stands in our way of living the new life we are called to live in the LORD.  Attitudes, expectations, sin that binds us, people, places and things that we attach to over and above the desire and willingness to please God are naturally released when we seek to please the LORD. Letting go is a growth process that is inevitable and when accepted brings freedom that endures.

Resurrection is a rising to life from all that needs to die in us and overcomes the fear of dying itself.  Looking upward and beyond whatever is released to the blessing that fills the void when we realize that God is always and forever present in the spaces within and outside of us dwelling not as material things but in Spirit is what we must remember.  It is the Spirit that brings us hope and help in letting go of what is not life giving and sustaining to us! 

I want to share with you a passage from I Corinthians 15 from The Message translation for your consideration:

 “I need to emphasize, friends, that our natural, earthy lives don’t in themselves lead us by their very nature into the kingdom of God.  Their very ‘nature’ is to die, so how could they ‘naturally’ end up in the Life kingdom? 

But let me tell you something wonderful, a mystery I’ll probably never fully understand.  We’re not all going to die—but we are all going to be changed.  You hear a blast to end all blasts from a trumpet, and in the time that you look up and blink your eyes—it’s over.  On signal from that trumpet from heaven, the dead will be up and out of their graves, beyond the reach of death, never to die again. At the same moment and in the same way, we’ll all be changed.  In the resurrection scheme of things, this has to happen:  everything perishable is taken off the shelves and replaced by the imperishable, this mortal replaced by the immortal.  Then the saying will come true: ‘Death swallowed by triumphant Life!  Who got the last word, oh, Death? Oh, Death, who’s afraid of you now?

It was sin that made death so frightening and law-code guilt that gave sin its leverage, its destructive power.  But now in a single victorious stroke of Life, all three—sin, guilt, death—are gone, the gift of our Master, Jesus Christ.  Thank God!

With all this going for us, my dear, dear friends, stand your ground.  And don’t hold back.  Throw yourselves into the work of the Master, confident that nothing you do for him is a waste of time or effort.”

Fall is a time of planning and living into the next season, a time of preparation for what and who is coming.  I pray that all of us will be intentional and confident about our work together. May we have confidence as we move forward that when we continue to work for the imperishable we will find joy and freedom! Let us keep our sights on the spiritual gifts of God in Christ Jesus that we might be lifted up and not weighed down.  Be fearless and encouraged by God’s Spirit within that never dies and brings LIFE!

Live Life with love, until we meet again!  Pastor Deb

August 2023