Walking in the Light or Believing in Christ.

As a married man how often should I remember that I am married, and how often should I seek to please my wife? Lapses in this area are not to be views as proper. Yet for too many Christians, members of the bride of Christ, it is the norm to forget their Groom, along with a disregard concerning what might please him.

Too often in the Church the call to believe in Christ is limited to the area of one's salvation. For example we might understand that Christ is our 'ticket' to heaven, while other aspects of our life are left up to us. Yet God calls us to trust the Lord not only for the eternal safe keeping of our soul, but for his advise, counsel and commands regarding our walk through this world.

All of us, in some areas of our lives, do not listen to the Lord. While there are some who seek to listen to the Lord more than others, sadly there are too many people in our churches who consider listening to and following the counsel of the Lord as an optional part of their life. For the Lord's sake, because His name is upon us, let us forsake our own way, and own him as the Lord and Redeemer of our whole life.

^ESV 1Co 6:19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, ²⁰ for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

Dreaming!

If I were God I would plan for my ministry here to be, not too spectacular, but steady and faithful with the church body growing in the knowledge of the Lord and in faith. And yes, the number of people, not just attending, but coming to know Christ and joining the church, would be noticeable. However, as you may have guess I am not God. He is the Lord and master and I am, but, his servant. He has not told me what is ahead.

Two months have flown by since I started here. While some aspects of this ministry are going along as I might have hope there are a couple of items that God has seen fit to do differently that I would have.

The first item, my first funeral would have been an older faithful brother or sister. It wasn't.

The second, one member has told the deacons and myself “You do what you need to do, but I will do . . .” I do have a desire to see each of these sheep walking in the paths of righteousness. But sometimes some do not! If we would be a faithful body of believers we must address the one(s) who get caught up in the desires of the world, the flesh or the mind and, at least for the moment, do not desire to walk with the Lord.

Why am I sad regarding this person? Is it over the soul of one who has been one of us​? Or am I sad because something is not going according to 'my dream'?

Yet these circumstances give the larger body of believers an opportunity to be faithful in addressing the issue of sin in a brother. This is something this fellowship has not handled well in the past. However, this times we have, so far. Praise his Name!

My friend, Owen Strachan, has just posted a blog addressing the topic of memorization of Scripture. http://consumedblog.blogspot.com/ If you read this at a later date look for the post dated July 8.

Somewhat accidentally we started a church memorization project. I need to work on this myself. To see members of the church, husbands and wives or friends working together, encouraging each other, to learn Scripture, has been a joy. At present our plan is to memorize a short passage each month.

God in his grace has gotten us started. To paraphrase a verse, “How can we neglect so great a gift?” Owen's post was a timely reminder that we need to plan to make this project a success, With the blessing of the Lord, we shall.