February 8, 2019
Hello John Wesley members and friends,
I find myself thinking about Romans 6:8, "Now, if we die with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him." What does it mean to die with Christ? It means to die to all our selfish desires and all our misplaced priorities because we have given our all over to God as Christ did when Jesus died at Calvary. Jesus trusted God so completely that he could let go of life knowing what God replaced his life with would be so much better. In these United States of America, people have religious freedom and thus none have to die for their faith. But if we did, do we trust God enough to believe that what God replaces our life with would be so much better than the life we are currently living? God allowed Jesus to die and Christ to live, that begs the question, what does it mean to live with Christ? It means to live life believing that God is in control of the physical world and the spiritual world. It means living life with knowledge that our Sovereign Lord is in control of all that occurs, whether we perceive it as positive or negative because God can turn that which we perceive as negative to positive and vice versa. This is the heart of the spiritual journey, once we have accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior of our lives, then we must live lives that testify that we trust God in life and in death. Let trusting God be your guiding principle.
Blessings,
Pastor Woods-Barrant