This week's "Reflection" by Gary Keith, Executive & Teaching PastorDependent
Romans 4:1-15
In the last two weeks while studying Romans 3 and 4, I have noticed that Paul has repeated himself nearly a dozen times with the statement, “We are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law.” It seems that he is intentionally repeating himself to make a point. This is probably because in our everyday world, we make our way by working and earning our place with people. And then we come to our relationship with God and we think it is the same. But with God it is just the opposite. With God we receive a free gift through faith – there is no earning involved.
I know that most Christians know this, but what about living it? Without frequent reminders we can easily fall back into thinking our relationship with God is about earning our rightness. How do you keep yourself mindful that with God it is about grace? How do you guard yourself from thinking that all the good things you do somehow earn your rightness with God?
Hi Pastor Gary; Since your looking and all, I though I would pass along a good reference for a teaching pastor at LBF. His name is Scott Thibodo. I worked for him 15 years ago at Sunrise Church in Rialto as his secretary for Adult Ministries. He and is family are still friends of mine and have been a significant blessing to our family. He is presently working for High Desert Church in Victorville as the Missions pastor and I asked his permission to pass his number along.
ReplyDeleteI don't know how you work these things, but maybe a guest teaching appearance (so-to-speak) would be permitted to see if he is "liked" by the body of our church. I hope you would consider him and I'm sure that Dave and Tamara Quinn as well as Linda Harding (past member) would agree about his love for God. Thank you. Crystal Lee