Tidbits from Yesterday's Sermon
If we fit in comfortably with the world, something is wrong.
If we are living a life of ease, we need to examine our salvation. No Christian will live a life of ease.
The Christian life is a life of hardship -- It is a life of taking up our Cross and following. God hasn't promised us "flowery beds of ease" but rather grace which is sufficient!
Let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith!
If we are living a life of ease, we need to examine our salvation. No Christian will live a life of ease.
The Christian life is a life of hardship -- It is a life of taking up our Cross and following. God hasn't promised us "flowery beds of ease" but rather grace which is sufficient!
Let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith!
posted by Crystal Paine at 2:21 PM
10 Comments:
So true.....
Okay, I'm convicted just reading those two sentences. :)
Crystal,
I was wondering what denomination the church you attend is?
We are church home hunting.
TIA
Carey
Wonderful "tidbits"! Just curious...what kind of church do you go to? The small parts of sermons that you've posted always sound great, but it's often hard to find churches that preach truth like that...
I don't necessarily agree with the second statement. Yes, we, as Christians will face many hardships but God is gracious and gives Christians times of blessing.
I have my little hardships throughout the day but I have been through some bad times and good times. I am going through a period of good times right now. I don't think this is because I am not a Christian. I don't know if this is what you mean but I used to go to a church that stressed that if your life was easy you weren't a good Christian. In fact they went as far as to say that you never really knew if you were saved. I guess that is why I am very wary of Reformed churches. I love reformed doctrine and was raised on it but I have seen a lot of bad stuff come from them.
Just wanted to clarify that I have been to some very good reformed churches but do not attend one because of the distance. My husband and I believe we should be in a local church. Fortunately, we have been able to find a biblically sound church, though we don't agree with everything it teaches.
Zan, just to clarify, I don't believe that all of our life will just be full of miserable trials, but I do believe that "All who live Godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution."
Scripture is replete with examples of those who went through much suffering, persecution, and testing for the sake of the Gospel. As Christians, we are in a spiritual battle everyday. But, we have the Lord on our side.
Of course there are times of great blessing and, no matter what is going on around us, we have the joy of the Lord and His grace which is sufficient.
By the way, I've never attended a church that believes you can never know if you are truly saved. I do believe that once you are truly saved, your life will be completely changed forever. Repentance is a turning from sin and a turning to God. You will know assuredly that your life has been changed.
To answer those people who asked what church we go to, we are currently attending a Reformed Baptist church -- it's an hour away from where we live, but every bit worth the drive. We found it on the Uniting Church and Home website.
I wonder what fitting in means. Seems to me that Jesus fit in rather well with sinners of all sorts. Does being able to be around people that are not Christians mean that we are fitting in with them? Or does it mean something else?
Just curious and wanting to think about this statement a little more.
On Sunday we had a sermon from Colossians,Chapter 3:18-21.The pastor talked about submission and husbands being the head of household and leading the family.I thought it was timly to read the post on Monday about Feminism and then I read Amy's blog.
I expect hardships in this life. Christianity is not a bed of roses. I don't think we should go seeking hardship, though. I have seen Christians who purposely look to make their life more difficult. Now, some people might argue that homeschooling makes life more difficult but I don't agree. Not every choice we make will be the easy one but we should not necessarily choose the hard one just because it is hard.
When I was growing up we always traveled and hour or more to church. My husband and I won't do this now because we believe that it is important to be in a local church. If you are an hour away it is hard to be involved. I am not telling you where to worship, btw. My sister travels and hour plus to go to church. Because of the distance her and her family are rarely able to attend every Sunday because of weather or sickness.
I don't want to start a conversation about how far you should or should not travel to church. I knew on family who traveled 6 hrs. (I'm not kidding). My parents traveled over an hour for almost 8 yrs but now they attend a local Lutheran church because they realize the importance of a local church. They also don't have any little children at home. I was raised in churches that had no children or young families we could relate to. If that is the reason you guys travel so far then it is probably a good one.
I have been to a lot of churches and I understand that I will never find the perfect church.
Zan, I don't think we should do things just to try to make life difficult -- no way! I always seem to have plenty of things to trust God about and lay at His feet without having to go out looking for trials. :)
I totally agree that it is better to be close to a church -- we having been looking for a church for a few months and just found this church three weeks ago. As soon as Jesse is done with school, we are planning to move to be close to the church. For now, we are glad that their service and fellowship time lasts from 9:30 - 3:00 every Sunday so that we can make the most of it! We were just looking for a church where there were likeminded families -- in both practice and doctrine -- we aren't too particular and we know there is no perfect church. The church environment around here is just really, really dry. It has been difficult for us to be without a strong church fellowship for quite some time, but it really caused us to rely upon the Lord and each other -- which has been a good thing for the beginning of our marriage. But, we also believe that being in a good church fellowship, when at all possible, is very important for spiritual growth and accountability.
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