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HAPPY NEW YEAR!
1 John 4:4 ... greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.
It is both a delight and a privilege to be able to fill in for Pastor Porter while he continues his recovery in rehab. Our prayers still go forth in his behalf for the Lord to heal his body, and if He will, for him to be able to get back to his home and the ministry that he has labored in for such a long time. Continue to pray without ceasing.
So much is happening in the news that it becomes mind boggling, as well as difficult to deal with any one thing. If you were to put them all together however, they would form a pattern for us all to understand. This pattern began in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve sinned. Ever since, man had made a mess of things, corrupting and perverting most everything he gets his hands on. We look at our country of the United States and see very little distinction between ourselves and any other country, other than the materialism factor. But where has this materialism taken us? To be filled and consumed with ourselves to the degree of forgetting what we are here to do for the Lord Jesus Christ, and masterfully excusing away that kind of behavior. Why, we hear about professing Christian’s who can go days, weeks, months, and years without being faithful to the Lord’s house, or live separated lives to the Lord and from the world, or give out a gospel witness. I surely hope that doesn’t speak of you or me.
When the church becomes so like the world, it is very understandable why the world has such a shallow, ungodly interest in the church: it is just like them! Just last week I read of a person who heaped praises on a particular pastor because he was so much like the lost person praising him. Why, he dressed like him, drank like him, spoke like him, and went to the same places that this person did. Wow! What an indictment on the state of many churches and pastors today. Again, I surely hope that this doesn’t speak of you or me.
Let’s determine with action that our lives are going to count for the Lord this year, no matter how widespread the declension from the Word of God becomes, or how much the government seeks to oppress us. I John 4:4 should strengthen our spirits and courage: “Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.” Amen.
Well, you have heard from a substitute. It would be good to hear from you.
Pastor Mike Eccleston
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