Stretch Toward the Goal!

We are about to enter the fifth month of the “new” year.
The question we need to ask ourselves is, “What have I done for God? How am I doing in moving toward being a new person?”
This whole year of concentrating on repentance and transformation also requires a fair amount of self-reflection and self-accountability. If we believe in the ritual baptism of our church and ourselves we did on Ash Wednesday, expecting resurrection in ourselves and in our church, then we have to consistently monitor where we are as opposed to where we want to be.
December will be here before we know it.
We have agreed upon the statement that if we always do what we’ve always done, we will always be what we’ve always been. In a year of repentance and transformation, that sameness is unacceptable and if we end up this year the same, then we will not have met our goals of repentance and transformation.
As we turn away from the old, and turn toward God, there ought to be a laser-type divine light that burns through to our souls and spirits, burning out the old so that there can be newness in us. And in order for that to be the case, we have to say to God, “Here am I! Send me! Use me!” In a year of transformation and repentance, there is no room for excuses.
We spent time this week in our quarterly meeting stating what we want our church to be like at the end of this year…and so the question I ask of us all is, “How do I contribute to making that change happen?” We have to ask ourselves as individuals and as a church, “How do I make this chapter of the book we ultimately present to God a new chapter and not just a rearrangement of the same plot and storyline of the chapter we are in, and past chapters?”
If we want our income to be more, what do we do? If we want our ministries to be stronger, again, what do we do? It is almost as if we are asking, “What must we do to be saved?” We are trying to save ourselves and our church from having the same story, the same testimony, and the same issues.
There is nothing stopping us, as a church and as individuals, from radical transformation, nothing, that is, except our own self-barriers. The prayer I have is that we identify those barriers and, with God’s help, move them out of the way. If the stone could not keep Jesus in the tomb, surely the barriers in our lives cannot keep us from repentance, transformation and ultimately, resurrection.
Sing to the Lord a new song! Sing as you work and pray and move and as WE as a church work, pray and move. O happy day! That’s what we want our Watch Night service in December to be- a testament to a goal taken on and met.
Have a good week!
Pastor Smith