Pastor Robert J. Freysinger
The Journey, Walking the Road to Bethlehem, by Adam Hamilton, took us from the angel speaking to Mary and Joseph, to the home of Elizabeth and along the path from Nazareth to Bethlehem. Great insights came from listening to and watching the video each week as we took our own personal journeys to the birth of our Savior. I have heard a lot of good comments about the video and how individuals have learned information about the birth of the Christ Child that they had never heard before. I am thankful that Adam Hamilton was able to put this video and book together as I have also learned a great deal from the work that he and his staff have done.
The New Year is upon us in just a few short days. We will begin the journey of the New Year with a form of the Covenant Service that John Wesley developed for the people called Methodists. This service will give you an opportunity to commit yourself to growing in your faith throughout the year. Wesley challenged us to see faith as a journey toward Sanctification or Christian Perfection. Sanctifying grace is the work of the Holy Spirit that comes through modeling our lives after Christ. This challenges us to live a life that is motivated by responding to God’s grace and love, and letting our lives be filled with acts of love and grace. This is a very short paraphrase for understanding Sanctifying Grace and moving on to Christian Perfection. The key for me to understanding this life journey is that it does not call us to become perfect, but to be perfected in love.
What does that mean? It means having our priorities in the right order, and then acting on our priorities so that others receive God’s blessing through us. We are challenged to place our priorities in the following order: God first, Others second, Ourselves third. When this takes place we find that our lives take on a new richness that we have not known before. Think about it this way:
1. Receive – Receive God’s grace and love in our lives.
a. This is the saving grace that comes from believing in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.
b. This calls us to turn toward God, repent of our sins, and receive forgiveness.
c. Live a new life that focuses who we are on living so that others receive God’s grace through our actions and words.
2. Respond – Respond to this grace by consciously letting your motivations change from being self-centered, (our human nature) to becoming God centered and other centered.
a. Letting the Holy Spirit work in you to change your motivations is a lifelong process.
b. When the going gets tough and we find ourselves challenged, our basic instincts of fight or fight jump in and our actions become motivated by emotional reactions rather than thoughtful responses.
c. Even when we don’t want to fall away from this path, we will find times when we react in purely self-centered ways. This does not mean that we don’t trust God in our lives, or that we have fallen out of God’s grace, but that we are human and our nature does not disappear completely when we become followers of Christ.
3. Know God’s blessing and assurance.
a. Practice makes perfect. In the journey of faith, the practice of responding to God’s grace and love in our lives leads us toward Christian perfection.
b. The more we accept God’s grace and love and let it motivate us through thoughtful loving actions the deeper our convictions grow and the more we begin to trust these new motivations.
c. As we experience this change in motivation we will experience a deeper assurance of God’s grace in our lives and know the blessing that God bestows upon us.
As we enter this New Year, receive anew the gift of God’s grace and love through Jesus Christ, respond to this gift with new motivations that lead to new actions, and know the blessing and assurance that comes from a life lived with your priorities set to God’s Kingdom here on earth as it will be in heaven.
Have a joyous new year! See you in Church!
Pastor Bob