Happy In Jesus Christ!!!
Beloved,
I hope and pray that your Thanksgiving holiday was truly a day of thanksgiving as we know that every day should be.
I enjoyed time with family and friends while also thinking of you, my beloved Zion Memorial Missionary Baptist Church family. We spent some time remembering our loved ones who have transitioned to the other side of glory and we celebrated the recent homegoing of my father, our first Thanksgiving without him.
Some of the things that we go through in life give us opportunities for celebration as well as opportunities for reflection.
In this Christmas season, I hope and pray that we will celebrate Jesus Christ, reflect on Jesus Christ and be happy in Jesus Christ.
The Apostle Peter wrote in 1 Peter 1:3-6, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials..."
Why should you be happy in Jesus Christ?
Through His resurrection and your salvation, you have great mercy, new birth (or new life), living hope, an inheritance, heaven, protection, and power.
Talk about some stocking stuffers.
In your search of the internet, department store catalogs, offers on television, has anyone offered you such things?
God has given us so much and what does God want us to do? Rejoice.
We need to rejoice so that we can remind ourselves of such things when life takes a twist or turn that we do not like. You are going to go through something sometime somewhere with somebody. Will you dare, in that moment, to continue to look to Christ?
You should.
Why? Because, as the scripture tells us, what you are going through is only for a little while.
Everything we have been given by God is eternal. The pathway, your life journey, in getting there, is temporal, only for a little while.
As some say, you can lose sight of the forest by focusing on the trees. While your moment by moment experience may not always be perfectly wonderful, blissful and bring a smile to your face, all you have to do is remember what you do have...and rejoice!
Why? Through His resurrection and your salvation, you have great mercy, new birth (or new life), living hope, an inheritance, heaven, protection, and power. So, rejoice!
Child of God, that will never change. So, be happy in Jesus Christ!
Beloved, this evening at 6:30pm, we will gather together for the first of our last two HOPE Wednesday sessions of 2019. Our topic for this evening is Gentleness.
We have had a couple of Wednesdays away due to my surgery and the Thanksgiving holiday. I hope and pray that this respite will not rob you of your desire to come to fellowship together and study God's word together. I hope and pray that you will come and bring someone with you. Believe me, after my surgery, it would be so much easier to stay home and rest; but, I love God too much and I love you too much to fold my hands, kick up my heels, and simply sit when I could be in your presence as we dialogue and wrestle for greater wisdom and understanding from the life-changing word of God. I can rest on the other side of glory. I want to help make sure as many of us who can will be there to rest too. So, again, you come and you bring someone with you.
And, remember, God loves you and I love you too!
Be blessed, Rev. Cain
