Those of you live in the area join
us this evening for our weekly Television outreach at 7 PM on Time Warner Cable
channel 4. I will preaching on "The Lord is Our Strength. He is our song. He
has become our salvation". Our Youth will gather for special youth event
tomorrow, Saturday September 27 at 5:30 PM. We will be serving Pizza, Chicken
wings and ice cream - all youth-friendly foods. Our Russian friends Mike and
Eugene will be ministering in music and the Word.
We will meet for worship Sunday at
8:30 and 11:00 at Union Center and at 9:30 at Wesley UMC. Sunday school will
meet at 9:50 AM. I will be preaching on Mannaburgers and Barbecued Quails",
based on Exodus 15. Plan to be in the Lord's house wherever you might be.
When the saints sing and shout the praises of the Lord Satan trembles and
flees.
In his book, "The Great Divorce", C. S. Lewis described a young
man who is tormented by a red lizard that sits on his shoulder and mocks him.
For Lewis, the lizard represents the indwelling sin all of us struggle with. An
angel comes and promises to get rid of the red lizard, and the man, for the
moment, takes great joy in that. He's thrilled. I can be rid of
this thing. And then he realizes the way the angel will get rid
of it, as the angel begins to glow with a fiery heat. He will kill the lizard.
Beginning to recognize the implications, the young man says, "Maybe you don't
have to kill it. Maybe you don't have to get rid of it entirely. Can't we just
do this another time?" The angel says, "In this moment are all moments. Either
you want the red lizard to live or you do not." The lizard, recognizing the
hesitation of the young man, begins to mock and plead at the same
time.
"Be careful. He can do what he
says. He can kill me. One fatal word from you and he will. Then you'll be
without me forever and ever. It's not natural. How could you live? You'll
only be a sort of a ghost, not a real man as you are now. He doesn't
understand. He's only a cold, bloodless, abstract thing. It may be natural for
him, but it's not natural for us. I know there are no real pleasures, only
dreams, but aren't they better than nothing? I'll be so good. I admit I've
gone too far in the past, but I promise I won't do it again. I'll give you
nothing but really nice dreams, all sweet and fresh and almost
innocent.
For C. S. Lewis, these words typify
for all of us the way in which we compromise and allow indwelling sin in our
lives. It is with such words that we allow the lizards of sin to live that
torment us.
It is written "So I tell you this,
and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do,
in the futility of their thinking," (Ephesians 4:17). These are strong
words. It always difficult to say to others--- we must not live as the rest of
the world. The apostle knows he must say it: When we are really in Christ
Jesus, we are walking a different path. May we continue to walk in His light
and under His grace. May He provoke us to walk with joyfully, serve Him with
self abandon... Looking unto Jesus the author and the pioneer of our
faith.
In Him,
Brown
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