Blessings, friends and family of BBT.  It was so good to see you last Sunday!  We had some folks back with us that we hadn’t seen in a while.  The church is missing parts when you’re not there.  We were still missing others though.  I’m looking forward to the day when we are all able to gather again.

Linda gave us a little refresher on how we can share our faith, reminding us that we’re here to make disciples and that’s where it starts.  Pastor David spoke on the importance of our motivations.  God is looking at our hearts.  We can do all the right things for all the wrong reasons.  We should be doing them out of love for God.

Last week I was reading a book about Christians around the world who are living their faith in the face of extreme persecution.  It started me thinking about what it really means to follow Jesus.  We have it pretty easy here in America, at least so far.  But even here we may be called upon to die for our faith like those people in Oregon who were shot to death for saying they were Christians.  The truth is that the call on all of us is the same.  Jesus said this in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 16.

²⁴ Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. ²⁵ For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. ²⁶ For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? ²⁷ “For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and ‘will then repay every man according to his deeds.’”

Salvation is a free gift (Eph 2:8-10.)  The thief on the cross who believed at the last moment is hanging out in Heaven with the likes of the apostle Paul.  None of us can earn it.  None of us deserve it.  Yet when we accept it, we are making a choice that changes our lives.  Jesus has called us all to a life of sacrifice.  We don’t live for ourselves anymore.  We live for Him.  We die to ourselves that we might have life eternally.  this is what it means to follow Him.

I hope you’ll join us this Sunday.  Pray for each other.  Pray for us.  And let God use you to be an answer to prayer.

Be blessed to be a blessing,

Larry