Blessings to you, loved ones.  Here’s what’s happening.

It was good to see most of our folks back last week.  Even Teresa made it.  Until we get the bus fixed we’ll still be missing a few, so pray for a quick turnaround on that.  We enjoyed Priscilla’s humble encouragement and I hope we took up her challenge.  She took Pastor David’s exhortation to do something good for someone that he always gave at the end of the service and multiplied it 7 times.  She told us to do something good for someone every day!  I spoke from Proverbs 3:5-6. 2018 was maybe the toughest hear we’ve had, certainly since I have been here.  The message I have is just the one that has sustained me.  We cannot understand fulling what God is doing, but we know what kind of god He is.  So in this new year we will do what we know, and we will choose to trust Him in what we don’t.

This week, my heart has been heavy for a different reason.  I was thinking about someone I know of who recently passed away.  Only God knows the state of their heart, but I had reason to suspect that they really didn’t know the Lord.  I did not know they were going to die, but I knew it was a possibility.  I made no effort to find out where they stood.

That led me to the verses that will be the basis for this week’s message,  They are from Ezekiel 3:17-21.  Here Yahweh continues His instruction to the prophet Ezekiel with a sobering warning.  He must speak the words that are given to him to warn both the wicked and the righteous away from wickedness.  If he does not do so, anyone who dies unrepentant because they did not hear the message that he was to deliver, God will charge to Ezekiel.

Whenever we read scripture, we should be careful not to take it out of context.  What we read here is a specific commission to a specific person for a specific reason.  However, it does tell us something about our responsibility before God with what He has given to us.  It shows us what justice looks like to Him.  We may not receive real-time dictation from on high, though that is not out of the question, but there are certain truths that we all know.  If we see danger coming and do nothing at all to warn those in its path, how can we stand before a holy God?  How would we feel about someone in the natural world allowing a disaster to happen that they could have prevented?  Nothing here compares to eternal destruction!  Were it not for His mercy and willingness to forgive, I suspect we’d all have blood on our hands that wouldn’t wash away.  Let us all resolve to be faithful with the truth we know and be certain that we have done all that we can do to help save those headed for destruction.

Keep praying, keep trusting, and come worship with us this Sunday.

Love y’all!

Larry