Text Box: This week I attended our denomination’s General Council in Louisville, Kentucky. In addition to connecting with old and new friends who are pastors in various parts of our country, I was also challenged by the teaching of God’s word during our worship services. There are nuggets of truth that I hope to adapt into my own walk of faith, as well as make a part of how I serve as pastor. A missionary to Spain shared a thought that he used in planting a new church in that nation. He said that he was “building bridges of trust strong enough to carry the weight of truth.” He called Spain an ex-Catholic culture which is very suspicious of any form of religion. Before he could proclaim Jesus as “the Way, the Truth, and the Life,” (John 14:6) bridges of trust needed to be established so the hearers would understand. May I suggest that the messenger of the gospel message is as significant as the gospel message. If lovers of Hitler were to preach the gospel to Jews, there would almost certainly be no conversions. When a preacher is exposed for living a double life, he can actually influence more people to reject the message of Jesus than he influences to receive Jesus. In the words of Paul, “many live as enemies of the cross of Christ.” (Phil 3:18) He was speaking of believers. To be balanced, God uses flawed vessels to communicate His truth. II Cor 4:7 says, “But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing Text Box: power is from God and not from us.” The treasure is the gospel of Jesus and we are imperfect people who God uses, even in our weakness. The challenge is that we need to live a life that supports the truth of the gospel. Jesus said in John 13:35, “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." In other words, people who love, create a bridge of trust strong enough to support the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I confess that there are certain people I find hard to love. I am not very loving when I get calls from telemarketers selling their products. Thank God for caller ID. The church gets many calls a week from Christian companies selling their wares. My responses are not always loving. What I find annoying about those calls is that people act like they care or love you because they want to make money from your trust. In truth, they love your money more than you. When we tell others about Jesus we need to be careful not to act like telemarketers. Too many non-Christians identify with my feelings towards sales calls when a Christian starts to share their faith. The bridge of trust has not been properly built. We have the greatest message ever proclaimed—Jesus came to save sinners. Our lost neighbors need to hear this great truth. May God help us build bridges of trust so this great message can be shared. God bless!

Yard Sale

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Spring Cleaning

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Faith & Reason

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June Events

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Church Picnic

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Youth Events

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Father’s Day

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Text Box: Building Bridges to Share Christ Text Box: June 2009 Text Box: Text Box: Gospel News