The Presence of God

Acts 17: 26-28

“26 From one ancestor he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, 27 so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him—though indeed he is not far from each one of us. 28 For ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, “For we too are his offspring.”

Paul was in Athens, preaching at the Areopagus.  He was telling the Greeks who were gathered there about God and Christ.  He told them about the one true God who dwells in us; the God who came to earth and dwelled among us and died for us and was resurrected and ascended into heaven.  And after he had said all this, some of the Greeks laughed.  

They laughed because they could not imagine such a God as Paul described.  A God who loved us so much that he sent his son to die for us so that we would have eternal life.

Even today, this is hard for some people to believe; that God is in the world, not far from each of us; that we are children of God; that we live and die in the presence and love of God.

It is God’s desire to be near to us.  Invite Him into your heart.

May the love of Christ be with you

Rev. Eric Lanier

The Holy Spirit

Luke 24:48-49

“48 You are witnesses of these things. 49 I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”

The Disciples were told by Jesus to stay in Jerusalem and await the coming of the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit did come, and gave the Disciples the power they would need for the lives they were to lead after the ascension of Christ.

The Holy Spirit is crucial in the life of every Christian, even today.  The Holy Spirit leads us and guides us into an ever deepening relationship with God.  The Apostle Paul told Christians never to quench the Holy Spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:19).  We quench the Holy Spirit when we fail to listen, when we fail to be guided, when we fail to act.

To be effective witnesses through our words, our actions and the way we live our lives, we must open our hearts to the voice of the Holy Spirit.

May the Holy Spirit fill us all with the desire to know the one true God.

Rev. Eric Lanier

The Good News

1 Corinthians 15:1-2

“Now I would remind you, brothers and sisters, of the good news that I proclaimed to you, which you in turn received, in which also you stand, 2 through which also you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message that I proclaimed to you—unless you have come to believe in vain.”

Paul is reminding the Corinthians of the good news.  The Corinthians seem to have forgotten it.  The people in the church of Corinth were suffering from arrogance, jealousy, factions, quarrels, and a variety of other problems and sins.  So Paul reminds them of why the church exists.  The good news.  The gospel.   Christ.  

Because of the good news, we have eternal life.  If we are the church, we are the tellers of this good news; the examples of the good news.  It is because of the good news that the church stands.

Let us hold firmly to the message of the good news.  It is our hope, and it is the hope of the world.

May the love of Christ be with you

Rev. Eric Lanier

Examples of the Kingdom

Colossians 3: 1-2

“Since you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.”

Paul asks that the Colossians concentrate on eternal things, the things of God, rather than earthly things.  If you read further in chapter 3, you will discover that the Colossians had a whole list of “earthly things” that occupied their time.  

As a people of faith, we live in the world, but we are not of the world.  We belong to the Kingdom of God, a kingdom in which love, and mercy and forgiveness reign.  Our lives are to be an example of this kingdom to the rest of the world.

May the love of Christ be with you,

Rev. Eric Lanier

Examples of Faith

1 Thessalonians 1:3 

“3 We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.”

When I think back over all the people that I have known in my life I remember a lot of the good things that they did.  These good works have been an inspiration to me over the years.  

But most of all, I remember the love in which they performed these things and the hope that they gave to me that, maybe, someday, I would know Christ the way they did.

Let all of our good works be examples of our faith and our love of Jesus Christ. 

May the love of Christ be with you,

Rev. Eric Lanier

Knowing Christ

1 John 1: 1-4

“1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. 2 The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. 3 We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4 We write this to make our joy complete.”

It is important that we read and study the life and teachings of Christ.  It is equally, if not more, important that we experience Christ; that we have a personal relationship with Him. Our witness to this world is dependent not only on our knowledge of Christ but our knowing Him.

When we know Him, not only will we testify by our words but through our lives. And with our whole being we will proclaim what we have seen and heard.

May the love of Christ be with you,

Rev. Eric Lanier

What the Lord Wants

Micah 6: 6-8

“6 With what shall I come before the Lord and bow down before the exalted God?Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of olive oil?Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?  8 He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”

We struggle to please God.  What does the Lord want?  Should we give him a clean, well groomed church?  Should we increase our giving?  Should we build a multi-purpose building?  Should we put in new carpet?  Should we start a new program?  Should we develop a new web site?  

The Israelites struggled with these same questions.  And the prophet Micah said (to paraphrase him), what the Lord wants first and foremost is a change in your hearts.  He wants you to be transformed into a new creation.   He wants you to live motivated by love; to become a child of God and to walk with Him daily.

And once this happens, everything else will fall into place.

May the love of Christ be with you,

Rev. Eric Lanier