Dear Church Family –
We’re off to a great start on our Life Action conference! First, we confronted the reality that human beings routinely seek substitutes for God. Then we confronted our own personal form of substitutes for God. Sobering. Convicting. Freeing.
Thank you for your personal response to God.
I was moved this morning to read about Saturday’s mass shooting at a mall in the Dallas area. At least 8 people were killed and several others critically wounded. It’s a terrible tragedy and we grieve and mourn with the families and with the state of our society.
C.S. Lewis was right: “All that we call human history—money, poverty, ambition, war, prostitution, classes, empires, slavery—is the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.”
All around us, including in our own hearts, is the suffering and sorrow of seeking substitutes for God.
“’Be appalled, O heavens, at this, and shudder, be very desolate,’ declares the Lord, ‘For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, to hew for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water.’” (Jer 2:12-13)
But here’s what moved me about the reports of Saturday’s mass shooting: One of the first people who arrived on the scene Saturday to help, found a child covered by his mother. She died protecting him. As one news writer observed: “That boy, as long as he lives, will always know how sacrificially he was loved. Every time you see a cross, remember that the same is true for you.”
See you tonight at 7 for our fourth session with Life Action. Because of Christ – Pastor Tim