Galatians 3:28
“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
I had been praying for the past few months that our church would welcome Pastor Ronald Britt when he came to preach at CPC. The LORD answered our prayers in significant ways and heard from many of you how blessed you were in his time with us. As far as I can surmise, Ron was the first Black preacher to be in the pulpit at CPC in our 67 years as a church. When I go and preach at Greater Victory Temple in December, I will be the first Asian American in their pulpit! It's exciting to see the Holy Spirit moving in our friendship and churches, displaying how the gospel breaks down barriers and brings people together.
Pastor Ronald Britt send this message to me earlier this week:
Greetings and Favor to you, Pastor Tim, the Elders, the Deacons and CPC family. what a joy and blessing to be able to be with CPC family on Sunday! I believe God was pleased and I pray that the entire CPC family were also!! The 💘love and oneness we experienced yesterday was awesome! My wife Angelia and myself praise God for you and we hope to do this again soon! We are looking forward to you, Pastor Tim, coming to Greater Victory Temple on the 2nd Sunday in December!! Pastor Ronald Britt
I want to simply praise God for showing His faithfulness as we continue to lean into this relationship with Greater Victory Temple and with Pastor Ron. In these divided times it's so important for the Church to be showing unity. I've already mentioned to Pastor Ron several ideas of how our two churches could collaborate together: prayer time on Zoom with our churches, combined worship teams for a Facebook live worship time, continuing the food pantry support in Seaside, another discussion on the gospel and race, a BBQ competition, our men's groups gathering together online...He's excited about all these ideas but especially simply our friendship and partnership between our two churches for the sake of the gospel.
Let's give glory to God for His goodness as we live out Galatians 3:28. Thanks for trusting me your Pastor as I continue to build this relationship. We're going to keep taking some risks and believing God's faithfulness will be revealed as we strive for unity around Christ beyond skin color, beyond political affiliations, beyond any kind of dividing wall...we lead from the strength of our unity around Jesus Christ! We are citizens of heaven first and brothers and sisters in Christ because of our adoption by God the Father. Let's remember Philippians 3:7-11 as well:
"7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead."
You see, Christ Himself is our ultimate treasure and everything else pales in comparison to Jesus our King, the One who call us each subjects of His kingdom.
QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER:
What barriers in our world do you long broken down by the power of Christ? How would this affect you personally if God answered your prayer and removed that barrier?
PRAYER:
Father, thank you for bringing together all of Your children to glorify Your name. We are brothers and sisters in Christ, joined together by the Holy Spirit who breaks down every barrier that seeks to separate us. Thank You for the beautiful differences we do have but thank you also for uniting us around Jesus. We seek to live into the prayer of Jesus that You, Father, will make us one. May our unity be a sign to others of the goodness of God right now and point to a future where every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is LORD. Amen.
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