Be Complete!

“Become complete. Be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you.”  2 Corinthians 13:11

Paul gave a wonderful encouragement to the Christians at Corinth.  To be complete means we want to “aim for God’s perfection” in our lives.  Does this mean we will make perfect choices or live perfect lives this side of heaven?  No!  But it does mean that the Holy Spirit will guide us to be more transformed into the likeness of Christ everyday if we will follow Him!  That’s the question:  Who will we follow?  As Christians, there is only one answer.  We will follow Jesus Christ.  As we trust and follow Him each day, it is simpler to be likeminded in our thoughts and God’s love is able to flow through us.  We can more easily remember John 13:34-35, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.  By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

God’s love for each other transcends our faults and failures.  We choose to love one another to honor God and also to show the world we are His followers. We have opportunities right now to become more complete in Christ.  Working together in love, the people of our neighborhoods can see believers with a fresh spirit of joy and a likeminded approach to life.

I want to invite you and your family to consider sponsoring a neighborhood Bible Study in your home.  This idea was really impressed upon me by the Lord when we had our 40 hour prayer time last weekend.  I have all the materials to help you get this started and I am also willing to be a beginning teacher and attender of each group.  In this way, we can show friends and neighbors the love of Christ and gather more folks into His family of faith.  Would you consider sponsoring a Bible Study group one night a week, or twice per month in your home?  Studies have found that most people in our secular culture will not come to a church service, but they will attend a neighborhood Bible Study when invited by friends.  This needs to become a new avenue of reaching people in our church family.  It will help us go beyond ourselves and into our world with faith.  Would you please consider this idea and then let me know?  I will be talking about it a lot in the coming weeks.

I leave you with a verse that is near and dear to my heart.
“Being confident in this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the Day of Christ Jesus.” Philippians 1:6

I love you all,
Pastor Stephen