From the Pastor's Desk

Our desire to be practical, to know how to live in our particular times, should never lead us away from Jesus Christ. Our life, life itself, is not about what we can accomplish and figure out. It is about Christ’s accomplishment and how he can be glorified by building upon him. Your list of achievements will be burned up as utterly worthless unless they were drawn from the Savior. All things were made by him and for him. He must have the preeminence, the first and sole place, in all things.

We learn by painful experience the truth of our Lord’s warning: “we must pass through many tribulations to enter God’s kingdom” (Acts 14:22). This is not a justifying passage, for our Lord alone plunged into the gulf of hell to obtain our righteousness. For all his children, enduring tribulation with patience and joy is a purifying passage that conforms us to Christ and ripens us for heaven. All the saints have passed through many troubles on their way there. Returning home in obedience to the Lord’s command, Jacob was distressed over his pending reunion with Esau.