In local news, the lake community is getting geared up for its centennial celebration. The summer’s events start July 2nd, so make plans now to be at Lake Ericson for that weekend.
This week’s devotional thought concerns the tendency of our culture to center on the wants of the individual. We are in a time when many people seem to think the world revolves around them. There is a “me first” attitude. Sadly, this line of thinking is present in the body of Christ. This is nothing new, but perhaps it is more prevalent than in years past.
When Jesus calls His followers to take up their cross and follow Him, He is not calling them to a life of ease and entitlement, but to a life of sacrifice and suffering. The Christian life isn’t about me, it is about Him, and His will for me. Our prayer should be “Thy will be done, not my will be done.”
It is very clear in the teachings of Jesus and his disciples that the Christian life is not a life of unending prosperity and good times. Here are some examples. First, from Luke’s gospel. “Then he (Jesus) said to them all: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23). To take up one’s cross daily, means one must be willing daily to give up his own wants and desires and follow Christ at any cost. John the Baptist said of Jesus, “He must become greater; I must become less” (John 3:30). This doesn’t sound like what some are teaching today.
Peter, spoke to believers when he wrote, “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice…” (1 Peter 12-13).
A.W. Tozer, a preacher from the past commented, “In many churches Christianity has been watered down until the solution is so weak that if it were poison it would not hurt anyone, and if it were medicine it would not cure anyone!” Tozer died in 1963, but his words describe our current situation with incredible accuracy. May we take heed, and turn back to the truth of God’s word.
Just thinking,
Pastor Jerry
sandhillspastor 
Posted by Ernesto E. Carrasco, M.C.Ed. on June 20, 2016 at 3:25 pm
Amen! Sometimes church services are such that I am pretty distracted by all the goings on that I forget why I came in the first place. Then I think, “I didn’t come here to be entertained.”