Dear Friends - 

May is Mother’s Day Month, and Mother’s Day makes us think of the most essential job of moms (and dads) - the raising of our children.

When asked what we want for our children, parents often say they want their children to be happy. They want their children to be successful, to live a balanced life, to contribute to society and to build loving relationships with their own spouse and children.

The question is, How do parents help their kids reach these goals?

The only sure anchor for a full, abundant and eternal life is a vital relationship with Jesus Christ. A faith relationship with Christ is a harbor for our soul. And it lays out the way we are to live daily life. That’s true for children and adults.

If we want our kids to reach the dream, WE NEED TO PASS ALONG A PASSION FOR JESUS CHRIST. However, we can’t give what we don’t possess. That means parents need to have and live a personal passion for Christ.

I’m not only talking about passing along good morals: things like being generous, having compassion, serving others, or reserving sex until marriage. These are important results of a relationship with Christ, but they aren’t the relationship itself.

I’m talking about passing along a love for Christ and his kingdom. Without that love for Christ, even our good morals miss the mark. We can’t be “good” as God would have us be “good” and ignore the God who made us to be “good” or the Savior who transforms us.

Joshua 24:15 reads “...as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Is that the cry of your heart? Is that the tone of your household? You see, if you don’t live your faith your kids will learn that faith is just for kids. After all, if the most important adults in their lives don’t display it, why should they?

So I’m asking moms (and dads) to examine what you do. Do your children see you attend worship, and Sunday School, or is that just a kid drop-off? Do your children hear you pray, or is that something only they do before bedtime? Do your children see your love and passion for Jesus Christ or do they see you ignoring the things of faith in your own daily behavior?

Mothers (and fathers) have a great commission from God, to go into their home, and live and teach the good news, so that their children will love Christ and do all he taught us.

My prayer this May is that our passion for Christ will ignite into a great fire that the next generation will see and embrace.

~Pastor Byron

Dear Friends -

Carol Kuykendall tells a poignant story of the death of her close friend.

“Doubt sometimes wins over faith in my life, too... like the day my friend Lois died. The ringing telephone sliced through the early morning darkness, and jolted me awake. The clock said 4:22. I knew that Lois’ struggle was finished. The day before, I had sat by her bed and told her good-bye. ‘I’ll be right there,’ I told her husband. But I took my time... reluctantly trying to connect the stark word death with Lois. The two words still didn’t go together as I got in the car. By the time I reached her neighborhood, the first fringe of dawn glowed on the horizon, and I pulled over to watch the sunrise. As the light overcame the darkness, I began to remember what Jesus said and did. He didn’t promise that a good life was a long life - He was only 33 years old when He died. What matters is how we purposefully choose to live each day. And He didn’t promise a life without suffering, but He promised to walk with us and give us strength sufficient to meet our challenges. And most importantly, He didn’t say that death is an end, but a triumphant new beginning because we have eternal life in Him. As I watched the night turn into day, death gave way to a victorious new beginning.” (1990 Daily Guidepost, p.113)

Doubt does sometimes win-out over our faith. We struggle with the difficulties in life, especially the death of a loved one. We’ve had that happen in our congregation this year, of course. It has happened to members’ extended family
of our congregation. In every case we struggle. We feel that the stark word death shouldn’t be connected with any of them.

There was a dark dawn 2000 years ago in Jerusalem. Friends walked through the dark city streets to the place of death, struggling to connect that stark word with the one they loved.

As the sun began to pink the eastern sky, they reached the place. The ground under their feet began to shake. It was an earthquake to change the world. The Son of God broke the bonds of death, and rose to life that never ends. As the sun began to overcome darkness, the darkness of death was overcome by life in Christ.

Paul wrote, “Christ has indeed been raised from the dead,” (1 Co 15:20). He states the fact. Christ is alive. But he goes on. It’s not only Christ, it’s you, it’s me, it’s all who belong to Christ. “Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.” If Jesus is first , there must be more to come.

The days are longer now but dawn isn’t too early. Watch the sun come up and chase away the darkness and remember the Son has come up and brought the light of Life.

 ~Pastor Byron