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The following message is from our pastor, Homer McKeithan which he wrote for our newsletter "The Herald" for May.      

FROM THE PASTOR     

     What a wonderful time of the year springtime is!  It is a time of refreshing showers of rain, beautiful flowers in bloom, birds singing their happy songs, and new growth in God’s good earth is all around us.  I love this season of the year because it proclaims newness of life after the dead of winter and brings to us a sense of wonder and expectation.  It is a wonderful reminder to the child of God of His  promise that  a “New Day’ is coming; a day when there will be a ‘New Heaven’ and a ‘New Earth’ and the former things of this earth will pass away. 

     For the past few days I have had the joy of looking at an absolutely beautiful Dogwood tree in full bloom in my front yard.  From what seemed to be void of life a few weeks ago, I now wonder at the glory of life that has come forth.  As I have looked at and enjoyed the beauty of this wonderful tree I have been reminded that our God is a God who has always brought forth life out of death.  He did so when He brought forth Jesus out of a tomb of death and He continues to bring life from death every time He rescues fallen humanity. 

     Saints, there is the darkness of ’winter’ all around us and Christ has called His church to bring a message of life to let people know that they can experience ‘springtime’ in their own lives.  Too often, however, I believe that we have shared our doctrine, our denomination, our particular ‘slant’ on Christianity with a lost world, rather than sharing ‘New Life” with them.   What message about Jesus are people receiving from us?  Do they sense His life within us that expresses itself in love, joy, and peace?  Perhaps they only see in us what Jesus and others saw in the religionist (Pharisees): strict adherence to the letter of  the law, but devoid of real life.  This is what I believe Jesus was saying to us in the parable of the ’Good Samaritan’.  The religionist (the priest and the Levite) saw a man in great need and yet passed him by.  James writes in his Epistle:  “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”  In other words we have a responsibility as God’s people to minister in meaningful ways to the need we see around us.  It is easy to be a ’hearer’ of the Word, but God demands that we be ’doers’ of the Word.  James further defines this message in (James 2:14-17 - What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds?  Can such faith save him?  Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food.  If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?  In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

         If we want to see the joy of New Life coming to the hearts and lives of those who are still lost in the darkness of sin we must be willing, as was the Samaritan, to get involved.  We must be willing to bind up their wounds and pour in the wine and oil of God’s love and mercy and start them on their way to New Life in Christ.   Jesus said: “I am the WAY, the TRUTH, and the LIFE” and only He can fill the void that is in people’s hearts, but I believe that they must experience His life as it is manifest in meaningful ways through those of us who know Him.  Share His life that others may know the joy of ‘springtime’ in their own lives!

 From my heart to yours,

Homer