FROM PASTOR TIM JOHNSON:
Sunday’s message was a bit of a post-mortem after the loss of the word “Premillennialism” from the EFCA’s Statement of Faith. As I mentioned in the sermon, the environment of delegates that voted to remove Premillennialism felt more like a funeral. It was hard to witness the demise of an old friend.
Nevertheless, we have to move on as much as it hurts and has hard as we fought. On Saturday, Connor Bradbury reminded me that we are not defined by our losses but by Christ’s victory on the cross. Praise the Lord for that word.
After hearing me make that very point in the sermon, another saint shared the importance of that truth for their life and how it touched them and others.
This morning our garage door broke, and I wrestled with it to get cars out of the garage for perhaps one last service to us. I was reminded, yet again, that through deterioration, age and owner’s neglect, our nearly 20-year old door gave way.
We all give way eventually. Our brackets break, our engines run down, and we are no longer as able to serve others. Eventually, we will all die.
But our lives are not defined by our failures or our losses; or our victories.
One saint observed that so many people allow themselves to be defined by politics that when their candidate loses, they have a hard time coping. Why? Because we can become too defined by something other than Jesus.
For the disciple of Jesus, through faith alone, we are defined by our Savior because it was His victory on the cross that secured our victory.
And, if we are correct about Premillennialism, then we eagerly await His return to reign on earth as the conquering victor that He is…and we will reign with Him.
Filled with broken brackets, but defined by Jesus….I am yours in Christ,
Pastor Tim