Created in Christ to Run!

Glory to God!

Two Sundays ago we celebrated two new lives in Christ, baptising them and rejoicing with them. It is always a joy to see people surrender their lives to God and choose to follow Christ, laying down their lives to walk in newness of life. Looking at Acts 8, Alexander Blair spoke on Embracing God's Call, showing us how pursuing God's call can be costly. You can listen to the message here.

Last Sunday, Richard Morschel spoke to us from Ephesians 2:1-10 on being Created in Christ to Run and this is what we noted:

• The believer is saved by grace through faith.
• Having being united to God through Christ, the believer is seated with Him in heavenly places.
• The believer is created in Christ to do good works.
• Having been saved, the believer is called by God to do His will (general call and specific call).
• The believer's race that s/he is to run is obeying the call, doing the good works which God has prepared in advance for him or her to do.
• God's call is for His glory and the sake of others.
• The Christian believes for his or her sake but runs the race for the sake of others.

I believe for my sake. I run for your sake!

• When believers run for their sake, they live a religious life, trying to earn God's love and impress others.
• When believers run for the sake of others, they do it for God's glory and the benefit of others.
• Having understood that we are created to run the race by obeying God's call, we made a note of some of the things that God calls every Christian to be and do. Richard then gave us 5 questions to ask ourselves to ensure that we run the race:

1. What has God called me to?
2. What does that look like fulfilled?
3. What am I doing to reach that goal?
4. What is hindering me from wholeheartedly pursuing the goal?
5. What changes do I need to make to fulfill the goal?

Every believer should find out what God has called him or her to do, both generally and specifically. Once God's call becomes clear, the believer is called to obedience in order to run the race for God's glory and the sake of others. We praise God for helping us understand His general and specific will for our lives and for the grace to do the good works which He has prepared for us to do.

After the meeting, the church surprised pastor Richard and presented him with a birthday present and then we enjoyed our church BBQ together. It was a very special day!

This week Richard and Frances will be travelling to the Philippines for their two week visit to inaugurate Kingdom Life Butuan, to train and equip local leaders, to visit various churches, to speak on the local radio, to feed the homeless children, to evangelise and to help and support the new church plant. Following their visit, Amanda Allen will be travelling to Butuan to help and support the new church plant for a month.