You were made to hope in God. We have sent this message into the community, and we will be seeking to keep it in front of them for some time. The Bible is clear about our purpose and our design. From Genesis 1 to Acts 17 to Romans 9 we discover that God made us for himself. He is a God of grace, and he is a God of purpose.
Understanding the moving landscape of salvation history that is found in the Bible as an expression of God’s gracious intentions changes the kinds of questions we ask about the people and events of Scripture. We just finished a series of hard questions about God in our study of Romans 9. What we discovered is that the stories of Adam, Abraham, the other patriarchs, Hosea, and Isaiah were given to us as preparation for the gospel. God has been unfolding a plan from the beginning of time to redeem a people to himself that are from every people group on the planet (Revelation 7:9).
Crossville is not an ethnically diverse place. Our local church may not reflect all the rich diversity of the global people of God, but the disposition of our hearts should. The gospel demands that we be a hospitable people, ready to embrace those not like us. And, defining “not like us” cannot be limited to skin color.
Let’s begin to pay attention to the people around us at Wal-mart, the grocery store, in traffic, or right next door. If we want the purposes of our lives to reflect the purposes of God, then we must be ready to engage in relationship with other people. By the way, this could also mean some of the folks who already come to our church regularly. Just because you see them walk the halls does not mean they feel fully embraced. God may use you to be His hands and feet to express the compassion of the cross of Jesus.
For His glory,
Pastor Andy