RENEWED JOY
As I shared at our gathering, if God gives a pulse, He has a purpose! As Olivet’s kupuna, you are a dearly valued and tremendously valuable to the life of the church and for God’s purposes in us and around us as His people, now and in the years to come.
Let me share a brief thought with you from the book of Philippians. I was going through a season of disappointment in various areas of life, and I got stuck in a grumbling habit. I felt like my problems were everyone else’s fault, not mine! One day, these words leaped off the page and into my heart!
12b Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. 13 For it is God who is working in you both to will and to work according to his good purpose. 14 Do everything without grumbling and arguing, 15 so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God who are faultless in a crooked and perverted generation, among whom you shine like stars in the world, 16 by holding firm to the word of life. -- Philippians 2:12-16a (CSB)
The surge of conviction for my bad attitude and grumbling quickly gave way to renewed joy! Yes, I had to work, but not “work to earn God’s salvation”. Rather, I was to “work out” what was already God’s gracious gift to me, through faith in the saving work of Jesus Christ! Even more than that, it was not me doing the work but God working in me, by His grace! God used these verses to begin reshaping my heart and drawing me out of my dark grumbling and back into a season of smiling and shining.
Years ago, a man named Rufus Jones spoke to a group about shining like stars in the world (v 15). A woman shared her fears that she had very plain features; how could she ever give off a sense of God’s shining light. Jones replied, “Madam, while I have troubles of my own of that kind, I’ve discovered that if you light up from within, any old face you have is good enough!”[1]
Let’s press on, as God is at work in us! And let’s celebrate how God is empowering us to shine like shine like stars in the world, holding firm to His words of life!
Jamie McElrath,
Senior Pastor
