The Pastor's Pen

Beloved in Christ, It’s good to be able to write to you and tell of the goodness of the Lord. I pray that all is well with your soul and that the Lord is blessing you and yours. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord will deliver them out of them all. After several years of pasturing and observing the people that call themselves the saints of God, it grieves my spirit to see the church community become overly engrossed in church work rather than the work of the church. Let me remind us that souls are steak while we continue to recycle Christians and neglect the mandate to save new souls; Satan is busy on the job destroying innocent lives with his deception and lies. The people of God must wake up out of this state of lethargy and openly declare the lordship of the Lord Jesus Christ and win new souls while it is yet day. Our focus has been preempted by secular subtleties and subliminal suggestions that bombard our television and media sources. The hustle and bustle of life is slowly, but surely overwhelming the minds of society to the point of spiritual compromise. We no longer call it sin, but have sugar coated and thereby watered down the gospel appease to whichever group is at the top of the offering pole. Our reluctances to stay on course have placed society on a head on collision with the judgments of the lord. In all of this yet there is still hope for the hopeless and help for the helpless. Our God is still able to exceed abundantly above all that we can ask or even think, but it is according to the power that works within us. It’s been said that prayer changes things. Yes it does, but let me add that not only does prayer change things, but also prayer will change us. When king Solomon had finished the temple of the lord he reminded the lord that if there be famine or dearth in the land, that if Gods’ people that are called by his name would be humble, seek and turn from their wicked ways and seek the lord and pray. God said that he will hear and that he will heal the land. Jesus was outraged when he entered the temple and found the moneychangers buying and selling. He began to whip them and turn over the tables saying; my father’s house shall be called a house of prayer. Yet ye have made it a den of thieves. Church, lets return unto the lord and will give us both the former and the latter rain. May the presence of the lord engulf our lives that we may know him and the fellowship of his suffering.

In His Service Rev. Roderick Shepard, Sr.