Are You Spiritually Bedridden?
If you’ve never read anything from Author and Church Planter, Francis Chan, I’d challenge you to do so. “Crazy Love” is a great place to start. In his most recent book, “You and Me Forever”, Francis recalls reading an article about the fattest people on earth. Many of them weigh over a thousand pounds and are bedridden, depending completely on others for survival. Sadly, this reminded him of a lot of people in the Church. He believes, as do I, that the problem in many churches is not that people aren’t getting fed, but that they aren’t exercising. People often go to Bible study after Bible study, small group after small group, listen to sermon after sermon, but in the end, they are no better for it. They simply consume and pretty soon find themselves incapacitated. They are fat with knowledge and have seemingly lost the ability and the desire to run the race that God has set before them. In this way, knowledge can be a dangerous thing. According to the Apostle Paul, “Knowledge puffs up” (1 Cor. 8:1) If we constantly grow in knowledge but do not put that knowledge into practice, we become arrogant. It would have been better to have not learned at all than to chow down on some juicy theological morsel and then not use the energy that it gives to exercise one’s faith. This kind of faith is useless. James, the half-brother of Jesus, said it another way when he wrote “Faith without works is dead” (James 2:17). I’m sure you’ve met many Christians puffed up with faith in their knowledge. This is a sad and ugly sight. But have you looked into the mirror lately? What do you see?
Hopefully you see someone who is getting after it. Someone very aware of the fact that we have a job to do and this job has a deadline that is quickly approaching. If Christ does not return in the next several years (and he very well may), our deadline will be our death. We don’t know exactly when it will be but for most it’s not when you expect. The point is that it could be today, tomorrow or 50 years from now. Regardless, it’s a relatively short amount of time so you’d better get moving.
One of the ways that EBC is moving is by hosting “Evergreen Community Cares”. I’d like to ask you to pray. Pray that God would use this to bring people to Himself. That’s primarily why we’re doing this. Our ulterior motive is to introduce people to Jesus.
Thank you in advance to all you volunteers! I’m pumped to see how God uses this.
Here are some last details for those of you who will pray and for those of you who are or want to be involved:
“ECC” is this Saturday, May 7, from 9am to 1pm, with volunteers arriving at 8am and leaving at 2pm. The Orientation for volunteers is from 6pm to 8pm on Friday, May 6. Both the Orientation and the actual event are being held at the Clark County Skills Center.
Our biggest area of need is for more volunteers to help with on-site childcare. That said, there are other areas that could use a couple more volunteers as well. Please see opportunities and sign up here.
Also, if you or someone you know would be blessed by a free oil change, we still have appointments available. Please email Vickisevents@comcast.net so we can be sure to have the necessary items.
See more information about Evergreen Community Cares here.
Remember to Pray!
~Pastor Matt
Categories: Evergreen Connection