Good morning on this Saturday, April 19th. The brilliant physicist, Albert Einstein, once said, "The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax." Since the current tax code is now more than 67,000 pages in length, his point is well taken. As distasteful as facing our income tax may be, Jesus commanded that we render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's and unto God the things that are God's (Matthew 22:21). But Einstein was wrong in his opinion that the income tax is the hardest thing in the world to understand; the hardest thing in the world to understand is the nature (mind and heart) of God. If we could fully understand that, we would either be God or exactly like God. Fortunately Jesus Christ came to reveal God as the divine human manifestation and expression of God through his life, words, actions and example. The nature of God is revealed through the word of God and Jesus is the living Word of God. Christ revealed His main mission when He said, "For the Son of man is come to seek and save that which is lost" (Luke 19:10). So one of God's great purposes in sending Christ to earth was to reach every person with the message of salvation and its corresponding life filled with God's purpose. Thank God so many of us have discovered God's purpose for our lives through the good news of the gospel of Christ, but His desire is that we become channels through which others will find that same meaning and purpose through a right relationship with God. Tomorrow's Sunday school session and A.M. sermon entitled, The Power of Story, are practical guides toward helping us do just that, and I hope you will not want to miss them. Someone's eternal purpose may be hanging in the balance if you do.
Pastor Mel Brown