Putting Our Faith Into Action

By the time you read this our first "Faith In Action" (FIA) Sunday will be over and we will have participated with four other Chino churches in reaching out to our community with the love of God. And, yes, we canceled our regular Sunday morning worship services! For some, perhaps, it is a sacrilegious thing. But in my mind, it is a demonstrable expression of our faith in Jesus Christ, who is Lord of the Sabbath and Redeemer of the world!

Think about it: Much of the world thinks that church-goers are irrelevant, that we merely sit in our pews and waste time singing old songs and hearing stories from an old Book, not really changing anything at all. Consider what a witness it is for them to see us leave our safe sanctuaries and go out into the world on a Sunday morning to do something selfless for the community! What an opportunity to show that our faith is not simply about sitting and doing nothing, but rather it is about sharing the love of God, who loved the world so much that He sent His only Son from the safe environs of heaven to the earth where He was tortured and killed only to rise again!

I can't think of anything more appropriate to the season of Lent then what we did on March 29^th, Faith In Action Sunday!

I hope you were one of the many participants in FIA Sunday. But if you were not, please talk to those who were. Ask them about their experience. Find out what they learned about themselves and about their sisters and brothers in Christ. Ask them how it felt to gather together with people from many different churches to work and worship. The familiar song, "They'll Know We Are Christians By Our Love" talks about "we will walk with each other" and "we will work side by side." The Scripture referred to is John 13:35, where Jesus says, "By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."

And isn't that what we want? For people to know that we are disciples of Jesus?

I thank God that I can be a part of a church that is willing to risk much for the sake of the Gospel! Thank you, Church, for taking risks and being disciples of Jesus Christ!

Be Blessed!

Pastor Glen