Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. (Hebrews 10:22-25 ESV)
There is more to the Christian life than saying the "sinner's prayer" and giving my life to Jesus in faith. There is ongoing spiritual growth in community. The "full assurance of faith" is more than a simple, personal decision to follow Jesus. Faith is reinforced in family.
We are wired by God to be social creatures. We were created for love relationships - first with Him and also with one another. We cannot be fully fulfilled apart from loving one another in families. And we cannot be spiritually fulfilled apart from loving one another in the family of the Body of Christ, His Church.
Deciding to follow Jesus is the launching point to a life of deeper consecration and what the Bible calls sanctification - growing more and more Christlike by the work of the Holy Spirit in God's holy love. This was the power God used through John and Charles Wesley to spark the Methodist revival in England in the 1700's. It was the power of God working in everyday lives as they watched over one another in holy love in the Class Meetings and Bands - the accountability groups of that day. And that is why at Grace Church our primary strategy for discipleship is our Life Groups, where we build relationships, do life together, and watch over one another in prayer and encouragement.
It is in studying together and praying together and growing together that we consider how to stir up one another to love and good works. In belonging to Christ and to one another in real, sometimes messy, loving relationships we grow in Christ and we encourage one another. The outworking of this growing faith is serving together.
One very current expression of the love we are growing and of our serving together is our response to the devastation of hurricane Helene in western North Carolina. We are giving financially through the disaster response efforts of our North Carolina Annual Conference of the Global Methodist Church. (You can give at this link: Disaster Relief) We are encouraging our congregation to take tangible supplies like bottled water and non-perishable food to drop-off points at Mt Pleasant Global Methodist Church and Cold Springs Global Methodist Church. We are organizing a team of servants to go in person to help with the recovery and rebuilding. (If you would like to be part of a short-term mission team to help in this effort, contact Scott Randolph: Join a Team
We are better together! Together we grow in Christ. Together we serve as the hands and feet of Jesus in the brokenness of this fallen world. Together we are "...not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near." Together we are stronger than the attacks of the enemy of our faith.
And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken. (Ecclesiastes 4:12 ESV)
That threefold cord is you and Jesus and me. Together with one another and united in Him, we belong to one another and serve shoulder to shoulder to make a witness to the Light of Jesus Christ in the darkness of the world. Together we embody His Kingdom come, His will being done on earth as it is in heaven.
Even so, come Lord Jesus, come!