A NOTE FROM PASTOR MARGE
For John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement, the journey of faith is a journey of salvation. Salvation is not a static, one-time event, but the ongoing experience of God’s gracious presence transforming us into whom God intends for us to be. Wesley described this process as the "Way of Salvation," which is a spiritual path we all must travel and it is a journey that begins the moment we are born and continues, through the working of the Holy Spirit, until we take our last breath. This “Way of Salvation” is the subject of our new sermon series that we as a church will explore for the next three weeks. Pastor Bob and I hope that you will make it a point to be with us for each week, as we explore God's amazing, transformative grace that is indeed at work in each of our lives.
But, before we get to grace, we must first acknowledge the diagnosis because it's the "first step" on the journey that is salvation. The first step is our diagnosis, and the diagnosis is not good news. The sad reality is that you and I are sinners. That's just the truth. The even harder pill to swallow is that sin does not make you a bad person. You are not a bad person that needs to do better. The truth is that sin makes you a dead person because sin separates us from God, who is the source of life. The apostle Paul says it like this in Ephesians 2:5: “we were dead in our trespasses.” Sin does not make you bad, it makes you dead and it is for this reason that Jesus had to come. Jesus did not come to make you a better person, He came so that you could have life and have it abundantly. He came so that you could live.
Sin is a persistent force in our lives. But the good news is that where sin abounds, grace abounds much more (Romans 5:20). When we confess our sin to God, God promises to not only forgive us, but He also promises to erase the penalty, power, and one day, when Christ returns, the very presence of sin in our lives. My prayer is that by both acknowledging and confessing our sins before God, we would receive the strength to be, in the words of our friend, the brilliant John Wesley, "more and more dead to sin, and more and more alive to God."
— Pastor Marge
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