Hello Baysiders! Hope all is well in your souls and happy sweater season!
It’s been said to know the will of God is the greatest knowledge and to do the will of God is the greatest achievement. If that is true then we Christians are extremely blessed and have a great responsibility to know God and to do His will. Faith in God isn’t just the way to everlasting life; it’s a way of life. Understanding God for the dedicated and faithful believer, is a day by day, hour by hour, mind, heart, and soul grappling journey, yielding priceless and unfathomable treasure, sometimes by the minute and sometimes when the Christian is least expecting it. First Corinthians 15:58 says, “My beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.” This is so encouraging because all our efforts for God are not forgotten or wasted. God uses every one of our deeds in faith to bring about his will in our lives. Sacrifices must be made because God sacrificed for us by sending his Christ.
What makes this Christian sacrifice possible? Its eyesight. Jesus opens up our eyes to the truth about life, what is important, we see the color of reality and how it should really be lived. CS Lewis said it this way, “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.” Once we see this vibrancy of life by the gospel we in turn give ourselves over to fully live out this colorful bright life. Everything else makes sense when we see God and do his will. We have to work, be steadfast, immovable, work onto the Lord. God put us here for a purpose and its our job to find out that purpose. We will have hard times, rough times, sad times, but our effort and love is not in vain because God is faithful to us.
This Saturday is our homeless outreach in the Tenderloin district of the city. I am excited how God will use this effort to bless people and show love by offering food bags and prayer. I want to give a big shout out of gratitude to some of the men of Bayside who worked and fixed some of the rotting roof panels on. Plan on coming bike riding after lunch on Sunday October 6th as we fellowship on the fun track on the Bay. We will be traveling north on the Bay Trail for a few miles. Please bring your own bike and a change of athletic clothes. For those who don’t have a bike, there will be a group of walkers as well on this day. Fall’s Thursday Night Devotion will start the first Thursday on October 3rd. Lastly, mark your calendar for our next Family Meeting on October 13th at 1pm after lunch.
Grace and peace, Pastor Aaron ?:^)