just as Abraham “believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. (Galatians 3:6)

Being right in the sight of God requires faith. Faith has a wide range of meanings biblically; faithfulness, firmness, reliability, fidelity, confidence, commitment, stability; assurance, oath, troth; proof, pledge, persuaded; trust, confidence, faith; the body of faith. Faith is both the deliberate and divinely inspired actions that demonstrate your belief in God and in what He has spoken. God is so trustworthy and so reliable that if you trust and obey His word that His perfect will can be experienced in your life. The woman with the issue of blood touching the hem of Jesus’ garments (Mk 5:24-34). The blind man near Jericho is sitting by the roadside crying out to Jesus as the Son of David to have mercy on him (Luke 18:35-42). They reached and cried out in faith and experienced God. Without faith, it is impossible to please God (Hebrew 11:6), yet many of us still live as if what we do and accomplish is what will please Him. God wants us to be right with Him before he asks us to do right for Him.

“Trusting God gives His love time to take root.” – Robert W. Kellemen

The Apostle Paul makes some amazing statements concerning Abraham’s faith. First, in Galatians 3:1-5 he asks the Galatians whether it was the law that caused them to received the Spirit of God or was it through the hearing of faith. Later in Galatians 3:8, he declares with reference to Genesis 12:3 that Abraham received the Gospel before he believed (Gen 15:6). Therefore, the grace of God through faith preceded both circumcision and the law. Gospel faith establishes who we are, it is not what we do, but in whom we believe. Trusting the promises of God’s word to make the right decisions establishes who we really are in Christ Jesus and the generations after us. Too many believers today are frustrated and giving up because we forget that it is by grace we are saved and delivered. It is God’s grace that is sufficient for us in our weaknesses. We need God’s hand on things, not our hands. We need God’s powerful Spirit guiding us, not our limited abilities and street smarts. We must be confident that faithful is He who called us who also will do it. Gospel faith places us in the family of God, not our cultural or ethnic origin, religious acts, or ritual observances (Eph 2:8). No one is ever an outsider or an outcast in Christ Jesus. There is only one way to be right with God whetherJew or Gentile and that is by the hearing of faith through the gospel message.

Last, remember to walk by faith and not by sight. God has put in you the faith that you need to run your race. Keep your eyes on Him and His promises and watch Him keep you as you trust Him with each step you take. Each trouble you must face will move to yesterday’s news as you continually draw nearer to Him each day. If you trust and never doubt God will surely bring you out. Your faith is enough to please God no matter its size. Your faith is enough to be right and to live right. Your faith is enough to overcome every challenge. The same gospel faith that saved you, will keep you, and will lead you home victoriously.

Because He lives,

Pastor Reggie Sheppard

I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)

Living (doing) right in the sight of God requires accountable relationships who are qualified. Without accountability, even the most season saints can stumble and find a disconnect between our heart desires and our actions (Romans 7:19). No one should ever think that you are too grown-up or too spiritually mature to ask the Father for His help. What will sustain us when trouble comes is our LORD’s helping response to our humble cry (Psalms 34:17). Augustine once said, “O Lord, everything good in me is due to you, but the rest is all my fault.” If we start with a humble and righteous heart, it can overflow into righteous actions. In other words, as our redeemed hearts cause us to practice righteousness, the fruit of that will be righteous living.

Our greatest accountable relationship is to Christ Jesus and this relationship will guide us in growing in favor with God and men. However, without this shepherding relationship with Christ, we all can transgress into the hypocrisy of preaching one way and living another. When we give in to the pressures of the crowd or peers and not our heart’s convictions we can unknowingly damage our witness to the world causing others to be carried away with the same hypocrisy. Living right must always be in response to the Father’s all-seeing eyes. Character is living life knowing that the Father is watching. Additionally, without accountability to Christ, we can get so high minded thinking we have arrived and forget that the same blood that saved you is the same blood that is keeping you. We are not to lead or invite people to be like us and to think like us according to the flesh, but to invite them into the same redeeming relationship with Christ that saved our wretched souls as His ambassadors. To lead people into a religious system and its practices rather than to Christ can frustrate their way by holding them to double standard. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life whose precious blood can make all of us clean inside, and restore us to live our best life. We must not frustrate the gospel of Jesus Christ!

On a final note, our associations, those we connect and agree with can reveal what we believe is important in life. We have witnessed recently how once again the increase of social, cultural, and political identities have fractured the Christian community’s witness, but in Christ, we have a greater identity. Our God is a holy and righteous God and we are called to be like Him. To be Christian is to be more than black, white, brown, republican, democrat, more than a branch of service, lodge, fraternity, or sorority because Christ is added into who we are. He now complements, completes, and seasons our lives. It is His powerful presence that is the glue that can forever unite us. He is inseparable from us. Our greatest association must be to Christ Jesus to live right in the sight of our God!

Because He lives,

Pastor Reggie Sheppard

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel (Galatians 1:6)

Chaos and confusion can be happening all around us, but that does not mean they should overtake us. Who we are on the inside determines our ability to respond to the pressures and circumstances around us. As Christians and children of God, we are being built up a spiritual house for God. Our lives’ structure is being erected, supported, and sustained by the gospel message so that we don’t implode and collapse by the pressures coming from this world.

Many of us are witnessing too many believers young and seasoned not recognizing or appreciating the time we are living and not seeing the connection between our freedom in Christ and our fruitfulness in Christ even though our lives depend upon it. Martin Luther King Jr. understood that freedom won and experienced are for something in his historic “I Have a Dream” speech at the Lincon Memorial in Washington D.C. on August 28, 1963. He said, “when we allow freedom to ring when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men, and white men, Jews, and Gentiles, Protestants, and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, “Free at last! Free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!” Freedom is the opportunity and new landscape upon which we are to venture out and be fruitful.

Our freedom in Christ remains before us, but our fruitfulness can be hindered if we do not watch out for the detours of temptations, and addictive forces drawing us from the straight and narrow path. We must recognize that unfavorable circumstances can make us all vulnerable enough to think we need another gospel. Why, because our attention is on what is going outside of us instead of what is going on inside of us. When your life is undergirded by the word of god, the sleeping giant in us can awaken in full assurance that God’s love is enough, His mercy is enough, His forgiveness is enough, and His amazing grace is enough in our weaknesses. As children of God, we must reflect His character made alive in us.

Finally, the apostle Paul reminds us that the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing but those who are being saved it is the power of God (1 Cor. 1:18). In times like these, we need the gospel. In times like these, we need the power of God moving in the hearts of his people. In times like these, we need the power of God to renew the minds of his people. In times like these, we need the power of God uniting his people with one voice and one clear message; God loves you. Live with Gospel Integrity!

Because He lives,

Pastor Reggie Sheppard

For the Lord is good;
his steadfast love endures forever,
and his faithfulness to all generations. (Psalm 100:5)

God has created every person with the potential to be great through Him, but the measure of one’s greatness is often compared to others. Over the last decade, I have observed the rise and fall of many popular names in sports, entertainment, politics, and the Christian community. These persons were seen as ideal role models. In many respects, they were standard-bearers for those who were looking for a better life for themselves and their families. However, greatness pursued has yet to be grasped. There are still those who are hurting and suffering from injustice by the dominant culture. Families are becoming more individualistic than community-focused as distrust and divisive rhetoric become more embedded in our communities’ fabric. Even as this year 2021 launches, the echoes of 2020 can still be heard. Lives can still be easily led astray without the assurance of divine leadership. The need for our daily guidance remains our greatest concern. King Solomon understood that the potential for greatness in us could not be experienced without the Lord’s help (1 Kings 3:9). He asked, So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and distinguish between right and wrong. For who can govern this great people of yours?” Solomon knew that his position was not what would make him great. The Christian author William Arthur Ward once said, “Greatness is not found in possessions, power, position, or prestige. It is discovered in goodness, humility, service, and character.”

As we begin setting goals through 2021, leave room for God to disrupt and shape our plans to His great plan. As we look out at the mounting challenges we must face to raise our children and meet our families’ needs; we can become overwhelmed. Yet, deep within us, there is someone greater than the challenges of this world. True greatness comes from the LORD (Psalm 145:3) and His presence in us (1 John 4:4). There is a call to greatness that calls us to rise from the ashes and mediocrity to live truly. Therefore we must not lose focus and fix our eyes upon Jesus, the author, and finisher of our faith. We must not be conformed to the patterns of this world as the godless and power-hungry rulers who need to be over people for a sense of power and greatness. True greatness is serving others (Mark 10:43). Therefore, as we examine ourselves and those leading us we should see the distinguishing marks of true greatness; doing the will of the Father and helping many people. It is heartbreaking to see the preaching of another gospel in our current public discourse by Christian leaders when our world needs to experience the true gospel message heard and seen by God’s people. The COVID-19 pandemic exposed an increasing lack of common good and goodwill toward one another. The results are proving to be more damaging to the hearts and homes than all previous world wars. In servant leadership influence and intimidation are not synonymous, but one is by choice while the latter is by force. Many of us may doubt whether or not we can make a difference, but doing so is to deny the power and potential living inside of us. As we walk by faith empowered by God’s presence we are destined to do greater works (John 14:12). True greatness is maximizing God’s-given power and potential place inside to glorify God and for others’ good. To live with great assurance that our labors, our worship, and our witness to others near and far are not in vain in the Lord (1 Cor 15:58). The Lord’s great work in us and around us changes things (Psalm 71:19-21). You are already great. You are a child of the living God through Christ Jesus. Rise above the fray, rise above the muck and the mire and rise above mediocrity to heights beyond your comforts. True greatness is the measure of our witness, the embodiment of our living voice for God that sings of his unfathomable greatness. Be truly great for Him and through Him!

Because He lives,

Pastor Reggie Sheppard