The Shepherd Welcomes

The latest message from Griffith First Christian Church in Griffith, Indiana. This message is based on Psalm 23:6.

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The God Who Holds Your Hand

God’s people were in captivity and there were reports of a nation from the east, the Persians, who were conquering other nations. God spoke through the prophet Isaiah to comfort His people and to prophesy the restoration of Judah and Jerusalem. God tells His people that He is with them and will help them. Isaiah wrote:

For I am the Lord your God
    who takes hold of your right hand
and says to you, Do not fear;
I will help you. – Isaiah 41:13 (NIV)

God doesn’t change. God is completely aware of and in control of your situation. He is still God. This is the same God who holds your hand and reassures you of His love. He comforts you when you are afraid. He helps you when you are in need. So do not fear the situation you’re facing today. Do not fear the future. God is with you and He will help you. Trust Him to do what He knows is best and when He does, thank Him and praise Him for His goodness.

Nothing

In Romans 8:35, Paul asks a question about what shall separate us from the love of Christ. He gets around to answering that question in verses 38-39. He says:

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. – Romans 8:38-39 (NIV)

The love that God has for His children is an all-encompassing love. There is NOTHING that can separate you from it. If you are in Christ, there is NOTHING that comes between you and the love of God. It is an unconditional and unlimited kind of love. It is an eternal and everlasting kind of love. God loves you now and He will keep on loving you forever. When you trust Jesus for forgiveness, you enter into a loving relationship with your Creator that will never end and NOTHING can change that.

NOTHING!

He Cares For You

We worry about a great many things in our lives, don’t we? We worry about our families and our kids. We worry about our bills and our budgets. We worry about our stuff. We worry about our health. We worry about so many things. Many of our worries and fears are future based. Peter said that we can take all of our worries, fears and anxieties to the Lord for a very good reason. He wrote:

Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. – 1 Peter 5:7 (NIV)

We can cast ALL of our worries on the Lord because He cares for us. We sometimes think that God doesn’t like us very much. We know that He loves us, but we aren’t sure if He likes us. Well, He does. He likes you and He cares for you. He can handle all of tomorrow’s cares as well as providing your daily bread. So don’t worry about tomorrow because God’s got it under control. Focus on loving God and loving people today.

Fear Of What People Think About Me

The latest message from Griffith First Christian Church in Griffith, Indiana. This message is based on Matthew 1:18-25 is from the series, “Fear Not,” based on the series of the same name from Life.Church in Oklahoma.

What We Know

Toward the end of 1 John 5, the Apostle John talks about some of the things that Christians know. In verse 20, this is what he says we know:

We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true by being in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. – 1 John 5:20 (NIV)

Jesus came into the world so that we could know God, the One who is true. Not only do we know Him, but we are in Him through faith in Christ. Jesus is not only the Son of God, but He IS God and the source of eternal life. We can trust our Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ for they are true and always have our best in mind and at heart. God wants what is best for us and though it may not seem like it at the time, God knows better than we know. Our desire should be to know the Father and the Son through the Holy Spirit and to trust them to do what is loving and best in our lives.

Loving God’s Children

When we express our faith in Jesus by believing in Him, repenting from sin, confessing our faith and being baptized, we are born again and made children of God. If we say that we love God, then we must love His other children, too. John wrote:

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. 2 This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. – 1 John 5:1-2 (NIV)

The way that we show that we love God is by obeying His commands. Jesus gave His disciples one last command on the night before He was crucified: love one another. When we love one another, we demonstrate our love for God. When we love one another, we show that we belong to Jesus. When we love one another, we show the world that He is real. Only Jesus could bring so many different and diverse people together in love. Let’s love God today by loving one another.