Devotions with Pastor Delinda

Dear Church Family:
Matthew 3:8-12 In an uncomfortable message for the listeners, John the Baptist maps out a new way of living to his listeners, just before they are Baptized and just before Jesus is baptized Himself.  It’s of repentance.  I have always explained repentance to the kids as turning away from...a turning away from the things of this world, the things that take us away from Christ, from sin. Could we too be in need of repentance?  Could this be a time God has given us, for us to analyze what has become important to us, to take a look at what was taking up so much of our thoughts, time and energy?  I know for me I was getting so busy before Covid 19, that it was hard to find time to have personal devotions and prayer time even.   John talks about how one is coming after him whose “winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” Webster’s dictionary defines chaff as “the seed coverings and other debris separated from the seed in threshing grain or something comparatively worthless.”  I like to call it the extra surrounding a seed.  What “extra” do you have surrounding your lives that was keeping you from Christ?   When things get back to “normal” what will you keep in your life and what can you do without?  What things are helpful to your relationship with Christ, what things are keeping you from Him or worthless.    Might I challenge you to take this opportunity to “burn away the chaff” in your life and to “produce fruit in keeping with repentance” before it’s too late and we not only have chaff in our lives, but we in turn become the chaff?

May this be a time of renewal, repentance and a time of growth in Christ for you and yours?

In His service,Pastor Delinda 



Update:
There will be a memorial service via YouTube today at 2:00 PM for Arliss Hartmann.  

Here is the link:
 https://youtu.be/4t9PsGlSDZc