From Pastor Phil...

It. Is. Hot. There is no way around it this year. The heat indexes are up, the utilities bills are up. Everything is up. Simply walking outside can be a challenge. People with asthma have a hard time breathing. If you're like me, it doesn't take much time outside, while standing still, and I'm sweating so much it looks like I've been in the field all day doing hard labor. The heat can be a tough thing to deal with.

Sin hits us in such a sweltering way. Things may seem alright, and then our sinful nature gets involved. We say the wrong thing, and the temperature in a situation goes up. We hear gossip, and we get hot. We don't get what we want, and our attitudes heat up. We want things and can't have them, so we get heated. When sin gets involved in our lives heat up. It's like living outside. It's just musty, hot, sin. When we get tangled in ourselves and in our sin, it is as difficult as it is when the temps are pushing such high numbers.

There is this one great thing on a hot day. There is nothing like stepping into the shade of an air-conditioned building. Step in the door, and the cool washes over you. It is marvelous. It is restoring. The air isn't close. The mustiness has gone away. The challenge to breathe has been eliminated. The cool of air conditioning is certainly a blessing for us in our day as the temps creep upwards.

The Gospel works this way for us. When we, empowered by the Holy Spirit, set aside our sinful natures and desires, and begin to focus on what God desires; it is striking how the temperatures go down. We begin to judge each other as Jesus calls us to- in the kindest way (1st Corinthians 3). We look at situations through eyes informed with the Spirit, and our understanding shifts away from sin to righteousness (1st Corinthians 12). All of this reflects how Jesus pulls us from the heat of sin and cools us by His presence among us.

The prophet Isaiah speaks to Israel of her restoration, and speaks to us today, of how God works among us. We rejoice that He is here, and as we look to Him, we live lives that are reflective of His work among us. As we look to Jesus, we hear Isaiah 49:10:

As we finish up our summer, I pray that our lives have been shade for sinners to sin in. That we have disciplined ourselves to follow in Jesus' way, and in so doing we have been cooled by Him. We celebrate knowing that our Savior Jesus has saved us from the heat of sin, death, and the devil. As He saved us from them, He restores us by His work and brings us to a place where we live in anticipation of the redemption that Isaiah speaks of when our Savior returns. Until Jesus returns, or fall comes- whichever is first - I pray that you are blessed.

Your brother in Christ,

Pastor Phil