From the Pastor's Desk

Please allow me to share some ministry philosophy that I have grown in the last several years. You have probably heard me talk about our leading with love. We do not compromise truth, but as we see people come out of deeply sinful lifestyles, we meet them with love first. It is what Jesus did. This principle is shared in Psalm 85:10-13. It says that "righteousness and peace have kissed each other." It is the picture of friends whom circumstances have separated meeting back together. A kiss was a common greeting in ancient days. The passage goes on to couple love and truth, heaven and earth.

We will see the ultimate pairing of these blessings fulfilled when Jesus comes to reign upon the earth. But we should also experience them in the here and now. We witness the coming together of these virtues on the cross. The price of judgment of our sins had to be paid. But Jesus stepped up to take our place and pay the price himself. Truly, it was at the cross that love and truth met, righteousness and peace kissed, and heaven and earth embraced each other.

That is the model for evangelism and reaching the lost which we should be following. The more we follow it, the more God blesses it. Then there is a release of the harvest. This text from Psalms goes on to say that when we walk in both truth and love, our land will yield its crops, and we prepare the entrance for God to come in. Our first act is to let people know God loves them, and so do we. Then out of the foundation of that relationship, we speak truth. And that is how we effectively reach a world for Christ.

-Pastors Mark and Jennifer