March 7, 2025, 12:00 PM
Greetings in Christ! I hope and pray you've had a great week.
This past Tuesday (March 4th) was what is known by many as "Fat Tuesday."
What does this mean? Well, in French, "Fat Tuesday," is called "Mardi Gras."
Especially in this country, Mardi Gras has come to be a festival of sorts that leads up to "Lent."
Lent is a time when people "give up something like a habit" leading up to Easter.
The way this plays out so often is as follows: People party like crazy during the Mardi Gras carnival season before giving something up for 40 days to get close with God. It's a "binge" or "bender" BEFORE a time with God.
The celebrations during Mardi Gras often get way out of line with Godly behaviors. There is an excess in drunkenness, carousing, and sexual fornication.
Once the sinning is over, then there is a time of consecration with God. It's a really messed up way of looking at our lives of faith and our walk with the Lord.
God doesn't expect us to be perfect, but He does expect us to be fully devoted to Him -- all of the time. Our life of faith is to be more than just for a "season of time."
The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 13:13-14, “Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.”
We look around today and see bad things happening and Godless people running around seemingly everywhere doing all kinds of Godless activity.
I am not one who believes that today things are as BAD as they've ever been. I think there were some pretty dark and evil times BEFORE Jesus Christ came and left His Holy Spirit with believers. Looking back in the Old Testament, we see a world so wicked in Noah's time that God sent a worldwide flood to destroy nearly all of mankind! Later on in Genesis, we see God sending fire and sulphur down as judgment on the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.
While it may not be the worst time ever in human history, we do see a lot of sin in our country and in our communities.
Is there any hope for us? After all, we know that ALL have SINNED and fallen short of the glory of God. As Romans 6:23 famously reminds us, "the wages of sin is death."
In Christ, thank God, we have HOPE. There is HOPE beyond the grave because Christ has conquered it! We can stand under His righteousness and not our sin! Now that's really Good News!
Now go tell this message to someone today. As Saint Francis of Assisi said many years ago, "Always preach the gospel, and use words if necessary!"
Here's some other good news: We're having "CHEERFUL HEART Sunday" at First Christian Church this coming Sunday, March 9th during the 10:30 am worship service.
Brother Wally Rendel will be preaching for us. Wally has been faithfully preaching the gospel for over 60 years now! A majority of his time has been spent working with churches in Florence, Lexington, and Nicholasville, KY.
A great gospel quartet known as "Grace x 4" will also be with us, bringing some special music.
Please make plans to be at FCC this SUNDAY, March 9th and bring some friends with you! And Don't forget to turn your CLOCKS FORWARD on Saturday night in observance of Daylight Savings Time.
One of things I fondly remember Brother Wally saying a lot is an old line that goes like this: "There is no place -- Like this place -- Anywhere near this place -- So this must be the place."
I pray FCC will be "your place" this coming Sunday. Lord willing, I'll see you at FCC!
In Him,
Greg H.
