Greetings Flag Branch members and friends and thanks for taking the time to join me for some Fine Points from yesterday’s service and message “Choosing a Place to Belong”.
To belong somewhere can mean several things. It may mean that one is part of or a member of something else. It may mean that one is in the place one is suppose to be or go. It could one is with one’s rightful owner. In any one context, it may mean any one of these, a combination of these or all three.
Everything belongs somewhere because nothing exists detached from everything around it. Everything depends on something else, is a part of or exist within something else or is one of several of a certain kind or group. Therefore, we awake a discover we belong to a unique group of creatures on an isolated and unique planet in a tiny solar system in an immense galaxy in an even greater universe.
None of this was our doing or of our making. Immediately we find that most of the other creatures like ourselves don’t treat us like we belong to the same family, but have abandoned us to fend on our own. Not only that, but those same family members are willing to steal from us, willing to kill us and willing to destroy us.
Instead of allowing ourselves to be govern by the higher and noble virtues such as logic, love, compassion, mercy, forgiveness, truth and the common good mankind has allowed his base instincts and passions such as fear, envy, greed, lust, jealousy, pride and vanity to control and direct his treatment of and interaction with those within his own family.
With these things in play, people seek out places to belong within a world corrupted with corrupt individuals. People seek to belong to places and groups of other people based on physical characteristics, nationality, attitudes and beliefs toward others, ideologies, economic status, location and many, many other distinctives.
Yet with all the possible places true Christians can choose to belong, none of them seem to be quite right. None of them seem to convey the feeling of this is where you are meant to be. Is as if to say this place you are in now is not where you are supposed to be. Every place we find ourselves is but a stop along a journey to where we truly belong.
That place is outside this world. It is outside our current ability to frame and see reality. It is a place that can only be entered through faith in Jesus Christ. It is the place we were created and born to belong. And it is a place we choose to belong by putting on Christ without respect to persons.
No distinctions are made as to who can belong based on the endless differences people separate other family members by in this world. The children of God belong with God and won’t be satisfied in any other place until they are at home with Him.
Remember to visit our website to see our latest news, announcements and worship activities and opportunities. Be sure to download our mobile app on your phones and mobile devices. Don’t forget to read and listen to my Sunday School preview that comes out on Thursday. Get a jump on Sunday School by reading the SS Daily Bible Readings at our website or by clicking the link. As always, remember to fear God and keep His commandments.
Pastor Jordan
