As we celebrate on this day, the last Sunday of Black History Month, allow me to leave you with these pastoral thoughts. God is faithful to his children, and although we may suffer great hardships here in the earth realm, He promises that someday we will live eternally with Him. Jesus has always been with our people, even when we/they have endured so much that it appears that there is no faith left. Through that period of man’s great inhumanity to man, the great sin of America, slavery, Jesus remained faithful to His promise to be with us always. “even unto the end of the world” (Matt: 28:20).
Now that the Lord has done great things for us, please, please, do not forget the Lord! As Moses warned the people not to forget God when they entered the Promised Land and became prosperous. Prosperity, more than poverty, can dull our spiritual vision, because it tends to make us self-sufficient and eager to acquire still more of everything, except GOD. (See Deu. 6:10-13).
Dear ones, the same thing can happen in our church. Once we become successful in terms of numbers, programs, etc., we can easily become self-sufficient and less sensitive to our need for God. Know this, the church is as relevant today as it was when Jesus said, “upon this rock I shall build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
Three things I will leave you with as they relate to the operation of the Church of the Living God:
1) As we consider matters that are essential, there should be UNITY.
2) With matters that are non-essential, there should be LIBERTY.
3) In all matters, there should be LOVE.
Walk in peace,
Pastor J. Amos Jones
