We await the 19th July with bated breath. Will we, or won’t we experience ‘Freedom Day’ as some have termed it. This is of course looking forward to the time when current Covid restrictions might end. For us in our church building this could mean we will be allowed to sing indoors, leave the masks at home and allow more people into the building. Will it happen like that? We will have to wait and see. Just another of life’s uncertainties we all face along with a myriad of other issues in our lives. So where do we, or can we find certainty?
Our bible tells us that Faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. (Hebrews 11:1) Yet this is not talking about the things we might be wishing for on the 19th July or in our everyday lives. This precedes a long list of things that God’s people understand and can be sure of. So let us consider the question, where do we place our faith in these uncertain times? When the apostle Peter stood up on the day of Pentecost he spoke with such power, filled by the Holy Spirit, that many of those listening were cut to the heart when they were convicted of their sin through standing by as the Lord Jesus was crucified. ‘Brothers what shall we do?’ (Acts 2:37b) they asked, to which Peter replied ‘Repent and be baptised, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.’ (Acts 2:38)
Have you put your faith in the name of Jesus Christ? Are you looking for that certainty in Him that is the only way to come to the Father, to be counted as one of His children, to receive that cloak of righteousness that he promises to all who would come to Him.
As we read on in Acts chapter 2 we read that many people, about 3000, accepted this message and were added to the group of believers that day. Thus we have the foundations of the church and also the model of fellowship between God’s people who ‘devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer’. (Acts 2:42) As we continue to enjoy fellowship with one another despite the restrictions we have been facing it is good to remind ourselves of the reasons why we meet together and the blessings we find by being with one another when we come to worship our Saviour.
The apostle Paul wrote ‘It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm then and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.’ (Gal 5:1). So as we await ‘freedom day’ let us not think of it as that day in July, let us look forward to that day when we find the true freedom in our Lord Jesus Christ, a freedom that will last. I know that there will be those reading this who have already experienced that, yet how about you?
Stuart Beadle
Elder
July 2021
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