Our Faith Story

The end of Summer is near, and we are preparing for our Fall kick off of a new program year at Union Church. It is a great time to look at the scriptures and realize that we are in Ordinary Time of the liturgical year, the time of year that we are to be directed in the ways to grow as a disciple of Christ . Jesus is giving us all the instructions that we need to be his disciples. This is a wonderful time of year. 

We have heard about how we need not store up treasures here on earth and how we need to grow in our relationship with Jesus, we need to grow into the disciples that he wants us to be. This is not easy and Jesus knows that. You see we live in a culture that is opposed to Jesus and the message of LOVE that he brings. We have to live in this culture and Jesus knows that we are going to be affected by this culture - we become self-centered and selfish, we struggle giving ourselves over to Jesus and the calling he is giving to us. We know that his way is better but we get caught up in the culture around us and the selfishness that is so rampant in society. Jesus has called us to work at living his way everyday of our lives. 

Faith is only really faith when we move it from our head to our hearts. We can not just have the knowledge of faith, we have to live it out everyday and in every situation. Jesus called us to be dedicated to him all the time. The story that we are living is the way that we experience God and show him how much we love him. It is us connecting our lower story with his Upper story. He does not want disciples who just talk about faith, he wants us to live our faith in our daily lives. So every moment of everyday is part of our Story of Faith. Every time we focus on our faith or we make a decision and share it, our faith becomes stronger and more alive. We get to experience how close Jesus is to us and how much he loves us. He is not a God who is up in heaven only—He is with us every minute of everyday, loving us and sharing his love with us. Jesus is more interested in people who act on the faith than with people who know faith. Jesus continuously gives us opportunities to grow into the disciples he wants us to be. 

How do we take Jesus serious in our lives?? We have to move our faith from our head into our heart– the place that we make our decisions and the place that we live our lives. Jesus is calling us to really focus on him and the faith that he has given us. If we are going to be the disciples he wants us to be we need to become more like Jesus everyday. May each of us write our faith story from our hearts. 
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God Bless,
​Rev. Stephen W. Barch