Crestwood Church Blog

“Who is this, arising like the dawn, as fair as the moon, as bright
as the sun, as majestic as an army with billowing banners?” Song of Songs 6:10

I wonder what people see of God in us as they meet with us on Sunday morning. Do they see a God to be revered and trusted or someone that is laughable and of no reputation.
In biblical times, the world was afraid of the Jews, in the days of the early church, powerful Roman Emperors were afraid of the church. They went to great measured to destroy them and their beliefs. Today in much of the Western world, governments and other powers leave us to get on with what we want. Is it because it has no effect on them. We are not meant to be drawing attention to ourselves, but we can sometimes be good at that, the church is often in the news or on TV for all the wrong reasons. What we should be doing is drawing people’s attention to Christ.
How can we be more effective in the days we live in?

Often the church is more like the description found in Rev 3:17 which describes us as “wretched, poor, blind and naked.” This is the description of a prisoner of war, not a victorious “child of God”. This is not giving the right message to the community we live in. We should be flying the banner of God high into the sky and declaring his greatness.
“Joy is the flag flown high form the castle of my heart, where the king in residence there.” I used to sing this in Sunday School, but it is relevant for us today. People should come into God’s house desperate for him and in fear of him. Perhaps we can be far too comfortable sometimes.
Instead of the world imitating the church, we start to be scared of the world and start imitating it.
Let us not fall into this trap and become so immersed in the world that there is hardly a difference in us.

Three things which will make a difference
1. Live with honesty and holiness (as fair as the moon)
2. Live in the truth and live the truth to others (as bright as the sun)
3. Live as one who belongs to the Almighty God. Determined, courageous, confident and not ashamed of Christ (as majestic as an army with billowing banners).
Then those around us will see that the Lord Jesus is alive and his Spirit is in us and that the Father is fighting for us. Lets worship him as a statement to who he is, not just for how we feel on a Sunday morning. I want people to look at Crestwood Church and say, “these people love God and fear him, I must go and find out why”

Andy Hodson

Labels: Courageous, Determined, Revered