John Mulligan’s lesson on Sunday was “An Open Door.” He spoke to us about Faith and The Future of The Lake Merced Church of Christ. The Apostle John gives God’s message to the Church in Philadelphia in Rev. 3:8, “I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut. I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.”
What we have is good. We must hold on to what we have, knowing that God works well with small numbers. Mary and Joseph had Jesus. Jesus had only 12 Apostles. God has given us an open door which can offer many opportunities if we keep our faith in what He can do.
We are being called to be a faithful church, not a big church. There are 4 ways for us to stay faithful: (1) Faithful to God Himself, (2) Faithful to His written Word, the Bible, (3) Faithful to our calling to Christ; and (4) Faithful to each other.
We are a blessing right now, where we are, with what we have. Let’s embrace our “open door” with these actions:
Be welcoming to visitors and strangers
Be a safe place for those who are scared, hurting, or different
Be generous to the truly needy
Be encouraging to those who are here for a short time
We will always have people who come and go -- people come to SF for school or a job but then move on to their next chapter. Our challenge, our open door challenge, is to make sure they are stronger when they leave because of their time with us. So let’s not bemoan our small numbers. With God guiding our efforts, there is no telling what our collective and individual strengths can achieve!
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