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March is upon us, temperatures are slowly climbing, and believe it or not, meteorological spring started on March 1. Although it may not quite look or feel like spring yet, it’s that time of the year for flowers begin to bloom, trees start to blossom, and noses to run from allergies. With spring here, don’t forget to make one of the most important changes of the season: clocks “Spring Forward” on Sunday, March 9 at 2am. Though moving the clock forward may not be something you look forward to each spring, we can look forward with expectancy to the coming changing of seasons from winter to spring and seeing the new life that comes with the seasonal change. More importantly, we can look forward to the time of year (coming all too quickly) when we focus our attention on the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ and the new life offered through placing faith and trust in Him. Use the changing seasons as an opportunity to share the life giving and life changing message of Christ with every person with whom you have contact. Ask the Lord to give you boldness and confidence in the gospel. As we continue to study the same passage of Scripture, albeit briefly, in order to set our hearts together, we turn this month to 1 John 4:4-6: “Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.” When John uses the descriptor “little children,” he obviously does not mean biological children, but spiritual children. He does so as a form of endearment and love in order to encourage his readers because they have, as he mentions, overcome “them,” the false prophets from 4:1-3. Notice also the way believers overcome false prophets is not through their own power, but through the power of God as John writes, “… you are from God” and “he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” Our ability to overcome false teaching and believe truth from God’s Word is not internal, but external. The only way we can overcome heresy is through the enabling power of the Spirit as He works through Scripture. John also notes that unbelievers speak as the world speaks whereas believers speak as God speaks. As believers, when we speak to others, we should speak as the Lord would: truthfully and seasoned with grace. When unbelievers speak, they speak as their sin drives them. One of my seminary professors at Southern always said, “We should never be surprised by what is said when an unbeliever speaks” and John is indeed proclaiming that very truth in this section of his letter. Finally, John instructs believers on the way to recognize other believers. Christians will listen to scriptural truth and believe it; non-Christians will listen to secular error and believe it. Brothers and sisters in Christ, my encouragement to you is to find yourself so saturated with Scripture through your personal reading and study that you have no doubt when you hear something taught as to whether or not it is from the Holy Spirit or from human thought.
As we have been doing, please continue praying for each other (1 Thess 5:17) and for the other churches in our Association. I want to encourage you strongly to pray for each other, other pastors, and sister congregations in our area as we work together to encourage pastors and equip churches to engage lostness for the sake of fulfilling our part of the Great Commission. Lift each of these pastors and congregations to the Father, asking for His providential care for them and for His mercy and grace to work mightily through them.
Freedom Fellowship, Taylors, Joseph Vest
Friendship, Lyman, Alan Bagwell
Gap Creek, Marietta, Maurice Henson (interim)
Gowensville, Landrum, Tim Clark (interim)
Greer First, Greer, Doug Mize
Groveland, Taylors, Paul Fleming
Heritage Chapel, Greer, Keith Crowe
Highland, Taylors, Tony Pearson
Hillcrest, Greer, Jim Smith
His Vineyard, Greer, Keith Kelly My prayer for you for March is the same as always. May the Lord grant each of us opportunities to share the message of Christ with unbelievers and disciple believers in the message of Christ. As an association of churches, we partner together for the sake of encouraging and equipping each other in order to engage lostness for the sake of fulfilling our part of the Great Commission (Matt 28:18-20).
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