2026 February news-letter article

Hello dear friends!

As I sit down to write this article, I can look out the window and see frozen precipitation.  I believe I am seeing a thin layer of snow, laid atop a thicker layer of sleet.  Regardless, it is white, and has beautified all the buildings, trees, surfaces, etc.  While I enjoy feeling the luxury of gas logs, I know that it is cold outside, and will get colder as the sun sets.  The coming days are supposed to get yet colder, which causes me to think of those who have to work outside: first responders, the Walnut Cove public works crew, those who work in hospitals, and folks who work for the electric companies.  I am also concerned for the people whose home may not be as warm as mine.  I haven’t lost electricity, yet.  Not everyone has gas logs.  Not everyone has this kind of roof over their head.  May we be mindful of those in need, and may we do what we can to be a blessing to our neighbors, no matter the circumstance.

I didn’t set an alarm clock this morning, and it is admittedly nice to have a lazy Sunday.  I am so thankful for Ms. Leigh and Andy & Dakota Cheek for meeting me yesterday afternoon to record today’s worship service.  I won’t have to go “to work” tomorrow; my job doesn’t require me to be in a specific place.  If you have the option to work remotely, or have the flexibility to take a day off on short notice, let’s remember our childhood.  I remember praying for winter weather as a school kid, waking early to turn on the television and wait for the scroll to announce what my school system would do (by the time I got to high school, I would fail to complete my homework, go to bed, and hope I didn’t have to finish in the morn).  Every now and then, there it would read “Guilford County Schools: closed”!  Mama would dress my brother and me [not unlike Randy in A Christmas Story] and let us go outside to play for hours at a time, coming inside to eat grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup, drink hot chocolate, and make snow cream together.  After we thawed, we’d go back outside to play.  O what fun we had, and the biggest care we had was whether we could get the snow balls to stay packed together.  The kid inside me is praying for school to cancel tomorrow, just so these little ones can have a day to play, a day like I remember.  Aren’t we thankful for the joys that God gives, filling our hearts?

As I [barely] work ahead [until football kicks off], I am chewing on Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, which we will preach through in the coming months.  It is heavy in the theme of sanctification, and full of practical applications in “Christian living”.  This has me thinking: will any of us go to heaven because we walk in obedience?  Will we inherit the earth because we strive to be holy, or follow certain rules, or serve our neighbors better, or vote a certain way, or stop others from doing certain things?  Most certainly: no!  Does God care about what we do?  Yes.  Does God care even more about the heart behind our actions?  O yeah!

May we act, and think, certain ways because Jesus is the Lord of our hearts.  May we hold certain values, or opinions, because we have been shaped by the truths of scripture, because God has our hearts.  May we strive toward holy living, toward spiritual maturity, because we want to look more like our Savior.  May we walk toward humility, looking a bit more like Jesus tomorrow than we do today, because His presence is transforming us from the inside, out.  May we be a blessing to our friends and neighbors, because we want them to walk with Him too.  We know that God cares about our obedience, our thoughts and actions; we also know that God cares about our hearts, the hearts behind our actions, the hearts of which He wants to be Lord.  Will any of us go to heaven because of our “Christian living”?  No, not one.  Do we live, striving to honor the Christ, because we are already bound for heaven?  O yeah.  We think, and do, and hold opinions, and treat our neighbors, and care for the needy, and strive for obedience, because we are inheritors of the Kingdom of God.

We “live Christianity” because the Christ already has our hearts.  The Holy Spirit is conforming us into the image of Jesus day by day.  We have been credited with His righteousness, making us justified.  As we walk with Him, growing in faith, striving toward spiritual maturity, we are being sanctified.  All this is possible because of what He has already done for us.  He has conquered sin and death, and given us the grace of eternal life.  He has taken away the hell we deserve, paying for our own sin, and given us an inheritance as sons of God (Matthew 5:9).  This is all because of what He accomplished upon the cross, His blood cleansing our hearts as white as snow.

Lord Jesus I long to be perfectly whole;
I want Thee forever to ransom my soul.
Break down every idol, cast out every foe;
now wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.
--A.J.