Pastor's Article 03-01-26

Are you living a victorious life? I'm not referring to whether you're enjoying yourself or achieving financial success. Rather, I'm asking if your life is honoring and glorifying God. For Christians, living victoriously can mean persevering through persecution like Paul and Silas did while imprisoned in Philippi, or making sacrifices that result in hardship, such as David and his followers eating consecrated bread because they were starving. Achieving victory may also involve working tirelessly to prepare for preaching or teaching, or, as the Apostle Paul described, becoming a spectacle so that the gospel can be spread. Success or victory may look very different through the world’s lens compared to God’s perspective. Deacon Stephen, full of faith and power, delivered a powerful sermon, which ultimately led to him being attacked and stoned by an enraged crowd. If you look at that from the world’s viewpoint, it looks as though Stephen was defeated, but not so. The Bible says in Acts 8, “54 When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth. 55 But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, 56 And said, ‘Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.’” The audience that mattered was well pleased and Stephen died having lived a victorious life.  Beloved, God wants us to live a life that is defined by Him, a life sold out to the honor and glory of Jesus Christ. That is what real victory is.
Pastor,
Rev. Wayne Marcus