January 4, 2023 | Dan Low

Dear Bread of Life family,

We praise God for the eternal life that we share together through the Lord Jesus Christ. Even though we were separated and distant from him, our sovereign and gracious God sent his Son to die on the cross for our sins so that we might live with his righteousness. Mercifully and powerfully, God does for us what we could never do for ourselves.

While we each bear responsibility to grow in our faith (coming to grips with what God has already done for us), we are not alone in our pursuit of Jesus and our proclamation of his kingdom (deepening in passion with what we must now do for him). As God’s adopted and beloved children, we also become spiritual siblings who are privileged to share life with one another. In fact, we will flourish more richly in our spiritual life as we connect more deeply in our faith community. With the physical separation that has naturally distanced us the past few years, we must be especially proactive and intentional to do our part as individual members in building up the whole body of Christ.

Here are some things that we can do to that end:
• Join us for in-person worship on Sunday mornings and other activities at Bread of Life
• Explore ways to use our God-given talents and experiences to bless others
• Reach out to someone we haven’t seen in a while to let them know we care
• Ask God to open our eyes to see how we can be better neighbors in our community
• Read that book we’ve been wanting to (with another buddy or two)
• Decide to publicly identify with our church family through baptism or membership
• Pray for our church like Paul does (Ephesians 1:15-23, 3:14-21; Colossians 1:9-14)

In one of my favorite chapters in one of my favorite books, the apostle Paul explains that the whole body matures fully as each part works properly (Ephesians 4:15-16). So let’s fulfill our role in God’s perfect design with our Spirit-sourced abilities so that we can become more like his Son.

We are so truly grateful to God for each one of you, our brothers and sisters in Christ,

Pastor Dan