Real Life!

The country sights, sounds and smells of our community bring a serenity that cannot  be matched in New Jersey.

Yet, not even the sweet pleasure of the country can sway us from the puzzling questions of life. No matter who we are or where we come from, life is certainly a big challenge and often a great struggle.

As we live from day to day, trying to make ends meet and trying to find pleasure in each day, answers and hope often elude us.  The Bible’s Old Testament wealthy King Solomon once wrote:  

“Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.” Ecclesiastes 2:11 (NIV)

Thanks be to God that hope can be secured. Jesus Christ said about himself,

“We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him (Jesus Christ) the iniquity of us all.” Isaiah 53:6  (NIV)

“For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all… that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.”
2 Corinthians 5:14-15 (NIV)

In his love for us, Christ our Lord and God, sacrificed his life on the cross and took upon himself the penalty of our sins so that we might have real life and live this life for God himself.

The Christian life is no easy option.  Christ wants true dedicated followers of him…

“…what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the LORD's commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?”
Deuteronomy 10:12-13     (NIV)

“Then he said to them all: ‘If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.’” Luke 9:23-24 (NIV)

Yet, God does not leave us to follow him on our own.  God said…"Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you." Hebrews 13:5  (NIV)

…not to chain us. These “commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good” (Deut. 10:12-13). God said that if Christ sets you free, then you will be free indeed (John 8:36)!

To ignore or reject this challenge would leave us facing the unthinkable…

“Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.”        John 3:18     (NIV)

Allow us to invite you to hear more of God’s word from the Bible and introduce to you the mighty power of God’s grace so that you also can know the joys of real living.

At the Hope Evangelical Free Church in Vernon, God’s word of hope and life is taught every week.