The Messenger
Fortune or Faith?
Magnolia Baptist Church
"Every person a place to serve and a place to belong." October 2012
Knowing and Doing God’s Will Remember the movie Freaky Friday and how the mom and daughter flip out together... literally...and all because of a fortune cookie? • None of the secrets of success will work unless you do. • The secret of getting ahead is getting started • Two grins grow where there was only a grouch before. • Funny thing about humility. Just when you think you’ve got it, you’ve lost it. • Ideas are like children; there are none so wonderful as your own. • He who laughs at himself never runs out of things to laugh at. At the restaurant we read these. We laugh at them. We make our own jokes about them. Once, Corrie and I went to a PeiWei for lunch. Her fortune cookie that day had nine messages of good fortune! My cookie was empty! No kidding. Certainly she was blessed, but was I cursed? No way. What if we lived life by fortune cookie planning, though? What if we took the jumbled messages of goodness and they became directional for lives? We would never do that! There is no authority in the cookie. The cookie’s fortune is as hollow as the cookie itself. Sadly, many of us who call Jesus Lord treat His word as an empty fortune. The Bible sounds good, but deep down, we do not believe the Bible is sufficient for life. We constantly look away from God’s word to find direction and satisfaction elsewhere. I’m not talking about a doctor or a pilot who need specialized training for their jobs. I’m talking about those places where we look for life validation, encouragement and direction for living life well. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 God’s word is sufficient encouragement and equipping for you and me to know and do God’s will! We mustn’t live stuck waiting for the good fortune message...God has perfectly revealed the way of truth...for life, love, justice, mercy, grace, good works, hope, relationships, belief... This is life by faith! Living out the ways of Jesus revealed by God’s word is the way of true fortune. The Bible is no empty cookie. Read it. Know it. Live it.
720 S. Magnolia Anaheim, CA 92804
Glad to be your pastor, Jeremy