Pastor's Corner

Family members laughed with excitement and the many horses present neighed as 250 Amish men lifted and carried a large barn 150 feet to a new location. It only took two minutes and forty seconds for the "hands on lifting up" to be completed on the Hochstetter farm in Ohio. Stepping in unison, hands filled with the portion they could carry, they moved a very large barn!

These men provide us with a living picture of the scripture that says "Carry each other's burdens, and in this way, you will fulfill the law of Christ" Gal. 6:2.

Because each believer in Christ is part of His body the church, we are a part of each other. We rejoice with those who rejoice. We weep with those who weep. We move in sympathetic relationship with one another, offering our heart and service in lifting up each other's needs and burdens in prayer to the Lord.

It is God's plan that His children help carry each other's burdens. In so doing we experience the joy He offers when we "encourage one another daily, as long as it is called today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness" Heb. 3:13. Encouragement helps keep hearts tender towards the Lord and each other.

No greater example exists than Jesus Christ Himself bearing the burden of our sins on the cross. He took on Himself the full weight of our sin burden. "He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness" 1 Peter 2:24.

Because He took all our sin to the cross, we are more than encouraged. We are freed, forgiven, cleansed, and living daily in the joy and strength of the Lord.

Pastor Greg Brownell

Dayton United Brethren Church