Please keep the following in mind as COVID numbers in our area are again on the rise:

You must wear a mask to attend worship.

Please maintain social distancing guidelines.

If you have COVID or have been in contact with anyone who has had it, please do not come to the church until the appropriate quarantine time has been exhausted.

You will be seated by an usher to a seat that has been socially distanced from others (members of your immediate family may sit together).

At this time of uncertainty please be aware that protocols may change quickly! Please check the church website (felcmifflinburg.org) for updates relating to worship services.

Unfortunately, it may be necessary to cancel a worship service at the last minute and we will do our best to inform you and make any changes published as quickly as possible.

Thank you!

Briefing:

For all the saints embraced by God's love in Christ,

Today, November 10th, is the birthday of Martin Luther born 537 years ago. In 1520, Luther penned the treatise "The Freedom of a Christian." Luther stated, "The Christian person is a completely free lord of all, subject to none. The Christian person is a completely dutiful servant of all, subject to all." He added, "One thing and one thing alone is necessary for the Christian life, righteousness, and freedom, and that is the most holy word of God, the Gospel of Christ," and quoting from John 8:36, "If the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed."

The freedom we have is a freedom given to us by the life, death, and resurrection of Christ Jesus. This freedom isn't a license or a right to be and do anything of our own desire. Rather, this freedom we have in Christ and emphasized in Luther's treatise is a freedom with purpose, a God-directed purpose, lived out in a relationship of service to one another.

It is a freedom that the Apostle Paul wrote about in his letter to the Galatians. In 5:1, Paul notes, "For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore." Here Paul is referring to the freedom won for us by Christ and that we are no longer enslaved to sin, particularly the sin of selfishness and self-gain at the expense of others. 

Paul continues in 5:13f, "For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another. For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself'." He adds, "Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh... And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires."

In Christ we have received our freedom, and that freedom is properly expressed in and through the love we show to one another. Thanks be to God! We honor and worship God rightfully when we relate to one another in the manner revealed to us in Christ's own life.

Walk in faith and share the good news in Christ.  Pastor John