Part 7 of the "Alleluia: Believing the Risen Lord" Sermon Series

Return to this question that we asked earlier: How can a person grow toward God during their lifetime on earth? A similar and just as important question: How can I grow toward God during my lifetime on earth? We should always be focused on growing toward God just as a plant grows toward the sunlight. When I offer tender loving care to a cat, for example, that cat tends to grow closer and closer to me. If I do not pay much attention to it, the opposite might happen. Although we may be moving on from our series on doubt within faith, and we will be reading about how the early church had success after success, we know that it never truly goes away either. We are confronting it every day of our lives. Even amid the success of the early church, the disciples were still called in for questioning. There were still people like Saul who fought against them in the early days. We have that today as well. If we are to sustain the church, as well as our own faith, we need to build up from our roots. We need to tell ourselves that it is okay. And most of all, we need to remain turned toward God. When we are turned toward God, God’s face will be able to shine upon our faces, and with a little effort on our part, that face will continue to shine into the rest of the world. Reflecting a little bit of God’s love in the form of tender loving care to our neighbors is a crucial part of our Christian journey. We extend it to our neighbors, we extend it to the animal family, and we extend it to our own selves.