"...God does not make anyone successful. The greatness of God is best revealed in the composition of man who has infinite expressions of will, freedom and self-determination. He was designed by God as the fulfiller of creation and possesses some powers essential to God as his own. Failure to achieve then is not a result of neglect by God, but perhaps a limited, distorted or even misguided initiative on the part of man. All men, Christian or Non-Christian possesses equal capacity for success. God's greatness is in the quality of the man that He made, not in the life that man chooses to live..."

Pastor James R. Barrett, Sr.

From the desk of Pastor Barrett:   

     Remember when you first learned to ride a bicycle? Remember how many times you probably fell down, yet you got back up again determined to ride that bike. You got back up again and again and again until it became second nature.

     Donnie McClurkin sings a beautiful song. "We Fall Down, But We Get Up". It's all about Christians who make their mistakes, but recover to be even stronger in their faith. Let's face it; we all fall at some point. Romans 3:23 says, "All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." But, like the song says, "A saint is just a sinner who fell down, but got back up again."

     Imagine what we would have missed out on as kids had we never got back up from our first falls on a bike? Think about all the thrills you would have missed out on that a bicycle brought you! If we don't get up when we sin, we will miss out on the great joy of serving God. Our determination has to be strong, our will to serve Him even greater after a fall. Rest assured, each of us will fall. After all, we are all sinners. But we are believers too.

     So don't let you sins keep you from becoming a saint. God knows we are going to fall, but He is always right there to pick us up and to help us recover from the fall. The stronger our walk is with Him, the less painful the fall will be.

     Eventually riding a bike became so easy for me. Even today, I can remember how determined I was to not be defeated by a fall. If we take that same attitude towards serving God, then serving God is easy too. We just have to focus and be determined not to let a fall keep us down.

     If we do that, we will experience the great joy that comes with picking ourselves up and trying even harder the next time, just like riding a bike!

His Saving Grace,

James R. Barrett, Sr.