Pastor’s Notes
July 2014
“Surely the presence of the Lord is in this place!”
Jacob spoke these words as awoke from his slumber, as God spoke him in his sleep. You can read of it in Genesis chapter 28.
I had such a moment last week with our youth at Camp Copass. I was overwhelmed by the presence of God as more than 800 voices were raised singing “Bless The Lord, O My Soul,” the chorus to the song “10000 Reasons” by Matt Redman. I’m not one given to great emotional outbursts. But to hear such a sea of voices singing out with abandon to the worthy God was more than I could “handle.” I openly wept for joy at such a display of worship. If this is the sound of just 800, what will the millions in Heaven sound like?
The next night we wept again as a young man came to profess Jesus Christ as his savior! Tears of joy flowed in knowing another soul is redeemed. We saw the joy. We felt the stillness of God moving. Even in the midst of the controlled chaos of summer camp, we all sat quietly in reverence before the Holy Uncreated One, the God who loves us each so much as to give His Only Son as a worth sacrifice for my sin. And yours. And that of the world. God is good, the essence of the word and thought, the definition of what it means.
We don’t deserve it. “For the wages (what we’ve earned) of sin is death, but the free gift (we have not earned) of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 6:23)
Friends, the Bible clearly explains the truth of our situation: there isn’t enough “good” that we can do to “earn” our way to Heaven. Our standard of “good” (really, we mean “good enough”) doesn’t come close to the perfection of God. We don’t have the means or power to do so on our own. God still shows His love in this: “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.” (Romans 5:6)
When we profess Jesus as our personal savior, when we believe that He is who He says He is (see John 14:6 about His claims to who He truly is), profess Him as our Lord and begin to follow Him, we enter into salvation. What a God we serve! For we who follow Jesus, our mission is unchanging: to make disciples as we go, teaching all that Jesus commands!
Bro. Jim
