|
Psalm 133:1-3 (NIV)
1 How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in
unity!
2 It is like precious oil poured on the head, running down on the
beard, running down on Aaron's beard, down upon the collar of his robes.
3 It is as if the dew of Hermon were falling on Mount Zion. For
there the LORD bestows his blessing, even life forevermore.
Ok so today will not be a devotion, I have
to brag on God for a moment and I hope he will allow me. I was involved in
a real live church service where God was very much a part yesterday.
I woke up at four o'clock in the morning
very worried about how everything would work out. There were so many things to make work I was already tired just thinking about it. There was the Sunday
morning Bible study to finish, the Morning message to put the final touches
on, concerns about how we were going to be able to pull off worship when I
found out just a few days previously that we had no one to lead, so it was
going to fall in my lap to do what I am not qualified to do.
On top of all this we had our Thanksgiving
dinner immediately following the morning service. Then to put the icing on
the cake we had several visitors that each had special needs that required
close attention. The text I had chosen for this morning was I Thessalonians
5:16-18. Little did I know how timely this text would serve for my own life.
I will leave it to you to read this passage or you can listen to my podcast.
When I arrived at the worship center I discovered
several of the women and men of our church had already had everything already
set up for the dinner and we already had more than enough food even if we had
several visitors that came without any. One problem taken care of.
Just before worship we had a homeless man,
named Lonnie, that entered our worship center and looked to be very
disturbed. I thought to myself, "What a time for someone like this to
show up. I wonder how the church will respond?" But to be honest I was
not surprised to see five of our men go over and seek to minister to this
stranger in our midst. No one looked down on this man, they went out of their
way to serve him and invite him to join in the worship celebration.
I thought to myself, "Way to go God
and way to go men of Lakeland." I then saw another of our members
befriend a visiting student from another country and go out of their way to
make them welcome. This international student even stayed for the meal
afterwards.
During our time of thanksgiving testimonies
I heard countless statements like the following, "I thank God for the
way that so and so ministered to me this past year" or "I thank God
for the way God is at work in our midst." There truly was a celebration
of God's activity in our midst. This all took place after I led in worship
with my wife leading us on the piano. (Yes no one even walked out during my
leading the singing, another miracle)
During lunch afterwards I continued to hear
testimonies of how one member has been sharing Christ with someone in their
family,another member asking for prayer because they had several co workers
who needed Christ, another member praised God for helping her to see a
ministry she needed to be involved in, others shared humorous stories of
walking with God or just some good clean humor.
As the afternoon drew to a close I
continued to see every member working together for the glory of God and they
all were happy. I even saw some of our youth in the kitchen helping to wash
the dishes and help with the clean up, mind you they did this with great joy.
I know this because there was not a parent even around and I watched them
work together with joy around the sink.
As I got ready to leave I saw one of our
members take the homeless visitor to a local hotel and give them a room to
sleep in for the night and make sure they had plenty of our left over food
for the evening. Once again done with great joy. On my way out of the
building I had several members say what a joy it was to serve the Lord in
this day. And I thought to myself, "What a true joy it is to serve
alongside of those who care not for their own personal glory but that the
glory of God is seen in our midst as we serve alongside each other for the
sake of the gospel.. I truly am blessed to serve a church where so many have
this as their leading concern.
For all of you who question if the Church
can ever really be the church, yesterday was a very clear example of one
group of believers that made it happen. Now I know in a personal way that
Psalms 133 really is true. What a blessing God gives when His people live for
the sake of God's glory. When this happens the presence of the Lord is
present and those who serve in this way get to see and experience His
presence. Thanks Lakeland for letting one pastor have this vision. May God be
glorified.
A Grateful pastor of Lakeland Baptist,
Pastor Phil
|