Views From the Pews – Last Sunday After the Epiphany – February 11, 2024

Written Messages

Brothers & Sisters,

The old saying, ‘Time and tide wait for no one’, is true.  January has already taken leave of us, and the congregational meetings have come and gone, and church committees and representatives for Synod have been elected, and Deanery Council reps have been appointed.  It is now high time to get down to serious work in order to achieve the objectives we have set ourselves this year. Before we can do this, we need to do the following

  • We need to understand ourselves as the beloved children of God.  When we utter in prayer the word ‘Father’, it expresses the true character of our relationship with God, for the Holy Spirit of God bears witness to our spirits that we are indeed God’s children, and we could add ‘God’s children, born of his Spirit, washed in his blood’.  We know then that God’s favour rests upon us.
  • We need to have a clear vision of what God requires of us.  The process of arriving at the vision may vary.  In the case of the Apostle Paul it was a direct vision from God, and in our case, it might be a vision articulated by the Church, or by a leader, with or without our involvement in the visioning process.  The important thing is that we embrace the vision as our own, and believe it to be God’s vision for our lives, and in that sense, no less heavenly.
  • We need to commit ourselves to be obedient to this God-given vision.  Paul’s answer when questioned about what he was doing by the various authorities, Apostolic, Jewish, or Roman, was consistent: he was simply being obedient to the heavenly vision.  He was driven, by his commitment to the vision, to give himself completely in working for its fulfillment.
  • We need to understand that it is God’s grace that makes ministry possible.  We will forever be insufficient in ourselves to help ourselves, but we can rest on God’s sufficiency for every situation.  No situation is too difficult for us when God is with us.

Let us engage our tasks in the strength of the Lord.

Contributed