Sunday thoughts

No condemnation now I dread;
Jesus, and all in Him, is mine!
Alive in Him, my living Head,
and clothed in righteousness divine.
Bold I approach the eternal throne
and claim the crown through Christ, my own.


God Sent His People

Our minister R1 took to the pulpit on Sunday morning at the end of “Missions Month”, read from the first chapter of the Acts of the Apostles and mused on just what we were celebrating.

The chief missionary of the church, he said, is the Holy Spirit – through that work a light is shone on Jesus Christ.

It’s estimated there are 400,000 people involved in cross-cultural activities around the world. This is what the popular idea of a missionary is. But the real work of missions is God’s people witnessing for the Lord – you and me, not some missionary toiling in a far-off jungle.

We are the living embodiment of mission [John 17:13-21]. We are called by God to be a witness to his glory among those we rub shoulders with on a daily basis.

It might be possible to live in a Christian ghetto, mixing only with those with similar beliefs and consuming only the books and music sold at the local Christian bookshop. The wider community wouldn’t even know we were there. That would be as far away from mission as possible.

Our lifestyles should signify as much as our words – we need to be more like Christ if we want to influence others in his cause. If we don’t have that inner joy, we can’t spread the Good News of the Gospel to others

We should live for Christ by living as Christ.

Still on and on the anthems spread,
of hallelujah voices;
in concert with the holy dead,
the warrior church rejoices;
their snow-white robes are washed in blood,
their golden harps are ringing;
earth and the Paradise of God
one triumph song are singing.

He comes, whose advent-trumpet drowns
the last of time's evangels,
Immanuel, crowned with many crowns,
the Lord of saints and angels,
O Life, Light, Love, the great I AM,
Triune, who changes never,
the throne of God and of the Lamb
is Yours, and Yours forever.