Our Lord's days are quite full with Sunday school, morning service, lunch together then a 2:00 service in the afternoon. Today we had a missionary speaker, John Shelley, from Rock of Ages Ministries. They minister to inmates in international and domestic military prisons. What a blessing to see the work and hear the messages today.
Syd and I have been blessed to be involved in four local churches in our lives and we lived for 6 years in South Carolina. The Lord used this to expose us to many different styles of preaching. He has used most all these men of God, no matter what their "style", to minister to our hearts. Today's was a wonderful southern (Virginia) preacher. He was a sincere servant who loved the Lord and preached his heart out to us. God spoke to me on several points, which I plan to pray earnestly about until I see a change in these areas of my life. This missionary was not here to get us to support their ministry or to prove anything, he was here to share his love for the Lord and for our military men and woman (his wife ministers to women) who have gone to prison, and his desire to see them saved. Pastor Shelley shared with us, "If you do the crime, you must do the time; but then there's the matter of eternity". God uses him to lead them to changing their lives for eternity.
The morning message was from John 4. The Samaritan woman who Jesus met at the well was asking where this 'living water' would come from, believing it to be actual water from the well wherein she had come to draw. Jesus told her that, "Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again; but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life." He then told her to "go call her husband, and come hither". She said that she did not have a husband. Jesus knew her through and through and told her all about herself. He knew that she was a woman of the world, involved with several men and that the man she was now with was not her husband (verse 18). When Jesus ministered on earth, then later shed his blood upon the cross for our sins, he does not look at how much of a sinner we are. His blood takes away ALL sin and he loves ALL people. Any who will accept Jesus' sacrifice for their sin will be saved!
After telling him that she perceived that he was a prophet, she changed the subject to that of "worship". The Lord shared with her that people who TRULY worship the Father, worship Him in spirit and in truth, and that "the Father seeketh such to worship Him". God is seeking for souls, still today, who will come to Him and worship in spirit and in truth, the truth of the Word of God. One question Pastor Shelley asked was (paraphrased), "before coming here this morning, did you worship God? Not, did you come here to worship God? but, did you already worship Him this morning, and bring your worship for Him along TO this place of worship?"
One who knows Christ as their savior should start their day by worshipping God in prayer and reading the Word, then continue the worship of Him throughout their entire day; by every word spoken, each thought entertained, all of their actions -in every place that they go. This was no new revelation to me, but what refreshments and reminders we sometimes receive when posed with a simple question?
All in all, this day was a blessing and it started me off on the right foot for the entire week. It is the first day this season that actually looked like snow. "That sky looks like it is going to snow." That's what I heard, and that is what I thought also. I kind of hate to say it for the first time, but we know that Winter is coming. Come what may, we have the assurance that the Lord loves us; whether we are already His child or whether you have never yet trusted Him for salvation. The woman at the well believed and trusted in the Lord, Messiah (at this time He had not yet died on the cross, of course). As she went into the city and told the Samaritans, they came, and many more believed, knowing that He was the Messiah, who would save them from their sins.
He loves us and wants to lead all people to the place of TRUE worship.
I leave you with flowers again. It may be one of the last weeks that we get to enjoy their beauty.
I hope that today has prepared you for a wonderful week ahead.
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