by Pastor Glenda
Recently I went to the beach at Seaspray. It was a warm, sunny day, and as I stood on the shore and looked out at the waves my eyes were drawn from the shallows where the waves were breaking, on toward the horizon. I was inspired by the vastness of the ocean, and as I took it all in, I asked the Lord what He was saying to me in that moment.
I believe the Lord is saying to us this year that He desires to take us deeper and deeper into His love, His character and His holiness. He wants us to nurture our soul as we spend time with Him and in His Presence. I believe as we are preparing for the year, organizing programs and events, we must always keep in mind that we must “seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, then all the other things will be given to us.” Seeking Him, His face, His word and His ways comes first. So we first need to “Come” to Jesus. “Come to Me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest.”
The second word that keeps coming up in my daily reading and devotion is “Wider.” God wants us to keep diving deeper into Him and His heart, but then He wants us to go wider, reaching out to our community and those around us with His love, with His word, and with the Gospel. Jesus said, “Go and make disciples.” That is our mandate. That is the mission of the church.
So here we go, into a new year – our 50th Anniversary year. Let’s be prepared to go deeper and wider than ever and to see God’s purpose manifest in our lives, in our church and in our community and beyond. As we learn to worship God in spirit and in truth, as we make His word foundational in our lives and allow it to do its work in us, as we are filled with the new wine of the Holy Spirit, refreshing and renewing us, then we can be the witnesses He has called us to be to the world around us.