We come to the end of another church year, actually to the end of our first year together. We have shared in a precious gift, the gift of life. I sincerely believe that there are no chance encounters where God is concerned. Nor do I consider it happenstance that my family has joined yours at Ashland First. I consider that each face I look upon in life has been an intentional meeting, one arranged by God or at least influenced by the choices we have made and hopefully those choices have been in line with His will. We get to know each other’s personalities and become accustomed to a familiar smile. We exchange a hearty handshake or feel the presence of a strong hand upon our shoulders. We know where we and others prefer to sit or where we usually meet them during our times of service and we miss them when they are not there because their presence is not only seen but also felt in our lives.
In the Church we have something so very special that the world cannot perceive. In the world many people make their presence known in our lives but that presence is not always a pleasant one, now be honest. In the Church this should not be so, for the imprint we make upon the lives of others, the lives of those to whom God has joined us in life, for a time and a season, should not be simply an imprint from the presence of another human being but a ‘Him-print’ from the soul of one redeemed by God’s grace, filled by His Holy Spirit and in the process of being transformed into the image of His dear Son. In each encounter of our lives we make an impression upon the lives around us. Sometimes they go unnoticed and sometimes they are casual but they are always there, positive, negative or neutral.
This past year has left us with profound absences in our lives as a church family from those whose presence we are no longer privileged to share. The strength of this void is a testimony to the ‘Him-print’ that they have left upon our lives. When we engaged them in conversation their words spoke of thanksgiving and blessing and when we looked into their eyes we knew we were looking through the windows of their souls. Genuine and sincere, they engaged us with grace and love and their smiles brought us peace and reassurance that their God, our God, was indeed working in each one of us to fashion us after the image of His Son. As I prepare this for you I can see their smiles and hear the gentleness and love in their voices can’t you? Our lives together with the ones we love could never be long enough and no matter how long we are graced by their presence we always long for more. God knows and understands this and has therefore made eternity in Heaven attainable through and by Calvary’s cross and the sacrifice of His Christ, our Savior. I look forward to seeing their smiling faces once again in that land where we shall never again be separated from the ones we love. I pray that as we glorify God for the gift of their lives touching ours that we would also use their lives as an example of His grace. That we appreciate the impression that they have made upon each one of us and that we likewise endeavor to leave our ‘Him-print’ upon those we encounter day by day.
I also believe that it is not only a person that leaves a ‘Him-print’ but a people as well. Positive, negative and neutral we can all identify peoples out of the past who have contributed to the kingdom as well as those who have taken away or perhaps done nothing at all. Take for example the churches in the 2nd and 3rd chapters of Revelation. The book is a revelation of Jesus Christ, which is also what the Church should be as they ‘reveal’ Christ to others in their communities through their witness, through worship, the preached Word and the ministries that meet real human needs with spiritual goals in mind. We see in the seven letters to the seven churches of Asia Minor that there was one which Christ could not really say anything good about. Yet as He did with the other six He extends a promise to them as well that if they would repent He would grant them in particular that they share His throne. Of the seven churches we could say that four of them found themselves ‘middle of the road’ if you will. We could say that they were average, receiving both commendation and criticism from the Lord. Of those seven churches only two would rise above the rest to receive only commendation from the risen Christ. Only two of seven were completely faithful in representing Jesus Christ to the world, to their world.
What Christ was speaking of regarding these churches was their ‘Him-print.’ How were they representing Him to their families, their communities and ultimately to the rest of the world? As we can all read by Christ’s testimony towards each of them, some were representing Him in a carnal way. In other words the impression those Christians were leaving on the world around them was no different than the witness portrayed by those who were not saved and were living under the influences and vices of this temporal, finite world rather than the influences and direction of God’s Holy Spirit Which clearly is not the way the Lord of Heaven and earth should be represented, wouldn’t you agree? Only 2 of 7 churches were representing Christ in a divine spiritual way as He rightly should have been represented. Consider that for a moment, only 2 out of 7, that’s roughly 29% of those churches in the New Testament period who were truly leaving an accurate ‘Him-print’ of Jesus Christ, their Lord and Savior, on the people and communities around them. I wonder how those figures would apply to the churches of our day. Would you imagine the percentages of churches who accurately and faithfully represent Christ is better or worse than it was then. Could we take that figure even further and apply it to Christians in general, I wonder. Could only 1 in 3 persons who call themselves Christians receive only commendation from our Lord?
We clearly have a choice, as individuals and as a church, on how well or how poorly we represent our Savior. I believe that Ashland First Church of the Nazarene and her people have been presented with a glorious opportunity to build upon the blessings of her past an everlasting legacy, one that truly represents the very purpose for why God has established her in this time and this city. I believe that we now press towards that mark and the high calling of God which He Himself has placed before us. I believe that we have set our trajectory, as did those two faithful churches, to rise above the average and take our place among those who excel, not in the eyes of the world but in the eyes of God Himself! I believe that we have devoted and shall continue to dedicate ourselves to leave an everlasting ‘Him-print’, evidenced by our love and passion towards all things Heavenly, upon our friends, our families and our city. To be His witnesses both here in our city and state, throughout our region and to the ends of the earth should we find ourselves there and may our continuing prayer be that we endeavor to fulfill this greatest of commissions with the diligence it deserves.
In His Love
Rev. Curt Skeens, Teaching Pastor
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
0 comments:
Post a Comment