Cumberland Mountain State Park, Crossville, Tennessee
Homesteads Baptist Church was right at the end of the road leading to the campground – so about 5 minutes from door to door. We found it to be a seemingly healthy, faith-led and friendly church. There was even a whistler during part of the offertory. 😊 Hopefully the song leader/choir director was having an off-day as there was no joy to be found on his face this morning. But he was the only one like that.
They brought a visitor gift bag to our seat with a candle, information about their church and a hand-written welcome card.
They called for the children to come up and at least two dozen made it for the Children’s Message. It was about using your God-given gifts – whatever they may be – to the glory of God. No matter what that gift may be – sports, dancing, singing, art, hospitality, service, etc. But the object to teach the lesson was incredible. He (children’s pastor? Other staff member? I don’t know who he was) told the story of an autistic boy who struggled in school and eventually dropped out because the teachers didn’t know what to do with him and people thought he was stupid.
But of course, he wasn’t. God just made him different. And then he showed us this wooden plaque the young man had designed an made himself. I saw it immediately – it was sort of “stick figures” of the Last Supper. Jesus was represented by a large cross in the middle. But what I couldn’t see, were the details of the apostles. Thomas reaching his hand toward Jesus’ “hand”, Peter holding a sword, John leaning in close to Jesus, Judas down near the corner away from everyone – including Jesus. I wish I had a picture of it to show you.
And so. This autistic man that God created, that “we” labeled as stupid and worthless, is using his God-given artistic gift to bring glory to God. In a most wonderful way!
Have you ever noticed how much you learn from Children’s Sermons? I know I do!
The grown-up sermon was titled, “What does running toward righteousness look like”, and was taken from Hebrews 12:12-17.
A brief context of Hebrews, indicates that some of the Christian Jews were wanting to return to Judaism. The author of Hebrews (no one knows who that is) was using this letter to remind them that the freedom they have in Jesus is better. That Jesus is a better, a perfect, High Priest.
The pastor also stressed the importance of knowing your salvation is secure. It cannot be lost or taken away. Once you have trusted Christ as your Lord and Savior, there’s nothing you can do, nothing any one can do to you, to change that. In other words, ‘once saved always saved’. It is God’s gift to us! (Ephesians 2:8-9) Nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus or Lord! (Romans 8:38-39) And no one can snatch us out of His hand! (John 10:27-30)
The word, sanctification, is a Christian word that’s used that many don’t understand. In it’s very basic definition, it describes our process of growing as Christians. Christian maturity isn’t given to us, we have to work at it.
It’s like a person who decides to run. You can’t just get up one day and decide to run a marathon, or even a mile. You have to do the work to prepare. You have to train. That’s what ‘making the paths straight’ means in Hebrews 12:13.
We treat Christianity like we don’t have to work at it, but we don’t just wake up one day suddenly spiritually mature. And God expects us to grow. Learning to live and love like Jesus takes time and effort, and we have to learn how – just like a runner.
We learn Christianity by spending time in prayer and God’s Word. And corporate worship is essential to our growth as well. Let’s get to class and keep learning! As Christians, we’re all full-time students!
After service, we talked to a nice lady in our pew who, as it turned out, used to be a science teacher and is also a botanist. Remember those trees I showed you that had the flowers growing on the trunks and branches? They’re Redbud trees! Now, you can all go out and buy one for your yard for us – – since we don’t have a yard. 😊
I was only planning to work a few hours on the blog today, but extreme technical difficulties forced me to greatly exceed my self-imposed deadline. Sigh . . . .
Eventually I figured it out, and I stopped throwing things. (Just kidding!) There was no throwing. Just a lot of heavy expelling of air and grumbling.
In the words of Scarlett O’Hara, Tomorrow is another day!