Monday, February 27, 2023

Homecoming Story

One of my favorite secular singers is Gordon Lightfoot.  He writes a song about longing for home called "Did She Remember My Name."  A line of the song says, "Is the home team still on fire, do they still win all the games, and by the way ... did she mention my name."  It resonates with the serendipity of remembering the fond things about days gone by.

Some of us are thinking about our homecoming this week (10am in the Sanctuary), and we are remembering the stories about what has happened at Abbeville Methodist.  I am sure there are many stories I haven't heard, and a few I have heard.  Jimmy Rane shared with me one day how he came to this church the 1st time.  A few of you have told me you have been here since birth.  Those are fun and fond memories.  But I think God's plan about this congregation has a connection to the past, an assurance in the present and new hope for the future.  And maybe we need to focus on something written in God's word.

1 Peter 2:5 says this: "You are living stones, being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ."  Living stones are living monuments to what God has done, is doing and will do because He is consistent and constant in His love for us.  A spiritual house means we are all about focusing on God's view of the world ... not the world's view of God.  A holy priesthood means we are dedicated and devoted to worship and God's plan for our congregation.  Spiritual sacrifice is a reminder that our worship, our work and our applied-faith is sacrificial and beyond what is convenient and easy.  Acceptable reminds us that what we do needs to have value in God's eyes ... not necessarily the eyes of people.  And all of this is to further the Kingdom of God that has been brought to earth from our savior, Jesus Christ.

Sunday morning we will share a testimony about what God has done here ... we will be living markers of God's blessing and goodness.  We will praise a good and sufficient god because He has been "our help in ages past, our hope for years to come, a shelter from the stormy blast, and our eternal home."  Come ... for God's table has been made ready!  Randy

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