| "to glorify God in worship and obedience" | |
| Sunday Worship 10:45 |
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Friendship means very little if one or more of the people involved sees the relationship as expendable. The Rock of Ages calls us, through the Word, to love our neighbor as ourselves. Our neighbor is the person we most see as vile, offensive, and our enemy. So, from the beginning, God commanded us to have love for each member of mankind because we are all the offspring of Adam and Eve and Adam and Eve were created in the image of God.
So, when I reflect on the friendship that always blanketed me in the Friends Church and was given to me as an unconditional gift, I thank God for showing me that His church can and will be obedient to His commands. Not only have you, His church, shown to me an unequalled portrait of friendship, but you continue to maintain it. You haven't just honored me to my face and behaved as the world does when my back is turned, but you have demonstrated your love for me through your support when it benefits you nothing and you are not able to see the fruit of your good works.
It greatly stirs my curiosity about the unfathomable depths of the love the Creator when He tells us to feed the hungry and in doing so, we've fed the Bread of Life, to clothe the naked and we clothe the King, to visit the sick and we've attended to the Almighty, and to visit the ones in prison and we've comforted the Father. Our Tower of Refuge gives us commands to love one another in order to privide comfort to one another in this cruel, fallen world.
At five years of age, my parents brought our family to Silverton Friends Church and I was immediately aware that they were accepted and even I had a place in the hearts of the church. The Body stepped forward to babysit me, to teach me, to instruct me in the truth, to provide correction for my sinfulness, which I, listening to the wickedness of my heart and the world as ruled by Satan, ignored. I denied that sin led to death and the anguish that is separation from God, the Comforter. The Church continued to be a witness to me, still extending the loving arms of Christ to me as I ran away in fear, convicted by God of my sin and that all I did have and could ever possess on my own was emptiness.
Despite my frequent, open rejections and underhanded betrayal of your love, you forgave me 70 times 7. Though I tried to drive a wedge between the Church and myself, our Reconciliation (Jesus Christ) did not allow it. Instead, in you, He preserved a home for me to bring me up after the Lord brought me down to my knees according to the good plan of His sovereign will. The preservation of that friendship with the Church despite all odds has been an awesome witness of the present power of the Holy Spirit. Each of you can proudly name yourself as an instrument of God in working out my salvation and pointing out the assurance thereof; and also that I can continue to grow in Christ through baptism in not only His name, but into the Word of God and prayer, allowing for the Counselor to carry out His good works in my own life. I am now learning that we are just getting our feet wet in the loving relationship that God has with us and the total involvement of the Designer and all that is good on this earth and all that is perfect which will one day be clearly seen by us when we enter into Heaven.
Above all, through my family's and your guidance, I have been led to the joy that is awakened by the truth, and by that, I mean, Jesus Christ! Thank you for welcoming me and inviting me back again and again and again. Your friendship was used by God to cover the multitude of my sins. Praise be to God!
Written to the Brothers and Sisters of Silverton Friends Church by Scott Steele. 11-3-05
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