Tuesday, January 23, 2007

AMAZING GRACE

God is truly amazing. So much has happened in our corps in recent months. In September we began having a Salvation Meeting again. It has been a long time since we have had to have a Sunday evening meeting. Our territorial leadership set a mandate to begin these services a while back. We decided to begin them in September of 2006.

We have three corps in our county and an ARC. All of us join together every Sunday evening to celebrate Jesus and to preach the gospel. This meeting is focused around salvation. We expect that those who are unsaved will be in the meeting. Believe it or not, every week we have someone who does not know the Lord come to the meeting.

Last week we had 79 in the meeting. The altar was packed with those who felt the Lord tugging on their hearts and lives were won for HIM.

We also have a county Bible Bowl team and practices are held on Sunday afternoons at 4:30 pm, prior to the Salvation Meeting. That has been such an experience for the kids. The corps are three VERY different corps, with VERY different types of kids. By God's grace they have bonded and it has been a tremendous blessing to see the Summit County kids hanging out together at divisional events. I bring the kids up because on Sunday evening as I looked around our chapel I realized how God was working in them - the kids.

Every week these kids see the grace of God at work. They hear the testimonies of the guys who are new to the ARC program and have been saved. They hear the guys praising God for one more day of sobriety. They watched as a gentleman who has lived as a woman for the last 20 years was saved, and literally overnight went back to living and looking like a man (and they rejoiced with him in this change). They see the homeless guy who was picked up out of the park the night before sitting in our service. AMAZING GRACE is played out for them each and every week. Think of the impact God is making on their young lives!!

On Sunday night I sat behind three eight year old boys: an african american, a caucasion, and a puerto-rican. They giggled and talked through the whole service (quietly of course). Let's talk about racial reconciliation! God is AMAZING!

2 comments:

jsi said...

Praise God for the Gosepl which goes out regularly and returns with a soul to be seen. "We never know where the wind blows, where it comes and where it goes. So is it like the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit convicts a soul that we know not."
What a privilege to be in the presence of repentance and a desire to have more God in their lives - a blessed touch of God. Praising God for one more day of sobriety - there is a praise and a prayer.
It makes a deep impression on kids.

You are a blessing!

WalksInTheWoods said...

Blessings to you and Jim, how great to read the reports of being faithful to the Holy Spirit and how He is honoring the faithful presentation of the gospel.
I remember well, from Pittsburgh Temple, the blessings of soldiers,and members mixing with the men from the center in a great witness of what God can do. the testimonies were always a blessing to everyone, and it encouraged our soldiers to interact in support for the guys from the center. Thanks for the encouraging news of the kingdom..

grace,