For the past month, God has kept me silent in a lot of ways. He has had me listening, observing, and taking in all that is around me. He has met me often and gracefully showed me Himself and revealed to me His desire for the fullness of my own joy in Him. In this time, God has been breaking my heart again and again for a message that is so simple, and one that in church we hear often, but in the world is often misunderstood or not known at all. The gospel.
As a writer or teacher, there are often lessons that have to be retaught or rewritten. The challenge of the messenger is to deliver that message in a way that is new and refreshing so that the person hearing it would be affected. But Christ is pressing me for simplicity now because no matter how it is written the truth remains the same: Christ, the son of God, was sent to save us. He lived a life of pure perfection, and died deliberately on the cross as a payment for our sin to give us righteousness before God because nothing we could nor can do would save us. Out of God’s love and grace, we can now come before Him. That is the bare-bones gospel, a message that has been preserved for over two thousand years, an old old story that continues to move with the same power and authority it did in the days just after Christ rose from the dead.
Last Sunday night was a big moment for Lakeside Church; another vision was given for us to build on. As I looked at images from Lakeside’s earlier days, I was overjoyed at what I saw. What caused a young woman to open up her heart to a stranger in another country after battling with guilt and oppression from her mistakes? What caused a man from Canada to pack up his family and venture into another country? What caused mission teams to set foot in Utah and stay there? The answer is simple: the gospel. The message that Christ saves us and offers us full undeserving grace is still working in and through our lives to this very day. Here in Syracuse, Utah, Christ is living and breathing in us, aching for the hearts of the lost around us. What an awesome thing to be a part of!
As we move forward with the vision of this church, we get to be involved in spreading the message of God’s grace and forgiveness to the nations starting here in an old horse barn. I pray that the Lord would bless our small body of believers just as he did in the early church and that Lakeside would echo the same blessings of God from the days of old.
“And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.”
~Acts 2:42-47~
Thank you, Lord, for letting us be a part of spreading Your fame.
Brittany Lewis