Thoughts

The worship has been inspiring, the fellowship has been wonderful, and the meetings have been at times funny, boring, frustrating, joyful, dry, saddening, and inspiring. I did not agree with all of the decisions made, but there were many that I did agree with. So what am I going to take away from the first General Assembly that I have attended?

1. Jesus the Christ is LORD!
The fact has been brought home to me that Jesus the Christ is LORD of the church. I have believed this but being here has helped to cement that statement as a core belief in my life. We tend to pay lip service to God’s sovereignty and continue live in a state of doubt and fear about what will happen to our church particular, our denomination, and the Christian Church in general. Jesus as LORD means that I should not fear because no matter what decisions are made at a church council God is still in control.

2. The church has a mission!
We have a purpose that grows out of the fact that we belong to God. What is our purpose? The theme of this Assembly is from Micah 6:8,

He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? ESV

To me this means in my life I have the responsibility to abide in Christ and let the fruit of the Spirit flow through my being so that all that I do and say is guided by God’s Holy Spirit.

This has been a time of refreshment and renewal for me; it has been much more demanding on Laurie and she will need a few days to recover. As I return to our church families I hope that I can communicate the truth of belonging to God and that through belonging to God we are called by Him to be servants to one another and the world around us.

As we move forward from the 218th General Assembly my prayer for our denomination is that Micah 6:8 is lived out in all that we say and do.

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