West Cocoa Chat

We’re heading into the home stretch of the renovation of our auditorium. It was overdue and this point was brought home by a visit from an elderly couple just before we started the renovation. They were going on a cruise out of Port Canaveral and decided to stop by our building. They told our minister (Don) they had been members of our church when the facility was dedicated in the mid-60’s. They took one look at our auditorium and told Don, “Hasn’t changed in forty years.” As you can imagine it was time to renovate the auditorium.

This past Sunday we had all of our members meet in the nearly finished auditorium for Sunday School. Don spoke from Nehemiah 10 when the Temple is rebuilt and the people make promises to God. We then passed out permanent markers and asked everyone to write promises or messages to God on the un-carpeted floor.

Without even looking at what folks were writing it was heartening to see our church, from young kids, their parents, single folks, and all the way to the elderly bending down and actively writing promises and messages to God. Steven told me he wrote Romans 1:16 - I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.

A Mom of all boys wrote, “I promise to raise my boys in the Lord.” In this day and age that is a powerful and eternal commitment that will go beyond the life of the carpet that will cover those words.

The message that struck me the most and I didn’t see it’s author said, “Thank you God that this church had the courage to change.” If you think about it family, it does take courage to change, especially as one seeks to be transformed into the image of Christ. Our church has been on an amazing journey that started years ago. There isn’t one individual that you can point to and say he or she was the one that started this church on it’s continuing journey towards non-denominational Christianity. It has been the work of the Holy Spirit on the minds and hearts of many men and women and I pray that He isn’t done with us yet.

I write this not to boast or prop us up as some kind of model. To do such would continue one of the worst kinds of doctrinal errors that is, to point to any church whether it be from the First Century or the 21^st Century as “The Model.” Paul put it succinctly in I Corinthians 15 –

¹Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. ²By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.

³For what I received I passed on to you as of (emphasis mine) first importance^[a]: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, ⁴that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,….”

Not only does Paul identify the model, Jesus, he also gives Him a priority rating, “first importance.” My prayer is that our focus will always be Jesus.

Have a blessed and “dry” day. We’re home and watching the weather reports on Tropical Storm Fay. The 2 updates that just got my attention:

1. Our county (Brevard) will probably receive the worst weather from Fay as in 50 to 60 mph sustained winds along with 7 to 10 inches of rain.

2. Fay could move out into the Ocean and strengthen into a Hurricane.

We appreciate your prayers.

// posted by cwinwc @ 8:31 AM