“Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.”
John 20:21
Dear Friends,
Jesus sends us into the world as His ambassadors to carry on His ministry of loving, healing and forgiving! This might seem an overwhelming responsibility for us all, but we should remember that His Holy Spirit, which He breathed upon the Disciples when He appeared in the room and sent upon all the believers at Pentecost provides us with the necessary power and strength to carry out our ministries.
It is also important to remember that we belong to God’s universal family, the Church, with whom we are in fellowship and communion. Together with the Holy Spirit and the company of all believers we belong to the Communion of Saints. This is where we find the strength to keep on keeping on. We rely not on our own strength but of that which God has given us, so that even when we are weak, when we are on the Lord’s side, we are always stronger than what awaits us in our life and work.
“God, the eternal God, is our support at all times, especially when we are sinking into deep trouble. There are seasons when we sink low . . . Dear Child of God, even when you are at your lowest, underneath are the everlasting arms.”
The Baptist preacher Charles H Spurgeon wrote these words which might have been inspired by or the inspiration for Anthony J. Showalter’s hymn, Leaning on the Everlasting Arms.
What a fellowship, what a joy divine, Leaning on the Everlasting Arms!
What a blessedness, what a peace is mine, Leaning on the Everlasting Arms!
Leaning, leaning, safe and secure from all alarms,
Leaning, leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms.
Pastor Cliff