For those of you who don’t know I was raised a Wesleyan. Through my childhood it was where my family went to church. The church was a small congregation towards the last couple of years that we went there, but as a child I remember sitting on my grandma’s lap quietly eating Nilla wafers. My dad would be on the end of the pew, if he wasn’t outside talking to his other hunting buddies that “went” there, then my mom, sister and grandma. Now depending on my behavior and which parental unit was present determined my location on the pew any given Sunday morning. Of course there was a fair share of the congregation that wanted to mess with me and my sister, but for the most part I found myself between my mom and my grandma eating Nilla wafers. My Papa would occasionally be up front “leading singing” depending on if the church had a “choir leader” or not. The sunlight would pour through the stain glass windows depicting scenes from the bible, and the room never seemed cool enough in the summer of warm enough in the winter. Old ladies all smelling and looking like old ladies, their husbands with them, some grumpy some not.
I just remember even as young I was seeing that pulpit demanded respect to anyone who stood behind it. I fondly remember the man that stood behind that pulpit for so many years and spoke the word of God with what I now know as fire and passion. He wanted the people that came through those doors to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ … and he wasn’t afraid to yell his point across if he got excited about what God did for him.
Reverend C.R. Lewis gave me my first glimpse of Christ, and was an example to me as I look back on that time in my life. He was madly in love with Jesus, crazy about his sweetheart, a father, and a true example of what ministry is. What I noticed was that his ministry was simple, totally reliant on the Gospel, the power of Christ in him , and a passion to see people experience the grace that he had been given.
Yesterday, I held a piece of paper in my hand that had this quote on it:
“Lord, make me an instrument of your peace
Where there is hatred, let me sow love,
where there is injury, pardon,
where there is doubt, faith,
where there is despair, hope,
where there is darkness, light,
and where there is sadness, joy,
O, Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love, for it is in the giving that we receive, it is in the pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in the dying that we are born to eternal life.”
-Saint Francis
As I looked up from reading this quote I saw the little country church filled, my mama right beside me, the old ladies a little older, and the old men a little grumpier. Everything smelled the same, looked the same, the church was very similar to the one I grew up in. I was mildly distracted by ornery old people, but I think it was because I clapped a little during “Victory in Jesus”. The commanding pulpit was in place with a group of elder gentlemen behind waiting to speak. At rest in a coffin draped with an American flag honoring a WWII veteran was the body that held the spirit of Rev. C.R. Lewis. The words that followed for about the next two hours were not an effort to convince God to let him in to heaven. Rather It was a mournful celebration of a life lived that truly reflected a personal relationship with Christ. The people there were given the opportunity to share personal stories about “Preacher Lewis”, and one by one as the people stood and began to speak. They all spoke about how this man used every breath to change the people he was near for the cause of Christ. Including me, it all clicked at that moment. I remembered the life Preacher Lewis lived when I was a child. I listened to all the people that stood up and what each minister had to say as they shared. As I peered at that coffin I thought to myself no one has to tell a lie. This man lived what he believed!!! And it was like a simultaneous hush came over the room and with the thought process in my head….. God said “This is ministry… what you see here has brought people to me and made my name famous… This is ministry!” I read the quote from Saint Francis that was on the piece of paper again. “This is Ministry”… the bells and whistles will change… “this is ministry” combined with this though all I can think about is this passage in the book of Romans
Romans 8:31-39 (New Living Translation)
Nothing Can Separate Us from God’s Love
31 What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? 32 Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else? 33 Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one—for God himself has given us right standing with himself. 34 Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us.
35 Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? 36 (As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.”[a]) 37 No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.
38 And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[b] neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. 39 No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.
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