We had a wonderful weekend in the Lord! We began Sunday morning with a marvelous report of Saturday’s outreach. Brother Vitalis reported that they met at the church and after praying split up into two groups. He took one group and Brother Jude led the other. Their purpose was one-on-one evangelism. When they returned an hour and a half later they had prayed with twenty-one people to receive Jesus. I love it when God surprises us with a magnificent harvest. We faithfully sow seed week in and week out but it is only God who can bring life to a lifeless soul. God is so faithful and he had many appointments that day!! I preached Sunday morning a sermon entitled “Hydrating your Soul”. My text was out of John 7 when Jesus stood up on the great day of the feast and declared “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.” The soul is much like the body in that it needs to be well hydrated by the living waters of God. Just like our physical bodies can become dehydrated, so can our soul. Many of us live with fear, anxiety, worry, stress, anger, resentment and guilt. We assume these things are a normal part of a walk with God, when in fact they are the soul’s ‘dehydration indicators’; Our soul’s way of crying out for the living waters of God.
We spend our time wrongly diagnosing these symptoms and searching for temporary solutions like the woman that Jesus met at the well in John 4. She knew something was wrong but didn’t know how to fix it. She had been playing a guessing game with all the medicine the world had to offer. When Jesus met her on that glorious day and offered her living waters, she instantly recognized her problem and said “sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst.”
Jesus invites us to drink of Him. John tells us that Jesus was referring to the Holy Spirit “whom those believing in Him would receive.” Max Lucado, when talking about this scripture says, “The spirit of Jesus threads down the throat of your soul, flushing fears, dislodging regrets. He does for your soul what water does for your body.” He goes on to talk about how we need not give directions to water for it knows where to go, such is with the Holy Spirit of Jesus. Many times we don’t even know what is wrong, but if we will drink deeply and often of the living waters of God, he will re-hydrate our soul.
One of my favorite songs that we sing here in Gabon goes something like this:
Let the living waters flow over my soul, Let the Holy Spirit come and take control,
In every situation that has troubled my mind, All my cares and burdens unto you I come…Jesus
If you will come to Jesus and give Him permission to flood your thirsty soul with His living waters, you will find yourself refreshed and re-hydrated for His glory. Every morning our prayer should be “God, flood my soul today with your living waters. Find the dry areas of my heart and refresh them by your Holy Spirit.”
Sunday evening we began our look into the book of Romans. One of my goals this year for the people in our church is that we would read through the entire New Testament. This is part of our goal to increase in the Word of God. Since we are a young church, we are not trying to look ‘deeply’ into each book with an exhaustive study as much as we are trying to just read through it.
We have already read through Matthew, mark, Luke, Acts, Philippians and Colossians. I usually will begin on Sunday night by giving a background of the book; author, audience, key words, key scriptures or teachings, maps, etc., so that as we read through it we have a better comprehension of what is written. After the teaching, I give out a reading plan for the week (or multiple weeks depending on the size of the book) that is basically a schedule to get us through the book by reading a chapter or two per day. I will generally preach out of the book we are reading as I’m inspired throughout the week.
This has been a very fruitful time for our church as many people are committing themselves to the Word of God outside of church as well, and that seed will always have a great effect on God’s people.
We thank God for the increase He is bringing to the life of our church.
