“If a man knows not which port he sails, no wind is favorable.”
Seneca
At around this time last year I was in Clark Pampanga, in what I remember were the closing portions of Compassion Philippines’ 50th Anniversary Celebration. Two things that stood out and stuck up until now, exactly a year later, were the song Sukdulang Biyaya (Extreme Blessings), and the overall theme of the event – that is, ‘Moving Together With Christ At The Center’; I didn’t know it at the time but that was a significant contribution to our theme at our church for the year 2023: That is, this year was to be a Year of Movement.
And now that I think about it, things pleasantly did not turn out as I expected.
Q1 2023 was about placing more emphasis on how exactly we would move – and that’s where I elaborated on the idea that we would be moving forward, wider, and higher… and after so many months, and now that we’re at the tail end of the year, I say that we didn’t necessarily move that way, but things were still pleasant.
And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.
Acts 2:46-47
Why? Well, I know I said this sometime approaching the halfway point of the year, and now I’m confirming it from all that’s been going on as of late: This year WAS a Year of Movement, indeed, but contrary to our expectations, we weren’t doing most of the moving: No, it was the Lord who was moving, and it was the Lord who initiated movement.
The Lord moved in our church, so that now we’re definitely seeing more people joining us in our physical service in the afternoon – new faces came, and old ones returned; They were from what was known as the 2pm Service, way before when we had any names for our own ministries.
The Lord moved so we are a bigger family, in quantity and quality. In that sense, we were moving wider. One thing I learned from Google’s cybersecurity course is that an ‘Attack Surface’ is defined as ‘The set of points on the boundary of a system, a system element, or an environment where an attacker can try to enter, cause an effect on, or extract data from, that system, system element, or environment.‘
Now with that mentioned, I’d like to think that as we also increased in number (with both new and old folks), our own ‘Influence Surface’ increased, if that makes any sense. We were expanding our influence by way of increasing our numbers.
And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.Acts 6:7
Take note, it’s not just that we were growing in number, but those who did come, stayed for the most part, and not only did they stay, but they also started making contributions of their own, for the betterment of the congregation. We were moving deeper, and we couldn’t take the credit – the Lord adds to our own numbers as He did in the early church, and we read here that it’s HIS Word that continues to increase in our own ministries, and for this we don’t see PEOPLE ADDED to our number, but DISCIPLES MULTIPLIED GREATLY.
For this I have reason to believe that by the grace of God, and through Christ’s finished work, anyone who enters and leaves our humble service is blessed, by way of discipling to be disciples, by way of being brought both higher and deeper: Higher, in the sense that they are being given more perspectives to consider, and deeper in the understanding of the faith that Christ has authored into them. With that said we go higher by going deeper, and we go deeper by going higher.
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.
But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.
1 Corinthians 15:3-11
Throughout this year, we’ve been graced by Pastor Joedy and his sharing and perspective, and one of the many things I remember him having us say is that we are able to say that we are strong, we are at peace, and so on and so forth, yes, followed by ‘in Jesus’ name’, sure, but let’s also consider we are who we are or who we want to be ‘by God’s grace’.
And with all that in mind, if you were to ask me – ‘Have we moved? Have we moved forward? Have we moved wider? Have we moved higher? Have we moved deeper?’
To all this I shall respond, in all humility – Yes, by God’s grace.
Let me close by sharing Footprints In The Sand, a monologue we used to memorize back in the day:
One night I dreamed a dream.
As I was walking along the beach with my Lord.
Across the dark sky flashed scenes from my life.
For each scene, I noticed two sets of footprints in the sand,
One belonging to me and one to my Lord.
After the last scene of my life flashed before me,
I looked back at the footprints in the sand.
I noticed that at many times along the path of my life,
especially at the very lowest and saddest times,
there was only one set of footprints.
This really troubled me, so I asked the Lord about it.
“Lord, you said once I decided to follow you,
You’d walk with me all the way.
But I noticed that during the saddest and most troublesome times of my life,
there was only one set of footprints.
I don’t understand why, when I needed You the most, You would leave me.”
He whispered, “My precious child, I love you and will never leave you
Never, ever, during your trials and testings.
When you saw only one set of footprints,
It was then that I carried you.”
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#Seneca #YearOfMovement #ChurchGrowth #InfluenceSurface #MinistryJourney #Grace #Reflections #Revelations #FootprintsInTheSand
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