Scripture available at glenavonchurch.googlepages.com/library
Yesterday’s Sunday morning service was wonderful!
It was Palm Sunday. Do you know that I keep wanting to write Psalm Sunday? In fact, for a few days, the coming events portion on the right side of this page even said Psalm Sunday.
Palm Sunday is always the last Sunday before Easter and commemorates Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem when the inhabitants of the city sang hosannas to Him, the King. That always reminds me of the Book of Psalms which was written by David, a musician. According to the dictionary that comes with my laptop, the definition of a psalm is ‘a sacred song or poem of praise’. Bingo! Yes, I know it sounds weird because the ‘p’ is silent in the word psalm so in actuality you’re saying, “Salm Sunday,” but still, I like that it reminds me of singing Hosanna. So, in future, if I misspell Palm Sunday as Psalm Sunday, it’s your guess if I did on purpose or not.Okay, back to yesterday’s service. During the break between music segments when Sunday School is dismissed, announcements are read and the offering is collected, Pastor Lorne ‘warned’ us he would be asking for testimonies, so that gave us fifteen minutes or so to think about what we wanted to say.
After the singing was done, Pastor Lorne ascended the dais and asked for testimonies. Laughing, he held up a piece of paper and assured us he did have a message but he felt compelled to ask for some testimonies first.
And so they started. You know, it’s amazing how unconditional God’s love is when people reveal the path they followed on the way to salvation. I’m not going to repeat them all here, but two things struck me as I sat listening to the heartfelt stories.
First, almost every testimony included the words that ‘God was always there’. Regardless of what people were doing to/with their lives, they knew that God was standing by waiting for them to turn to Him.
Second were the stories from people raised in Christian homes but who had backslid, or ignored God, for a time. Ultimately, these people realized that having a personal one-on-one relationship with Jesus Christ surpassed anything they could find on earth. It reminded me of the words of Prov 22:6 “Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it”.
When everyone who wished to had testified, Pastor Lorne said he felt blessed just from listening to everyone. He added, “I noticed that Christians cry a lot.” I’m not the only one who laughed through my tears at that statement.
Pastor Lorne said he had a whole list of scripture for us but we were already over time, so he’d just refer to one. It was John 1:29-30 which talks about the sin of the world and that Jesus is the One who takes the sin away. He said no matter what we’ve done, no matter how the world perceives us, Jesus has the power to take away the guilt and all the ugly things that we carry around from this world.
Pastor Lorne wanted to impress upon us that we have a Saviour. Once Jesus takes away our sins, they’re gone. We won’t be able to find them anymore. Jesus forgets all about them.
One of the songs we sang during worship was “I Can Only Imagine” by Mercy Me. Pastor Lorne referred to the chorus where it asks what we will do when we see Jesus face-to-face. And to think that just by asking Him to take away our sin, He will make us pure and guarantee us a place in heaven where we can look upon His face.
Jesus can take away your sin and give you a new life.
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