Rev. Ray and Pat Amos
Take God’s Light to the World
“Ye shall not need to fight in this battle: set yourselves, stand ye still, and see the salvation of the LORD with you…
2 Chronicles 20:17
Attendance is very low at church, and Pat and I have been trying to figure out why. They are being fed with the very best, but they are going somewhere else. They used to gather and sing, but lately it has been silent. Pat figured it out first. I said, “That cannot be the reason,” but she was right. There is a bully in the church who is running the others off. You see, our bird feeder is a church, and the bully is a cantankerous catbird. He attacks every other bird that comes. I thought that when I retired, I was through with such things.
We have visited a lot of churches in the past seven months. Sometimes I preached, other times we worshiped from the pew. There is a lot to be said about a welcoming church. Churches are not all the same; some folks are welcomed, some ignored, and a few encounters “the catbird.”
It doesn’t matter how beautifully we sing the Love of God; “If I have not love, I am become as sounding brass, or tinkling cymbal.”
In a world where there is so much pain let the church be Gilead’s balm.
Let us be a welcoming light in someone’s darkness.
We can offer hope to those who live in bleakness.
When so many are lost, we can be the shared pathway to God.
A physician once told me that some people came to him complaining of symptoms when nothing physical was wrong with them. They were just in need of a little kind conversation, or the touch of another person’s hand. That is the very reason that some people visit our churches; and it will also be the reason that some will stay, and others will not come back.
The song is right:
“We are called to take His light to a world where wrong seems right. What could be too great a cost for sharing life with one who’s lost? Through His love our hearts can feel all the grief they bear. They must hear the words of life that only we can share. People need the Lord…” (And we all need each other).
Grace and Peace, Rev Ray
Link to YouTube Video – People Need The Lord
