God's Plan Part 2 - He Will Provide

 I mentioned the 2nd diagnostic question last week – and it's really the only important one if you're pressed for time. In essence, it asks what you are trusting in to get to Heaven? What would you tell Jesus? A boy Sal and I visited about 8 years ago imagined himself before God and said he’d say “Please?”

He wasn’t far off; he knew he didn’t deserve God’s perfect Heaven and needed saved. We shared the Gospel and between that time and a couple times later when he made sure, we pray one was genuine. He’s had many problems, please pray for him.

A person must trust Jesus in this life, though. And, as the body of Christ, we must keep seeking the unsaved and sharing the love of Jesus in how we act, how we treat others, etc., so they’re more likely to believe when we share how to be saved from sin. Jesus knows our hearts – He won’t ask when we get there, He’ll know if we trusted Him or not. We’re each only a single, sincere prayer of repentance away, like: “Lord Jesus, I know I’m a sinner and I don’t deserve your perfect Heaven. But you died on the cross to take my punishment for my sins, and you rose from the dead. I call on you and trust you to save me from my sins; I invite you into my heart to make me new inside, Lord Jesus. Amen.” It’s not just words, of course, it’s trusting in Jesus and calling on Him by faith that saves, but that’s a good model to use with others.

It was great to try to save Westminster. It’s sad when churches close. God has something better in store for us, though, other things to do for Him. In the meantime, don’t think we failed – think of us as 1972 Steve Carlton, winning 27 and losing 10 on a 59-97 team. We did our best.

The important thing is that we are seeing people come to know Jesus as Saviour. We are part of growing the Kingdom of God. We just have to do it in unusual ways right now. Someday we’ll be back to normal – but in the meantime, I’ve shared so much about prayer because it’s something each of us can do so easily.

You can pray for a new home, including on Sundays. In the meantime, the best online is cantonbaptist.org – I don’t know if that’s where we’ll end up but they have excellent online services, including CBT Kids ministry for elementary school age kids. There is also a group which has been out at Camp CHOF, Cool Kids Ministries; they have Kidz Storm Live every Friday at 2 PM on Youtube plus great videos otherwise. Share these with others, as well as Campchof1031 which can be followed on Instagram, or Camp CHOF on Facebook or Youtube; they’ll have info soon on the fun summer stuff in store. And you don’t have to worry about rain like some people had last summer since it’ll be online.

Will we go there or somewhere else? I don’t know, I’m just sharing an online one since we want to help you grow in the Lord. You can do that on your own, though. It doesn’t matter what church a person goes to if they don’t know Jesus. He conquered sin and death when He rose from the grave. God the Holy Spirit came on the Day of Pentecost and gave an incredible sign – everyone heard the apostles speaking in their own language.

God is able to overcome everything. While we still have language barriers, and that was only a sign used before the New Testament was totally written, it does show us God is bigger than anything. He has to be bigger to conquer our sin.

This is why we can’t trust in our church or our own righteousness to save us.  We’re not perfect. We each have to choose Jesus ourselves; we’d love to make it for others but we can’t. We can’t trust in what we do, because our good doesn’t erase our sin. God’s great powertakes away our sin and shows we can trust Him to get us through the roughest times when we trust in Him. He works miracles every day. We can be thankful, and read His Word to see His power in many ways, so we can know He has a perfect plan, and when we follow it – and you can pray we’ll follow His perfect wisdom – He’ll keep us going strong in the future.