“And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” (Matthew 28:18-20)
Just a couple of days ago, when we thought spring had arrived, we got blasted with another big snowstorm. It happened last Saturday night into Sunday morning and made Sunday church a real challenge. We don’t ever cancel Sunday church for weather because there isn’t an easy way to do it. I know we could post on the website, and put our cancellation on TV, but not everyone would get the news. Besides, we actually got a TV “plug” on this snowstorm. One of the local news stations did a report from our parking lot showing snow being pushed and telling everyone we were open for business. We could call everyone, but that would be a huge process and we would surely miss a few, especially new people and visitors. Besides, I don’t want to get in the habit of cancelling Sunday church. We will do that with mid-week services at times, but Sunday morning is different. There is a little “disconnect” in trying to establish the passion to go into all the world and preach the gospel in spite of the opposition of our enemy, and then letting a foot of snow stand in your way of that. I get a kick out of watching the “scroll” at the bottom of the screen saying, “Church of the Open Door – Closed”. I am old fashioned in many ways, and that is one of them. I live close enough to the church that I can find a way to get there. If I show up and no one else can make it, I will just pray and thank God for his grace and go back home. We have a church of about 200, and last Sunday, 21 of us made it to church. The other 179 of us couldn’t make it, and that is fine. Those who have small children or are elderly probably shouldn’t take such a risk. We have established the culture at Crest Bible Church that you don’t have to be here every time the doors are open. We don’t count the rear ends in seats, we count the impact in lives. So if we have 21 people who get fed from the word of God, it is much better than having 2100 people who get nothing from their time invested inside the four walls of a church building.
Along with the storm came a power outage at our house. I just happened to wake up around 5AM to find everything dark including my alarm clock. So I had to run down a battery operated one. Once I got up for good, I had to clean up by the light of a flashlight. We always go in and out of the house through the garage, but the door wouldn’t open because the garage door opener runs on electricity and it has no back up. Good thing my car was parked outside – but then that means I had several inches of snow to clean off of it. I didn’t know if we would have to crank up the fireplace to keep the house from freezing over, but luckily they got the power back on by late morning, and everything was OK. It is amazing how dependent we are on electricity, and that knowledge comes to the forefront when a power failure brings it to our attention.
Two thousand years ago, my Saviour died on a cross and rose from the dead. Romans 1:4 says that Jesus was, “declared to be the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead.” He told us in the verses I quoted above that his power will last to the end of the world. It does not have to be generated, it is self-generating because of who he is – God manifest in the flesh. An old gospel hymn says, “The blood that Jesus shed for me, way back on Calvary, will never lose its power. It reaches to the highest mountain, and it flows to the lowest valley; the blood that gives me strength from day to day, it will never lose its power.” It is in that power that he tells us to go to a lost and dying world with the grace of his gospel message. We can rest assured that it will never fail us. Even when we are “unsuccessful” in our witness when the lost reject the truth, it is not due to a power outage from the source. Stand in his grace. Plug in to the Spirit of the living God inside you, and know that your life can be fulfilled in his power, and be used to transform the lives of others around you.
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