From The Pastor's Desk - May 2012

Already one third of this year has passed away, it has become very obvious that although we can give grateful thanks to the Lord for His continued blessings and presence among us during the meetings at the Cornerstone Family Church. The Lord has been very active in reminding us of our responsibility and accountability to pass on the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to those who have not yet accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as their Saviour and Lord.

In the Book of John chapter four, there is the amazing account of Jesus who found it absolutely necessary to travel directly through Samaria, as an orthodox Jew it would have been expected that he along with most Jews would take the longer route to get to Galilee, by-passing Samaria altogether and so avoiding any contact with the despised Samaritans, who were generally considered an illegitimate race of no consequence, who worshipped with a false understanding and concept of God.

However, Jesus came to this world with mission and purpose to reach out and change the lives of people in great need. Luke 4:18. There was a woman who lived in Samaria, with such a need, due to her loose way of life she was probably rejected by her people. A distained ignored, looked down upon, rejected, lonely, broken hearted, mistreated and abused woman.

John 4:3-30, Jesus knew He had to go through Samaria; there was a need to be met, an opportunity to reach, and transform this woman and through her witness a community. The following verses describe how he met this woman at the well, engaged her in conversation, began to open up her mind to salvation during which course Jesus was able to reveal that He knew all about her past life, all the time leading her gently and persistently to the point where she acknowledges Him as the Messiah, in the process she was saved, being so convinced of the truth she now understood that her next action is to leave her water pot behind at the well, rushing off to the town to share the good news with anyone who would listen to her testimony. Why did she leave her water pot? She had not only received new life, also a new purpose, new priority her in life, she had been transformed into a new creation. The change in her was so noticeably profound that the people of the town listened to the very person they had previously shunned.

John.4:31-38. As the disciples are speaking with Jesus He draws their attention to the people coming out of the town to meet Him. “Look! The fields are ripe for harvesting” He is telling the disciples that one changed life can affect many needy souls, get ready to reap a harvest of new converts.

John.4:39-43. Jesus now shows His willingness to stay amongst these new converts to teach them more about the way of salvation, staying a further two days with them.

I have deliberately spent time going over the outline of this account of His grace and mercy, for the prime purpose of bringing  to the attention of as many believers as possible, that an essential part of the ministry of both the individual believer and the church is to take every opportunity to reach out to the lost, we can never measure the impact that one saved person can have upon their family and friends, a dramatically changed life can have the most amazing influence upon those with whom they come into contact with.

Finally I want to say, it is not for any one of us to ignore any prompting of the Holy Spirit to reach out to a needy person, if the Spirit is telling you to go directly to that person, do so and you will find Jesus will give you the opportunity and the words to say. Please do not be like the majority of travelling Jews who set upon keeping their faith to themselves would rather take the long way around and avoid Samaria altogether. When we also avoid a chance to speak to someone in need, we are effectively taking the long way around. This shows lack of respect for Jesus and His command, Matthew.28:18-20, and also reveals that fear and doubt may well dominate our faith.

At the recent very successful Ladies Camp, the theme was “Arise and Shine” Isaiah.60:1-2, this is what the Lord has been telling us all at Cornerstone Family Church, it is our time to arise and shine for the glory of His Kingdom.

Many blessings, your friend, Senior Pastor Terry Brinded