God is Amazing!

Wow, God's work is always amazing to see!  We had a wonderful service today despite the evil one's obvious plans to keep it from happening.  Yesterday, we got an e-mail from our church that Park Road would be closed because of a large sink hole in the road from a water main break that was directly in front of the only entrance to the church. 

It wasn't looking good for church services today, but the church, police, and City of Charlotte worked together to get churchgoers onto the property.  Then, in church, we were told about some other big obstacles to the service today.  We were having a guest speaker while the main Pastor performed baptismal services outside.  The guest's father apparently just suffered from a heart attack but thankfully was doing fine so he was still able to deliver his message.  Then, a tree had fallen in the neighborhood (despite no storm activity or wind in the area) and struck a transformer...no power yesterday either!  But God's work was still done today.  The service and message were amazing and over 400 people raised their hands that they accepted Jesus as their savior after a powerful message was delivered. 

The message was basically on Belief in God.  The well-known scripture of John 3:16 states, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever BELIEVETH in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."  So what does that word BELIEVE really mean?  Our church teaches and states all the time that the difference between Christianity and the rest of the world's religions is simple:  the rest of the religions teach that we get to be with God because of what we DO (usually following a long, strict list of rules or obligations) while Christianity teaches that we could never DO enough to ever be worthy of the gifts of salvation and grace.  We can only receive those gifts by God's Grace through our faith in Him and by our acceptance of Jesus as our saviour.  So is it enough to just BELIEVE in God?  Many people in America and the world confess to believing in God or a higher power from above.  Even Satan and his demons BELIEVE in God.  Belief can not be one that is merely inherited (believing because our parents did) or intellectual (a mere mental acknowledgment that God exist).  We must BELIEVE with our heart and accept what Jesus has already done for us on the cross.  BELIEVING that God loves us despite what we do and truly wanting to change because of God's love for us!  Although our salvation doesn't come from our works, we should want to follow God and Jesus' examples and teachings if we truly BELIEVE and ACCEPT Him! 

After the service, Evan was so curious about the act of baptism and wanted to watch some of the people and process.  He was so attentive and asked us questions about what it meant.  I am so happy that his little heart is already preparing and learning about what Jesus has done for him!