Articles
Glorifying God In Garden City
Let me begin by thanking you all for your prayers and encouragement regarding the success of this meeting. God was truly glorified by our trip to do His work in Georgia! The brethren at the Garden City church of Christ were delighted to have us with them, and it was such a joy to meet Christians in another state with such strong love for and faith in the Lord. I want to use this short space to fill you in on some details of the trip.
The gospel meeting was entitled “Will the Real Jesus Please Stand Up? Misconceptions about the Master.”
There were five lessons designed to address the following popular misconceptions about Jesus:
1) That Jesus was just a good moral teacher, but not really the divine Son of God,
2) Jesus is all about making our lives better physically,
3) Jesus was a weak and passive wimp,
4) Jesus is our buddy and pal,
5) Jesus is only about love and acceptance of everyone no matter how they live, and He
would never condemn anyone.
All lessons except “Jesus, the Master” (technical difficulties with recorder) are available on www.
gardencitycoc.org. In addition to learning more about the real Jesus through His word, we worked for the Lord in other ways as well. We rolled up our sleeves in manual labor by painting a classroom, sanding and painting the railing outside the building, laying down carpet, and replacing interior lighting. Brenda also led a crew of skilled artists to create large posters of Bible characters for the children’s classes (from which I wisely stayed far away for fear of coloring outside the lines).
What’s more, we formed an assembly line to cut and paste “plan of salvation labels” inside 160 Bibles, which we then stuffed in bags filled with other information about the church. Once our bags were ready, we went out like true soldiers of Christ into unknown territory to knock doors and hand them out in the community. Joshua 1:9 was undoubtedly on our minds! Our schedule was very tight and we were always on the move.
Our down time was usually spent eating or sleeping to gather strength for our up time. At the hotel, we met every night for some singing and a period of devotion in which either Jeff, Dave, or Herb led our minds in Bible study. Our chaperones did such a wonderful job of planning and helping the Lord’s work run smoothly.
To the parents of the teens on this trip: you should be proud. Though not surprised, I was still impressed by the wonderful attitude of our teens on the trip. They were zealous without complaint for doing the Lord’s work, they were warm and loving to the brethren in Garden City, and they were courageous to endure the 101-degree heat and knock on stranger’s doors to share God’s word with them. “Now therefore, our God, we thank You, and praise Your glorious name”
(1 Chron. 29:13).
