Pastor's Pen - Ivor Greer

Life’s Greatest Adventure – What next?

 

The #oneLIFE Mission weekend is over! We in Bawtry Community Church were delighted to work

with our Anglican brothers and sisters in giving opportunities for many on the fringes of church life

to hear “the good news”.  I hope you got to some of the events. What was your highlight?

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I was encouraged and challenged at the evening in the Crown Hotel by hearing Warren Furman’s story. He told us how he and members of his family came to know Jesus.  As Warren searched for meaning to his life after fame and fortune as Gladiator, ACE, he examined every religion. But then God found him. When he began to follow Jesus, his life and attitude changed so much that his wife wanted to learn more and she discovered new life. Then one of Warren’s brothers, who had been very cynical and sceptical, came all the way from London to York to see Warren’s baptism and he, too, was born again by God’s Spirit.

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Maybe, like me, if you have loved ones who are not yet Christian, you want to drag them into the Kingdom.

It is so obvious to us and makes sense to follow Jesus! But conversion is not about winning an argument with clever words, it is a work of the Holy Spirit. “Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,” says God to one of the prophets. We need spiritual insight to have spiritual rebirth.

That is encouragement – it is not our job to convert our friends!

 

But then there is the challenge. Do others see Jesus in our actions and attitudes?  Paul tells us in Second Corinthians that we “can see and reflect the glory of the Lord”. He writes elsewhere that we should follow Jesus’ example and “as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people”. We learn to do this as we get to know Jesus through the Bible and meeting with other Christians. Here, too, we have help of the Holy Spirit if we allow Him. As Paul says, “… the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.”  That is just amazing … and impossible in our own strength.

 

So, what next? You will see in this Bawtry News that there are many opportunities through each of the churches in Bawtry to meet with and learn from other Christians. I believe as we allow the Holy Spirit to transform us then He will transform our families, our churches, our community and our nation. Let us continue, together, to explore life’s greatest adventure.

 

IVOR GREER (Pastor)

September 2019

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