Pastor Bell's Words To Live By

We don’t have to be perfect to tell our stories. In fact it is the imperfections in us that God uses to let others know how powerful he is. None of us are perfect and this is exactly why Jesus came to the earth. He was the supreme messenger who came to tell of and demonstrate a God who is intimately interested in our world. The technical term for this is immanence. Our God, Yahweh is personally interested in our world and our lives. He is not a God who created us and then went off on a long journey with the promise of coming back later, he created us for relationship with each other and with him. God gets excited when we reflect his glory and tell of his graciousness and greatness to those we come into contact with. This is why it is so important that the message we are declaring is one inspired by God and is about God. Some messengers forget this and tend to use the opportunity to convey the message about their abilities and their greatness. However, if we are to be true messengers of Jesus we need to be completely committed to him and to ensure that what we are conveying is about him and not us.

The first followers of Jesus went from town to town telling their stories. Whilst they did this Jesus showed up and healed the sick, drove out demons from the possessed, opened the eyes of the blind and delivered many. The statement from Peter to the crippled man sitting at the gate begging was their mantra. That is, silver and gold we don’t have but in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth get up and walk. Today many churches are so rich that they cannot use this as their mantra. And the message is not about the power of Jesus anymore it is about the church. So rather than inviting Jesus to come and perform miracles, churches have become social action centres and institutions where people with all sort of character traits can hide. Today let us share the good news and that is Jesus still heals, delivers and sets people free today. The social gospel is good but the gospel that demonstrates the power of God is far far better.  Read Actions of the apostles in Acts 5.