A Sense of Awe
By George Stroh, Senior Pastor
April 26, 2010
"They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe.... " (Acts 2:42-43a)
It doesn't seem possible, but it has been a year since the start of Maranatha Bible Church (MBC) in Glendale, Arizona. This next Sunday, following our morning worship service, we are planing a time of celebration. We want to formally thank the Lord for all His many blessings this past year. I think I speak for all of us when I say that, like that first local Church in Jerusalem, there is "a sense of awe".
We certainly worship and serve an awesome God and I think it is good that we corporately celebrate our blessings as a Church family. We will pray and sing together, remember all that God has done this past year and, of course, we will "break bread" together "with gladness and sincerity of heart". But we hope that this will also be a time of looking ahead to what the Lord will do, should He tarry, in and through His Church in the days to come.
The Theme of this MBC first anniversary celebration is "Find Us Faithful". There is song we sing with that title:
We're pilgrims on the journey
Of the narrow road
And those who've gone before us line the way
Cheering on the faithful, encouraging the weary
Their lives a stirring testament to God's sustaining grace
Surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses
Let us run the race not only for the prize
But as those who've gone before us
Let us leave to those behind us
The heritage of faithfulness passed on through godly lives
Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful
May the fire of our devotion light their way
May the footprints that we leave
Lead them to believe
And the lives we live inspire them to obey
Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful
After all our hopes and dreams have come and gone
And our children sift through all we've left behind
May the clues that they discover and the memories they uncover
Become the light that leads them to the road we each must find.
Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful.
That is my hope and prayer for all of us at MBC... Until He comes for us, may He and those who come behind us, find us faithful. Maranatha!
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