Hitchin Christian Centre

“Behold I am here Lord!” (Acts 9:10) - Are we ready?

2010 will be the year where the emphasis will be on 'Mission' for HCC. Often called 'The Great Commission' - the last words of Jesus before He left this earth, was to commission His disciples to “Go and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19) and to “Go into all the world and preach the Good News)” (Mark 16:15) - this is a much neglected activity throughout His church today - if we are honest, we would prefer almost any other responsibility than that! But that will always be the main and most important task of His Church until He comes!

The words of my text were spoken by Ananias, who was just a disciple, but when Saul of Tarsus needed to be saved, he was ready for the task. Imagine it: he led the apostle Paul to Jesus, and then prayed for him to receive his sight. Before Paul left that house, he was filled with the Holy Spirit and called to ministry. What a testimony Ananias had! If the Lord had a job for you to do today, would He know where to find you? Would we be ready? If God nudged you today about speaking to someone who is hurting, could you handle it? Would you respond like Ananias and say “Behold, I am here Lord?” Do you realise who Saul was? He had a death warrant for every Christian in town, including Ananias, no wonder he said “Lord I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he has done!” (Acts 9:13) Isn’t it wonderful: God doesn’t consult our past to determine our future. We must never write folk off because of what they have done in the past!

God’s calling is His enablement! We don’t decide our calling – we discern it! When He called Jeremiah God said “Before I formed you…I knew you…and called you to be a prophet to the nations.” (Jeremiah 1:5)  Jeremiah’s response was “I can’t –I’m poor, I’m too young, I don’t have the training or the right connections!” The first thing that God did was to stop him contradicting His Word – “Don’t say that!” When we contradict God, we are pulling the plug on everything He wants to do in us. He said Jeremiah “Don’t be afraid –I will be with you!” When God guides, He provides. I pray every member - each one - will step forward to His challenge - to reach one - that our community will become part of His Kingdom! A happy and blessed New Year from Linda and I.

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