Sermon Sunday...

The Bowmans, missionaries from First Baptist Church of Jacksonville, were in town this week. www.BowmansinZambia.blogspot.com. Bob knew of the Bowman family through his church family so we decided to meet. They live 12 hours north of Lusaka and come in once in awhile to do some shopping or gather other provisions. They have been here for 7 years- they moved here when their son, Caleb, was 18 months old. Caleb now has 2 sisters and one brother all born in South Africa. They are in the middle of their second term. What a great example of obedience to God's calling!
Amy Bowman said, " My mom works nursery at First Baptist with one of your friends in Jax- Van something"- I said "That must be Teri Van Duyn." What a small world!!
The Bowmans attend Woodlands Baptist Church when they are in town so we decided to join them there. It was such a blessing. It was funny when they asked visitors to stand and there were only 2 white groups of people, both from Jacksonville, Florida.
The preacher was a visiting preacher but delivered a great message- He was a little loud- I thought he must be watching all those preachers on TV because the Zambians normally speak very softly- it is hard to hear them sometimes.
Anyway, today's lesson was from Romans 12:1. I learned that the other chapters leading up to this were all about the Gospel described by Paul to the Romans. Once Paul finished telling them that we are all sinners, we all need a Savior, the only one who can save us is Jesus, he came, he died, he rose again- Paul goes on to tell the Romans that we must offer our bodies as a living sacrifice. We must wake up daily and seek God's wisdom on what He wants us to do for Him today. Once we accept Christ, we die to ourselves and live for Him. He created us, we are His hands, feet, mouth, here on Earth. The preacher went back to the Old Testament and explained the procedure for forgiveness of sins in Leviticus was once a year, the Levite priest would go into the Holy of Holies and ask forgiveness for all- this would only be temporary and would repeat every year. The priest would also take an animal to sacrifice, the animal depended on the sin- read Leviticus for details. All animals must be pure, unblemished- but again, that was only temporary. The New Covenant came as Jesus, the perfect lamb, died on the cross for all of our sins, once and for all, never to be repeated. We now have that relationship to go directly to God to ask for forgiveness and Know that we are forgiven.
I love this...Abraham was asked to sacrifice Isaac- and submissively did as God asked- God did not want Abraham to suffer the loss of his one and only son as God would have to suffer in the future. God loves us so much!! Do we forget to praise him sometimes just for that fact alone??
I do!!