Chain of Obedience

I am thankful for the messages our church has been able to hear the past couple of weeks as we think about the work God HAS done and IS DOING across the globe. If you missed either of these messages on October 12 or 19, I would encourage you to go back and listen on our church Youtube page!

          Last Sunday was one of our special Joint Service Sundays where our church gathers English and Spanish families together and we have a translated message, sing in two languages and share pews with our brothers and sisters of differing heart languages.

          Pastor Darwin Blandon spoke in Spanish with a translator and shared his personal testimony. He shared about how a graduate of Tennessee Temple heard the call of the Lord, studied Spanish in Costa Rica and then traveled to Nicaragua to where Pastor Darwin was born. Long story short this man set up tents and shared the gospel. Through this, the Blandon family came to know the Lord, and from the age of 3, Pastor Darwin was a part of a Christian home.

          As things became more and more hostile and dangerous in his home country, Darwin’s parents sent him with this missionary to try and escape the wars and go to America. Through an amazing story of how God moved, Darwin was sent through.

          God led him to begin a Spanish ministry in Chattanooga with just 3 starting members. He was faithful to the Lord and remained in that ministry for decades as he continues today and has impacted hundreds and had a growing church.

          His point was in looking back at the trail of faithfulness in that Temple missionary. He was obedient to the Lord, went to the country of Nicaragua and step by step, families and individuals were impacted. Now hundreds are hearing the gospel and growing in faith in the Spanish community here in our home city.

          He also shared a train of missionaries, Sunday school teachers, coaches and individuals who started back hundreds of years ago. Some stories were not flashy or   very notable and involved reaching out to a single young man in a shoe store and spending time building a specific relationship. That train followed down person to person, generation to generation and landed in the life of Billy Graham. A man who impacted MILLIONS of people for the gospel and glory of Christ.

          Those individuals hundreds of years ago had no idea. Nor did they get to witness. But God used their faithfulness to Him step by step, year by year and look at what the Lord has done.

          I look at our own Grace Kids and wonder, “which ones will be the next fiery blaze for the Lord to their own generation?” “Who of these will step in obedience to the Lord and follow His command to spread the gospel to those around them?”

          You and I may never know. Are we okay with that? Do we trust God with that? Can we step back and let our name become smaller while God’s becomes greater? And what a call! How important is the faithfulness of our Sunday school teachers, our coaches, our teachers, our mentors, our choir leaders, our friends! What God can do with the faithfulness of His people is humbling.

          So we marvel at what God has done, the stories He has marked in a chain of events that no one knew from moment to moment until we get to look from the outside and proclaim God’s power and glory. And we hope for the future, that God will continue to use His church and His children to bring honor to His name and generations of followers to Himself.

 

--Sandy Gromacki 

No "B" Team!

Didn't you love Sunday morning's message? In addition to the wonderful testimony of our speaker, Pastor Blandon, we heard the amazing chain of events that led to the salvation of Billy Graham. And that statement about apple seeds! If you missed it, you must ask someone. 

That message, with its emphasis on each of us seeking to learn and do God's will to spread the Gospel, fits perfectly with this post from Lynda Shenefield from about four years ago. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Truly, God makes no mistakes. May we each be ready for the work he has for us to do. --SP

A bit over 30 years ago, (almost 35 now! SP) Michael Loftis, then a member of our church, and his two brothers were invited to visit some of the “closed” countries in Eastern Europe to provide music for meetings at churches. There was always a risk, for both the locals and out-of-country visitors, of drawing the notice or wrath of local government officials.  The trio sang and played instruments, which was a great “draw” for the services, and was very well received.

At some point on the trip, they were made aware that another group had initially been engaged for the task but had backed out, resulting in the Loftis brothers’ invitation to come instead. They jokingly began to call themselves “The B Team.” When their host asked the meaning of the term and understood it, he burst into enthusiastic objection. “No, no! YOU are the ones the Lord has brought to us! YOU are supposed to be here. There is no B Team!”

There is no B Team. That statement has profoundly affected me for all these years. So many times we begin a course of action or make a decision feeling certain God is the One Who has brought it about. Yet at some point we begin to think that someone else could do better or we are not capable and we should not be in this business. We don’t seem to be able to see the whole picture or understand the reasons for things. We feel like second best, or third or fourth. But if God has directed us here, we are not second best. We are the ones the Lord has appointed for this time, this place, this business. Trust Him. There is no B Team.

--Lynda Shenefield

. . . All the Time!

 Looking through my Bible study notebook recently, I came across a passage dated March 2011: I want to remember that God is good, and his love is true even when I face unhappiness. God is good not only when everything is lovely and warm but also when the situation is ugly and cold.

When I am sitting warm and cozy in my clean white bed, plenty of food in my stomach and surrounded by loving family, it’s easy to sense God’s care. I think of Carol Pappas, battling cancer, and of people I don’t know dealing with the aftermath of an airport bomb. God is no less good to them. Can they see it? Can I?

It’s been more than fourteen years since I wrote those words. I can’t recall the airport bombing incident, but I sure do remember Carol Pappas. I know many of you do, too. For new members to Grace, Carol was Andy’s precious, charming British wife. She had such a sweet spirit, and everyone loved her. She left us later that year, but I feel sure she is somewhere praising God today. Now we know other dear people who are facing illness. That fact of life does not go away. And there are other tragedies of life—shootings, floods, wars. So many things to cause fear and doubt. Is it still true that God is good? Does he still love us now, in 2025, with the current troubles? Of course he is. Yes, he does.

I still have Sunday morning’s song running through my head: “Great is our God; Sing with me, how great is our God!” We looked together at Psalm 96:4—“Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised.” A few days ago, I read in a devotional book the wonderful promise that we are “protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this [we] greatly rejoice even though now for a little while [we] have been distressed through various trials” (I Peter 1:5-6).

Indeed, God is good and trustworthy. My notebook passage from fourteen years ago ends with the following:

I’m not asking for trouble or looking for grief, but when it comes—as it surely will—I pray I will remember God’s love and mercy and keep trusting him.

This is my prayer for all of us. Let us rejoice in the good times, and also rejoice in the difficult times, for God is still good.

--Sherry Poff