This was the day of celebrating Pastors John and Bev’s 40 years of ministry (the time span of a generation) in Airport Christian Fellowship. He is talking about many of the lessons learned during their years of service. If there is any one sentence that could be applied to this ministry, it will be the one from Lamentations 2 – “Great is Thy Faithfulness”. One of the things that define God’s faithfulness, is that it comes out of his goodness and absolute, steadfast and consistent love. Pastor John’s prayer is that this goodness, steadfast love and faithfulness of God will continue to be experienced by the generation presently part of the ministry, as well as the ones following, both corporately as well as individually. There are certain things concerning the nature and character of God, which cannot be comprehended or entered into by a person who is isolated and separated from the Church. The faithfulness of God is often clothed in skin. It is the continued faithfulness, involvement, sacrifice, serving, and support of the members which enables a church to be built and grow. Like with Israel in the wilderness, God constantly proves his faithfulness, in that even when we fail a test, He will reset the same circumstances until our hearts are changed, humbled, offences dealt with, and we have grown in that area to pass the test successfully. We need to embrace the pruning that comes through the tests. We need to hear from God, be led to Him, doing things his way, because then we will be provisioned and enabled to fulfil the plan for our lives. Vision is important and powerful, and it is essential to have vision for all areas of life, seeing and speaking it. That is when God starts to supply the provision towards fulfilment. Walking with God and trusting him bring challenges, but every challenge that is responded to correctly, results in growth, especially in the areas of love and forgiveness. Our walk with God is a journey of sanctification, to change us into the very image of Jesus. On this journey we learn to put God first, love and forgive our enemies, believe in and adhere to God’s principles. We have to also learn that there is a timing in the vision God gave us and not try and rush the fulfilment by doing it in our own strength and time, but to wait for God, without pre-conceived expectations. Upon reflecting on the faithfulness of God, the automatic response is to renew commitment, to each other and to God.
