A friend offered to take me to church the first Sunday in May. We visited once again at Trinity Baptist over on U.S. 60l, and I amazed Donna by walking from the car with my rolling walker and later in and out of a restaurant.
I was even more surprised because each step I took was easier than any time in the past six years (as of July 4). I didn’t feel weak, I wasn’t leaning on the walker, and I made it almost all the way to the front of the church. All of the aisle seats were taken and I knew it would be impossible for me to step over someone else’s feet and I didn’t want to ask anyone to move.
It was a challenge to walk that far but I was glad I was able because I haven’t been “a back row Baptist” since I was a teenager. Besides, I could see and hear better, and it was a good thing because the pastor told us to look directly at him and listen because he had an important lesson from God’s Word. The sermon title was: Jesus said, “You Must Be Born Again.”
In the Baptist church, “born again” is also referred to as “being saved.” Baptist beliefs are based on God’s Word. The pastor’s first reference was to 2 Cor. 6:1-2 that reads as follows: “As God’s fellow workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain. For he says, ‘In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.’ I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.”
The pastor also discussed 2 Peter 3:9, which is covered in my study Bible as “The Day of the Lord.” In the interest of space, I urge you to read from God’s holy word before you finish this article.
The pastor proceeded to give several reasons why one needs to “be saved” today. First of all, we should not wait because God’s Word says “Today is the day of salvation.” Another reason is that we all have an “appointment with death” and know not when we are scheduled to die.
He then proceeded to discuss “the judgment” and how there is no getting around death and the judgment. He also talked about the Second Coming of Christ. (1 Thess. 4:13-18) which Baptists refer to as “The Rapture.” He finished up talking about how real “hell” is and reiterated the importance of “being saved today by the grace of God.”
This was a powerful message and the songs “We Shall See Jesus” and “O How I Love Jesus” were very inspiring. But the second verse of “Victory in Jesus” spoke to my heart more than anything else because of my disability. This has been one of my favorite songs since I was a little girl and it was ironic that the last two churches I have visited started the service with this song. I had such a wonderful time of worship that when I got home I called all my friends that I could think of and warned them that they know I can’t “carry a tune in a bucket” but my heart said sing it to everyone you can, so here’s what I sang:
I heard about his healing
Of his cleansing pow’r revealing
How he made the lame to walk again
And caused the blind to see.
And then I cried, “Dear Jesus,
“Come and heal my broken spirit,”
And somehow Jesus came and brought
To me the victory …
O victory in Jesus, my savior, forever,
He sought me and bought me
With his redeeming blood:
He loved me ere I knew him
And all my love is due him,
He plunged me to victory
Beneath the cleansing flood.Wow! “He made the lame to walk again” and it was my day, my week, my month. At least four restaurants, churches and then on Friday, finally walking in and out of the pool and swimming laps for the first time in six months. (This will help get rid of the pounds that restaurant food puts on me.)
I wish I could walk into the church every time the doors are open, but that will happen only if it is God’s plan for me. For right now, I just praise him and give thanks for friends like my two Donnas, who have taken me to church several times. And thanks to Donna Fulton for allowing the Lord to use her to help the “lame to walk again” on this glorious day.