Global Impact Celebration

This week is Global Impact Celebration. What in the world does that mean, no pun intended? For many of you, we hope it will be the very thing that God uses to make a wonderful change in your life. This week we will have missionaries and mission ministries from Marietta to mission fields throughout the world, all gathering at Mt. Bethel for the purpose of celebrating how God is using us to reach people everywhere.

God’s Word is clear: He uses His people in a special way when they live a life of service and sacrifice. It sounds hard when we talk about sacrifice. Guess what - it can be, but it is also the most rewarding, joyous life you can live. I have never met anyone who spent his or her life as a true servant for Christ that didn’t believe he or she had been blessed way beyond anything that was given up.

So here is the challenge as we begin our Global Impact Celebration and the Lenten season, a season about repentance and sacrifice. Ask God how He wants you and me to serve Him in a fresh new way. Where does He want you to go beyond your comfort zone? What does He want you to sacrifice for the good of others in need and for the sake of God’s Kingdom. What does He want you to give so His mission might be accomplished?

God has given us a fresh new vision: “Compassion into Action through the power and presence of Jesus Christ.” It is not about doing what you don’t want to do or sacrificing something you don’t want to give up. It is about asking God to give you His compassion, and using it to serve where that passion leads you. God’s word puts it this way:

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.” — 2 Corinthians 1:3-4

My prayer for you this week and this Lenten Season is to see how much Jesus sacrificed for you because of His great compassion and to put that same compassion into action in serving and sacrificing for someone else.

Carey Akin
Pastor of Missions

P.S. - Wednesday night, February 6, is your last opportunity to register for the “Taste of Missions” dinner this Saturday night. You can pick-up your free ticket in the bookstore, or you can register on-line here. A ticket is required for dinner.