A FESTIVE MISSIONS SUNDAY

Last Sunday was the culmination of Missions Month at GCF, too bad I wasn't there (I was in Baguio). The church has traditionally observed October as Missions Month, that's to intentionally coincide United Nations Month. It is customary for me to evaluate our services by watching the DVDs on Tuesday morning! I had goosebumps just by watching last Sunday's services.

When my Worship Creative Planning Team were praying through and visualizing the outcome of the services, we couldn't help but be awed by the thought of God's love and mission to call people unto Himself. The thought of people from different racial/ethnic background coming together before the throne of Jesus the Lamb just overtakes me every time!

I love the make-up of our congregation-- very much reflective of our larger community. While majority are Filipinos we see generous sprinkles of people from other nations. A church our size makes it both easy and difficult to get people involved in our services. When we thought of inviting internationals to do the Call to Worship in their native tongues, it only took one phone call. But there are just too many internationals, we had to just pick five!

The praise and worship time was beautiful led by Kit Paraso and the choir in different national costumes. The festive worship was capped by a wonderful sermon on the "Great Imbalance " by the denomination's Global Missions Director, Dr. Jorge de Ramos. One major highlight for me was the Choir with soloist, Allison Salvador singing, Unto the Lamb which combines the Biblical experience of the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah chapter 6 of coming face to face with the Holy One with the future colossal worship service of all Christians before the throne of God in heaven.

Another highlight. A guy named Aaron came to church last Sunday for the first. His company assigned him to oversee its Philippine branch for the next six months. I met him last Wednesday at Midweek Service. He's probably one of the funniest guys I've ever met! He is a Messianic Jew-- in his own words, "a guy chosen by God twice."

While we were having coffee, waiting for the service to begin, a guy who's been attending our church for a time came by the coffee bar at the Fellowship Hall. I introduced him to Aaron. What's unique about what was taking place before my very eyes drove me a bit to tears. That guy was a strong Muslim before coming to Christ, and there he was shaking hands with a Jew who shares the same faith in Christ. What a powerful picture of the grace of God and the unity of the Church!

This Sunday, our sermon is The Jews First, Gentiles Next, based on Acts 13. I have asked Aaron to share his testimony as a Jew who has come to faith in the Messiah, Jesus Christ in our services! I'm glad he agreed. So, I am very excited about Sunday!

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Today is Reformation Day. Reformation Day is an important liturgical festival that is celebrated by Lutherans and Christians of many Protestant denominations. It commemorates Dr. Martin Luther's posting of his Ninety-five Theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany on October 31, 1517. This act triggered the movement in world history known as the Reformation. While the historical date for the observance of Reformation is October 31st, mostchurches celebrate it on the last Sunday in October.

While it had profound and lasting impacts on the political, economic, social, literary, and artistic aspects of modern society, the Reformation was at its heart a religious movement. The Reformation was the great rediscovery of the good news of salvation by grace through faith for Christ's sake.