01 July, 2010

Why Do YOU Serve?

This week I received a little booklet in the mail. There is no publication date, but my guess is early 1920s. The tile of the booklet is "Why I Am Glad To Be A Covenanter Minister" by "Fourteen Successful Ministers". It was sent to me by a dear friend in the Sunflower State.

As I read through the accounts of the ministers, I reflected on my own purposes for being a "Covenanter Minister". I believe that Dr. Coleman has summed up my own thoughts:

I am glad to be a Covenanter Minister because I believe with all my heart in the principles of the Covenanter Church. I am glad to serve the Covenanter Church because I love it, and despite its faults and failings, believe it to be nearer to what the Lord wants than any other. I am glad to preach a Calvinistic creed which is thoroughly evangelistic, which believes in the Bible, in the atonement that satisfies divine justice and salvation by grace to everyone that believes. I am glad that Covenanter preaching insists on repentance, regeneration, and an exemplary life through the power of the indwelling Spirit. And I rejoice in preaching the universal kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will bring justice, love and peace in all the earth, a message that gives me a forward look on every problem that rises in human life.

So that's Rev. Dr. WJ Coleman's story as to why he was a Covenanter minister. What's your story? Why do you believe God has you where you are? As I reflect on my call to pastor in the RPCNA I am glad to say that I have a goodly heritage. Thanks be to God.

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