Over the past nine years, Zion Primitive Baptist Church has experienced a great outpouring of blessings from the Lord. We have grown from a single member (Sis. Lorene Deason) in August 2011 to over fifty members today. We have gone from meeting six times per year (3rd Sunday of every other month) to meeting twice on Sunday, and on the first and third Wednesdays of each month. We have built a new building for our weekly worship, and renovated the old building into a fellowship hall/lunchroom. We have been blessed with visitors who come and hear the message of God’s sovereign grace, who otherwise might never hear the glorious message of gospel truth!
So how should be feel about these things? Do we sit back and revel in the blessings, or is there work to be done? Obviously I ask this somewhat facetiously; there is no room for rest in the kingdom of God! In Phillipians 2:25, Paul calls Epaphroditus his “brother, and companion in labour, and fellowsoldier.” This demonstrates to us that we are not only brothers and sisters in Christ, but also fellow laborers and fellow soldiers – i.e., workers in the kingdom of God!
There is no place for complacency in the Lord’s church. We must continue to grow in grace, or we will find ourselves “groaning in disgrace” (I would like to claim authorship of this saying, but I first heard this saying from Eld. Sonny Pyles!). So I encourage each of us, as we continue to labor in the kingdom of God, to take heed to the last written words of Peter, who was very familiar with the need to be diligent in our Christian walk:
“2 Peter 3:17-18 – Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness. But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.”
-Eld. Chris McCool