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On Sunday, November 26, we celebrated the 153rd Anniversary of Trinity
Reformed Church. Elder Marieanna Trautmann gave a synopsis of the origin of our
congregation and the pastors that have served Trinity over all the years. She
then said a beautiful prayed in which she thanked God for all He has done, is
doing and will be doing in future here at Trinity. After the service many of our
members and friends gathered in the Fellowship Hall for some coffee and
delicious cake.
Sunday the 26th also marked the end of our 40 Days of Purpose spiritual growth
campaign. Thank you to all who were committed to attending the Sunday worship
celebrations, doing the daily reading from the Purpose Driven Life book,
memorizing the scripture verses and belonging to a weekly small group meeting.
With the Psalmist we can indeed say, “The Lord has done great things for us, and
we rejoiced.” (Psalm 126:3 NRSV).
Over the last 40 days we have learned that it's all about God, not me. We were
made by God and for God, and He wants us to be a part of His forever family. We
have also learned that God still does miracles. Lives have been changed and we
have discovered that nothing is impossible for Him – He is worthy of our praise.
We learned that life is preparation for eternity and that God created us and put
us on this earth for 5 purposes. All around us is temporary, but our
relationship with God is forever. So I was planned for God's pleasure. I was
formed for God's family. I was created to become like Christ. I was shaped to
serve God. And I was made for a mission. That's the purpose of life. That's why
God put us here.
We further learned during 40 days that we grow through making commitments, and
we grow through fellowship. It takes more than just coming to church to grow; we
need to act on what we learn and it is through commitments that we grow
spiritually. We also grow through fellowship, because God's plan always involves
other people. Many discovered the significance of sharing their hearts and
sharing their lives with other believers in a small group. We also learned that
we need to reach out to our community. We need a ministry in church, but we also
need a mission in the world. We were challenged to find ways of sharing the good
news, because people are hungry for spiritual truth. The world is hungry to know
God's love, and to know God's purpose.
It has been a wonderful journey, and I want to thank you for coming along. Now
that we know what life is all about, we can't go back to the old way of living
for things, living for pleasure, living for fun, living for prestige, living for
success, living for ourselves. We can't go back to that because we know the
meaning of life now. The Bible says “Live life with a due sense of
responsibility, not as those who do not know the meaning of life but as those
who do.” (Ephesians 5:15 Ph). May God bless us as we continue to work out and
experience the depths and riches of His purposes for our lives and the life of
our church!
Rev. Dr. Albert Potgieter
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