This is the fifth of a series of reflections of gratitude on 20 years of ministry at GBC.
I am grateful for a godly heritage.
I can go back many generations in my genealogy, and all are believers. I grew up in a home where my parents loved each other and loved Christ. I was given an early love for Scripture (like Timothy).
My children love Christ and walk with Him. I am well aware that is an extraordinary gift of grace. And their love of Christ, as every parent knows, is an incredible joy to me. It is difficult to imagine anything on earth that is better.
I am also the beneficiary of a godly heritage in the church. We all stand on the shoulders of spiritual giants who have gone before us — Abraham, Moses, Isaiah, Peter, Paul, Augustine, Luther, Calvin, William Carey, Charles Spurgeon, and yes, even John Piper.
But we also stand on the shoulders of untold numbers of “ordinary people” who have kept the faith.
The church is built on the faithfulness of people who are nameless to history (but not to God) and who kept doing the work of ministry of pouring into others. Just like Lois and Eunice. Their ministry didn’t seem substantive at the time, but it yielded a godly pastor for influential early church
To that end, I am grateful for the heritage of this church; we’re still young, but our work rests on the shoulders of many faithful individuals who have gone before us and done the hard work of discipleship and preservation of the faith.
I am thankful for the legacy of those who have gone before me in my home, in the history of the church, and in the history of this church. And I am likewise thankful for those who are coming behind, who will continue to keep the legacy that has been established.
Words of Grace 