JOLTED FOR THE HARVEST
By F. D. Peralta
It came with a gentle jolt in the spirit, but it sent great flashes of excitement to the inner man of everyone who came.
Evangel Tabernacle’s first Harvest Month for 2013 kicked off with a blast with the choir celebrating God’s unfailing love, punctuated with Ptr. Carlyn Barcelona’s surprise theatrical fall, and leveling up with the heart-stomping Jesus Flash Mob, with more than 50 young people from Hearts on Fire (HOF) storming Evangel’s new stage, dancing with the new beat. It was one combo of music and motion, an encouraging sight to behold that left in the congregation a spirit quickened.
True to its theme Jesus Come, Rev. Lily Lim shared a message that created a stirring in the hearts of everyone who listened. She called on the many who have been dropped severely in life, left in a state of crippling shame, and exiled in “Lo Debar”, a place of barrenness, hiding in fear, and empty wanderings. She goes on to show, however, how Jesus can come to provide God’s loving kindness, restore with His grace, and carry us to dine at the King’s table—a place of restored favor, protection, prosperity, and power of God.
“God sent His Son Jesus Christ down to fetch you…He follows us to our Lo Debar and hears to our spiritual poverty and helplessness and calls us by his Word…”
At the altar—at the King’s table—hands were lifted, eyes turned to God, and tears shed silently coming from lives surrendered, hearts rededicated, and lips filled with thanksgiving of God’s unfailing love.
For Evangel Tabernacle, ‘Lo Debar’ and the ‘King’s Table’ can never be more real. Now, excitement is high as something is coming up.
Let’s carry this excitement and carry more people especially those ‘crippled by the fall to dine at the King’s table’ and experience God’s grace upon grace, thus, giving God a good harvest.
The Harvest Month is one concerted effort of the church to bring people in and introduce them to Jesus and His saving knowledge, a sign that Evangel Tabernacle is fully back on track in upholding her evangelistic call to win Iloilo City to Christ.
