Pastor Harry’s Thoughts for April

Greetings, Bath Christian family! 

We are stepping into spring and it’s time to have a little fun! Time to get the boats ready, the motor homes cleaned, luggage packed, and enjoy some of God’s blessings! Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 3:1, “For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven”. Our heavenly father gave us one of the most beautiful gifts of life by giving us the different seasons of the year to enjoy. And so, they become seasons in our walk on this journey of life. 

According to the Meteorological calendar Spring is the first season of the year. It’s a time of rebirth; a new beginning; a fresh start. Nature is once again reborn; given new life! Breath is breathed into what was once dead. God’s beauty is revealed as the trees blossom, flowers open, and the colors of nature illuminate the senses like the smell of a newborn child. 

But death is inevitable for everything that lives. Solomon made this clear when he said,  “for the living know that they will die”. All things that have once known the fullness of life, will one day be snuffed out because winter always comes. Winter brings with it a time of death. Flowers fade every year; leaves turn and wither, grass disappears, and life is snatched away. The bible tells us in Romans 5:12, Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned. But have you ever noticed no matter how harsh the winter, when you think your garden has produced its last vegetable, the flowers will never reopen, the trees will never yield new fruit, out of death, suddenly comes new life? Ephesians 2:5 says: “we were once dead in our sins.” Sin is death to us. 

We all have gone through those winter months of our life when things seemed to die. Hopes and dreams are crushed, goals seem out of reach, and desires are turned into unfulfilled disappointments. But we are reminded that through our faith in Jesus Christ we can once again experience Spring and find new life! Paul goes on to say, in that same passage, “God made us 

alive together with Christ!” Faithfully, like clockwork, what was once dead finds new life. Jesus said in John 11:25, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.” In God’s infinite wisdom, from the very beginning of creation he ordained life to find a way. 

That life is found and found only through faith in Jesus Christ! This news is not only good news, it is truly the news of life! So, as we step into Spring, let us not forget what this season really means. It is a time to be reborn. It is an opportunity for us to recall that new life comes no matter how much death we have experienced. Our mistakes, our failures, crushed hopes and dreams, goals that were never reached; all can find new life again, as Christ himself reminds us so beautifully in Mark 9:23, “All things are possible to him that believes! May the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all! 

Blessings, 

Pastor Harry