If people truly want to be a part of God’s new Heaven and earth, then they have to be clean.
This challenge was thrown out by Captain Desmond Davis to the scores who packed the Salvation Army’s Four Roads, St Philip sanctuary two Sunday evenings ago to celebrate the corps’ harvest.
With sweet potatoes, coconuts, sugar cane, bananas, a host of produce and sweet bread making their way to the “harvest table” and a programme that spoke to the subject of sowing and reaping, those who attended truly received blessing upon blessing.
Taking his main text from John 13:8-10 – the story of Jesus as He washed His disciples’ feet – Davis said: “In the Bible there are many scriptures that encourage us to be clean, and these scriptures were written as a reminder to the Christian that since we have taken off the old man and are clothed with the new man, we need to live clean [holy] lives before God.”
He added: “We sing choruses like Someday I Go Where Jesus Is but if our lives are not clean, how will we go there?
“We sing: ‘When the saints go marching in, Lord I want to be in that number’, but again, how can we be in the number if we are not clean? We sing: ‘This is my desire to worship you’, but again, how can we worship God if our lives are not clean?”
The preacher made reference to John 4:24, which states that “they that worship God must worship Him in spirit and in truth”, to reinforce his message.
“John 4:24 tells us that to worship God we must do so in a clean state. And Luke 13:27 is a stern reminder that when we practise a double standard way of living, at that final Judgement Day when we stand before that judgement seat and feel secured because we preached in Jesus’ name and healed in Jesus’ name and we were involved in many religious activities and feel we are secured . . . we will be rejected because we lived double standard lives.
“The fact is we are living in a sinful world and every day we are enticed by the false allurement of this world. We do get contaminated. Figuratively, we are all farmers and every day we are scattering seeds. We either are sowing to the flesh or we are sowing to the spirit, but be reminded that whatever a man sows so shall he reap.
“Are we clean?” he reiterated. “To enter into the presence of God we must be clean.”
Davis also made reference to Psalm 24:3-6 and urged his listeners to examine themselves and serve God by performing “religious duties in a clean state”.
“Today are we standing clean or are we cultivating seeds of darkness? Are we still wrapped up in bondage and resemble those in Jeremiah’s time who taught it was okay to do all manner of evil, then go in the presence of God and claim to be righteousness because they were standing in his temple?”
He told the congregation to make Psalm 51 their prayer and walk holy before God.
Captain Marie Davis was master of ceremonies during the 3:30 p.m. service which included recitations, ministry in song and drama by the Sunday School Department, the Brass Band, Youth Chorale, and male and female choirs. All presentations were centred on the concept of sowing and reaping.
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