Saying So!

Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy. – Psalm 107:2 (KJV)

Have you been redeemed? What does it mean to be redeemed? From what enemies have you been redeemed? How have you let others know about your redemption?

At the Flint River Presbytery’s “Celebration of Faith” we had a wonderful time. Lloyd Ogilivie did a wonderful job sharing the Word of God with us the three days he was there. The people there (me included) were inspired, moved to action, able to know themselves as loved, and God knows what else, as Ogilivie’s deep voice shared with us the words God had written upon his heart.
By the final morning of the Celebration of Faith we were prepared for an excellent sermon. That is the thing about excellence, it prepares us for more excellence (there is a sermon in that statement for a later time). We were not disappointed! An excellent sermon came from the mouth of this man of God as he sent us off with a hope that the Spirit of the ever-living Lord imprinted upon our hearts.
When he was finished he began to leave the stage. I thought to myself, “Garrett start clapping, that was great, God has been here, we must acknowledge it!” I looked around to see if someone else would begin clapping. Soon it was too late, Ogilivie had left and we did not applaud the joyous words of God we had heard.
At the Sunday school I was teaching after the service a woman said, “I wished we would have clapped when Dr. Ogilivie was done.”
Another person said with pride, “I almost did!” forgetting that almost means he did not. And so the conversation went for a moment. Here we were, a room full of people wishing that we had acknowledged we had been in the presence of God, and yet we did nothing.

Each one of us knows how good God is to some degree! Each one of us has experienced the redemption of the Lord at one point! Each of us has felt entrapped by enemies of all kinds and felt the hand of God grab onto us and redeem us. Yet there have been too many times we said nothing. Today let us decide to say something, to applaud the God who creates, the Jesus who saves, and the Holy Spirit who still moves everywhere sharing the good news with us! At the end of our Sunday school time that day we applauded, and somewhere God smiled that we learned our lesson. “Let the redeemed of the LORD say so!”

With hope and joy,
Garrett