This past Sunday was a very moving message for many people in the church congregation. The message was titled “Learning to Love God” and was taught by a man named Jim Nelson.
Jim is a respected man and an elder in our church. He and his family have been members for over a decade. Jim and his wife Liz answered the call to become missionaries and had been a year and a half in the process of pairing down, selling their stuff, and preparing to go to another country, when his wife was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer. For another year they battled with the disease until she passed away in July of 2013.
The title of his message wasn’t his story of how it was hard for him to love God in spite of all of their pain and difficulty, it was the opposite. It was the story of how his love for God stayed strong in spite of the difficulty, and how God wants us all to love him, and be loved by him.
The message was such a glorification of the goodness of God, in spite of circumstances that are difficult to say the least. I’ve gotten to know Jim over the last several months with him, and I couldn’t be prouder of the message he shared. This message is truly a form of worship.
Liz Nelson would be so proud of him too, and I truly believe it is what she wanted for everyone she came in contact with in her life.
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