Ash Wednesday service stresses the Word of God

It is the tradition of many churches in Jamaica to host a fasting service on Ash Wednesday as they celebrate the start of the Lenten period.

Such is the practice of the Greater Bethlehem Temple Apostolic Church in Stony Hill, St Andrew.

This year’s service, which also incorporated a rich Bible session, saw head of the church Bishop Errol Thompson speaking on the importance of the Word of God.

The teaching, which was taken from Isaiah 55, had all of the nearly 100 saints in attendance fully engaged.

“The Word is the water, which is the first agent of new birth. Baptism is just another action that you have to do after you repent, but repentance has to come first, and it is the Word of God that convicts you and makes you repentant.

“So, too, is it the Word that brings you to water baptism. It is the Word that causes the power of the Holy Ghost to come upon you. For the scripture says, ‘You shall receive power; after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you’, and all this comes through the Word of God,” he said.

GOD’S PROMISES ARE SURE

The man of God encouraged the congregation to depend on God’s Word because, as he taught, God’s promises are sure.

According to Thompson, “He says heaven and earth shall pass away, but His Word shall not pass away. The Lord is not slack concerning His promises, and as our text says in verse 11, ‘So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it’.”

In the next breath, Bishop Thompson told his worshippers that the instructions and expressions of God not only preserve but, when forsaken, also condemn.

“It is the Word of God that tells you when you’re thinking too much of yourself. It’s the Word of God that ‘draws you up’, and the Word is also the mirror, for when it is preached, we see exactly who we are, and when we see who we are, it doesn’t make us feel good.

“For when it is preached, sometimes it finds us guilty and makes us look on ourselves differently, for we thought we were higher, on our way to heaven, about to see Jesus, and then the Word says, ‘Yu nuh ready yet’, and you can’t entertain the thought that you’re going to make it into heaven on self-righteousness.

“We have got to submit ourselves to what God wants because His ways are higher than our ways, and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts.

“So if God says the words that go forth out of His mouth shall not return unto Him void, it means that the Word is going to do one of two things: it will either save you or condemn you. It will either make you go to heaven, or it will be your judge as you go to hell,” the devout man said, warning attendees that it is impossible to get around the Word of God.

The lesson was met with shouts of agreement followed by a session of uninterrupted worship.

– Shanna Monteith