PURPOSE STATEMENT

At today's staff meeting here at Grace to You our managing director handed out a sheet of paper containing our purpose statement. We sign one every year. However, today he took some time to talk about the seriousness and importance of this. I was glad. It really helped me reflect on why I'm here. Were it not for grace, I would still be wallowing in the mire of my sin. But God...demonstrated His great love for me in that while I was still sinning, Christ died for me.

I've been working here for six years as of last month. Prior to this I was working at a mortuary. Yes, a mortuary. I worked there for three years and it was not until the third year that I was there that God breathed life into me. I was as dead as dead can be. While working at the mortuary, my close friend Tracy lost her mother (breast cancer). I'll come back to that shortly.

I was 22, and had quit going to the Catholic church I was attending after a confession session with a priest. He listened, offered me some advice about my feelings of guilt over my sin, and then told me to say a few hail Mary's and Our Father's. I walked out of there thinking to myself, "I don't feel forgiven"

As I sat in the pew there I didn't even bother to recite those prayers. I walked out of there determined never to go back. I was on a mission to find answers. I went from studying with a Jehova's witness, to looking into meditation. I recall even attending a Harvest Crusade where Matthew 13:20-21 took place. I was in college at the time (third year of attending evening classes only), and working full-time at the mortuary. I had just finished a class on anthropology too, I remember.

It was around this time that my friends mom died. The mortuary I worked at handled the services. It was hard. When they brought her mom back from the embalmers I went to see how she looked. I touched her up with some makeup. And I remember thinking, "I wonder where she is now." The funeral took place and I took the rest of the day off to spend time with my friend Tracy, her husband and their families.

It was there that I ran into a friend who I hadn't seen for years, Rodney. He asked how I was doing and whether I was going to church or not. I told him I had quit going to the Catholic church and why. Then he said something I'd never heard anyone say to me before, "Wow. Well, I'll be praying for you." This stopped me dead in my tracks. He then proceeded to share his testimony with me. I couldn't believe it!

He had been going to Grace Community Church for years now, and was just a new creature! I admit, I was curious as to what power could have changed this guy so much, but not curious enough to accept an invitation to church. We exchanged numbers and left it at that. He followed up though. And not just with me, but with Tracy and her husband too. After the death of her mother we all began to think about eternity more. Where would we go if we died?

We visited one other church before Grace Community Church. Rodney went with us to check it out. It was strange. A woman was at the pulpit preaching. After this, Rodney said to us, "Look, just come check out Grace. If you don't like it, you don't have to come back." We all got together and went to visit Grace. John MacArthur was preaching on Genesis 1:1. I was amazed. I had never, ever heard Bible teaching like this in my entire life! He was this man teaching us the very Word of God, and we understood it! Besides this, I had just finished an anthropology class. I never believed that I came from a monkey. Here I was learning that God spoke us into creation!

We continued attending Grace, and soon my friends requested that some people from Grace come to their home for a follow up visit. Some really neat people from a group called Discipleship Evangelism came by. Dan and Tracy made it a point for me to be there. I arrived late because I was hanging out with my then boyfriend of about 5-6 years. Our relationship did not honor the Lord at all. Anyhow, my friends had already heard the gospel and prayed with these people. When got there they were so excited for me to hear all that they had to say.

I will never forget one of their questions: So if you were to die today, and stand before God, and He were to say to you, "Why should I let you into My kingdom?" What would you say? As I sat there, I reflected on how I had been living my life up to that moment and replied, "He shouldn't let me in." They said to me, "You're right!" This came as quite a bit of a shock. But they went on to share the good news with me about Christ. They talked about His death being the one and only thing that satisfied the wrath of God against me a sinner.

I sat there kind of dumbfounded thinking, "but there must be something I need to do." I was so accustomed to the Catholic works righteousness system that I felt that there was something I needed to do. But it was as simple as this, "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life" (John 6:47). They prayed with me, and after we had finished I uttered another prayer on my own to God saying, "Lord, You know I'm a hypocrite, and that I can't do this. But here's my life. You do whatever you want with it."

He rescued me. He put new garments on me. The garments of Christ's righteousness! Soon after, He drew two more of my sisters to Himself (I have three younger sisters). And just recently, He saved my youngest sister Flora who is one of the dearest, most genuine saints I know. We're still praying for our parents and youngest brother, but so the story goes. And now here I am, a few years later still in awe of the great and awesome God we serve. Here is the last paragraph of Grace to You's purpose statement which I read and affirmed,

"Our desire is that God be glorified though Grace to You's resources. The Lord Jesus Christ is the Head of this ministry, and we desire to perform our work as unto Him, to reflect Him to all those we encounter, and to operate not in our own strength but through His power" (Philippians 4:13).

To God be the glory through Jesus the Son, and give Him great glory, great things He hath done!