Dear Truro family,
This coming Sunday is All Saints’ Day. It falls on a Sunday this year, which is appropriate, since every Lord’s Day is a gathering of the saints.
When the New Testament uses the word “saints”, it doesn’t mean spiritually elite people. It means ordinary believers like you and me, who have been made holy by our union with Christ. Paul wrote to the saints in Corinth, which was a messy church full of quarrels and failures! Sainthood isn’t something we achieve. It’s something Jesus gives.
This is good news for us. And it’s good news about those we’ve lost in the Lord. Because of Jesus, we can know that they aren’t gone from the family of God. They are with the Lord, and they belong to the same body we belong to. Hebrews calls them a great cloud of witnesses. They ran the race before us, and they finished their race by the grace of God.
So, on Sunday we’ll take a moment to give thanks for them. We’ll remember parents and grandparents, friends and fellow members of this church who now rest from their labors. And we’ll look forward to the day coming soon when the whole Church will be gathered together around the throne of the Lamb. This Sunday, like every Sunday, will be a small foretaste of that Great Day.
Your brother,
Jamie