Have Mercy on Our Heart

Psalm 123:3 "Have mercy on us O Lord, have mercy on us, for we have endured much contempt."

I need to share about something very near and dear to my heart, Grace Harbor Church and School. As I am moving towards the completion of my eighth year as Pastor I seem to be growing more and more sentimental. Perhaps that comes with aging, more likely with experience and maturity. I was much more sentimental as a younger man and I seem to be returning to that tender frame of mind. Earlier in my life I was seemingly more sensitive to meanness and vulgarity, to insensitivity and divisiveness. Once again I find myself extremely aware of any attack on God's work, through His Church.

This feeling is not just about Grace Harbor, I have felt it about all the other ministries I have been part of also. What God is doing through His work in any ministry should never be defamed, ridiculed or held in contempt. Sure, Pastors and church people fall short and fail and mess up too, but the Church, that is the Body of Christ that meets at 12881 Newport Ave. in Tustin and all the other addresses I have worked at before should be respected, appreciated and valued because it is His work. Never speak rudely of a church or be disrespectful of it.

I served for over three years as the Pastor of the Immanuel Baptist Church in Long Beach. Not an easy ministry, by any means, but a precious place with precious people and a rich history of serving God. When Dawn and I would be at the church late at night we both sensed this overwhelming sadness and brokenness of the hearts of the saints who had so faithfully served before us over the years and it motivated us to love His Church. Recently, I saw that the church was closed now, twenty years after we came there. I wept sitting in my car in front of the office door where I entered that place to serve Him day after day. Much good work for Him was done there and lives were touched, souls came to the saving knowledge of Jesus there and many were helped and blessed. I prayed that it would be restored to His work.

I know that the building is not what is truly most important. It is just a facility. But, it represents His work, His people and His heart. I feel the same way about Grace Harbor. Whoever can say whatever about me, or any other church, or people who are part of Grace Harbor or people in other churches, but His work is to be held in esteem. The very gates of hell won't prevail against it, you know. Sure the buildings will all be gone someday and the addresses too, but that which the Lord established and built and used and glorified Himself with will always remain.

We, the Church that is the Body of Christ that meets at 12881 Newport and is now called Grace Harbor, has been ridiculed and held in contempt like all churches by a few, but because of the Lord's mercy, we have endured. We will continue to endure with His grace and blessing as long as we seek to humbly lift Him up in this place. Naysayers and the 'oh so spiritual self-proclaimed judgmental pundits' can say what they will, but He will prevail. God loves the Church. God loves Immanuel Baptist in Long Beach and Grace Harbor too. Christ died for the Church. God established the Church. The Church, His Body and His work will endure. So, as long as He says so, we will serve, no matter what anybody else says. Please be careful what you say about any Church.

In His Service at Grace Harbor, Pastor Fred

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