In
the photograph above, Mount Slemish can be seen looming over the start of the
valley of the River Braid which is to the far left of the view. The Braid River
flows past Broughshane and on to Ballymena and gives its name to the area and
thus to the name of our church. There are a lot of churches in the area and
many good ones. But God has planned one more… our new work, Calvary Braid
Valley.
A New Work in the Braid Valley
The land we are
living in has seen many works of God over the centuries. It has been said that Saint
Patrick, when he was kidnapped as a teen-ager from Britain by Irish pirates, was
sold as a slave and forced to herd swine outdoors in the slopes of Mt. Slemish.
It was here that the Spirit of God stirred up faith in the young man so
desperate for freedom. But it was also here that he saw the native Irish in an
equally desperate condition trapped in fear of pagan ignorance of God.
Patrick was miraculously able to escape from
his dreaded captors, hoping never to return to that spiritually dark and dreary
land. But God called him back, this time of his free will, to bring “good
news,” the gospel, to those lost and empty souls – and the rest is history! Now,
we don’t presume to be anything like Saint Patrick, except in one way. We are
stepping out in faith and above all, obedience to the Lord.
I have been going through the Book of Joshua
on Sunday mornings and it has really spoken into our circumstances. I am
reminded of the story told in the 3rd chapter when the priests who
were carrying the Ark of the Covenant stepped into the Jordan River under the
Lord’s direction. They had been told they would cross the river on dry ground,
yet when the put their feet in the water – nothing happened!
Yet the Scripture says something did
happen: “the water above that point began backing up a great distance away.” As they stepped out in obedience, a miracle
occurred, but 15 miles upstream, so they didn’t see the results for some time.
As they stayed put in the torrent, their faith & obedience came through as
the waters dried up and all the people did
pass into the Promised Land on dry ground.
We also have, in effect, stepped into the
River Braid at the Lord’s direction and things are moving for us too…by faith!
It can be a scary thing to ‘walk by faith, not by sight’ and continue to move
on despite outward appearances – but God is faithful, has a plan and won’t let
us down. CBV may yet be small, but we’re strong!
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