Wade, Jennifer and Jesus

February 17, 2015 (Tuesday)
Wade and Jennifer Burleigh led worship services at Bethel Baptist Church, Ingleside, Texas, this past weekend, and they were a great blessing to us who were present to worship with them.
Wade is a bundle of talent, dedication, spirituality and love. On Saturday evening he painted, with only his hands (no brush), a tattered ship held firmly by its anchor. He did this while singing beautifully a song with words appropriate to the symbolism in the painting. The entire presentation glorified the Lord Jesus Christ and led us closer to Him. Jennifer read Scripture and commented on the Biblical experience illustrated in the art work. All together, it was a spiritual moment for all of us.

On Sunday morning, we arrived in the sanctuary and found the pulpit furniture gone and in its place a pedestal supporting a big lump of clay that I estimate was 15 inches tall and about 10 inches in diameter. Wade sang as he began fashioning the clay into a recognizable figure. Jennifer read appropriate Scripture and then, in her own words, applied the lesson. Wade kept working as the figure began to appear. He sang as his hands created something new. At the end, with appropriate music and powerful lyrics, he turned the sculpted figure around, we all gasped. Unknown to us, he had also fashioned a second sculpture. Some worshipers literally sobbed at the sight. All of us were deeply moved by what we saw and heard. Without a pulpit or a traditional sermon, the Gospel was preached.
To my mind, the Scripture that describes the central message of the program is, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21 NIV).
“God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8 NIV). “If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. As Scripture says, ‘Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame'” (Romans 10:9-11 NIV).