PCA holds first upper school chapel

By: Shelby Dollar, PCA Junior

On Wednesday, August 21, 2019, Pinewood Christian Academy held the first of many chapels for the 2019-2020 school year. The worship service began with the song “I am a Child of God” led by Aaron Lyons and Abi Oates. Mrs. Brooke Smith, a Bible teacher at PCA, delivered the sermon.

Mrs. Smith referenced John 11:1-44 while speaking about the death of Lazarus, who died and was dead for 4 days when Jesus called him out of the tomb. She began by sharing how our circumstances are not our destination; they are what we are going through for Jesus’s glory. They are perfecting in us an eternal glory. The event of Lazarus being raised from the dead is a picture of our salvation. Jesus calls to us in the midst of our trials so that we may be saved.

Later, Mrs. Smith explained that salvation is not only about going to Heaven when we die, if it was why wouldn’t we just die once we were saved, she asked. Mrs. Smith shared steps that we need to take after we are saved. According to Mrs. Smith, the first step that needs to be taken after receiving salvation is taking off our “grave clothes”. She reinforced this first step by saying that while we were slaves to sin with such things as pride, anger, bitterness and gossip “clothed us”. After being saved, we must take on the characteristics of Christ. By doing this, we will no longer be wearing the clothes of sin. The second step after salvation is pointing to the life giver. She supported this statement by saying that our lives as Christians are not about ourselves anymore, our lives are now all about Jesus. We are not able to save ourselves, so we