By God’s Grace & For His Glory

“We are a purchased people. The Bible shows that this makes all the difference in how life is lived. We exist to proclaim and to praise the glory of the One who purchased us.”
Pastor Dan Cummings

Four years today, Pastor Dan Cummings was called home to swim forever in the ocean of God’s love after a 10-month battle with cancer. He was a beloved husband, father, pastor and friend. But what I am grateful for this morning is that he was a true mentor. In the short time we labored together in the ministry of the glorious gospel at Five Points, He taught me much about being a man, husband, father, pastor and friend. In Our Time, it is rare to find a man who is not afraid to think rigorously about God, his gospel and its vast implications for every area of life. Even rarer is finding a man who “if you cut him would bleed Bibline”. Dan was both of these and I am thankful to God for his influence in my life. 

In a sermon given on November 14, 2004 entitled, By His Grace and for His Glory: A God-Entranced Witness, Pastor Dan said, “If you did nothing else in your vapor-like existence except be a faithful witness to the glory of God in Christ, you would have lived. But if you did everything else and the whole world was your acclaim and everything you wanted to accomplish got accomplished… but were not a witness to the glory of God in Christ? God’s evaluation is: You Never Lived. It was absolutely worthless.” He shepherded his flock under this banner. In the power of the Spirit, he preached of the great worth of God in Christ to a world that wants to relegate God to the periphery. He faithfully called us to give our lives by following the Great Shepherd of the sheep as he fixed our eyes on the glory of Christ. For in giving our life for the glory of God in Christ, we would come to find it!

The way Pastor Dan would want us to remember him today is for our remembrance to be more about our Great God than about him. So let us plod on together in the power of the Spirit remembering that every breath we are given is by God grace so that we would live for his glory.