The pastor Rev. Walter Zimmerman passed away on Friday March 11, 2011.
Power Point Memorial for
Rev. Walter Zimmerman.
Note: This is a very large file (44M) and takes a while to download.
It probably would be best to right click and save the presentation and play it.
These people have no direction. They have no spiritual guidance directing them on the paths of righteousness. Like the people that Jesus talked about in the Bible, these people have eyes to see, but they see not, and ears to hear, but they hear not.
Mark 8:17-18
17 And when Jesus knew it, he saith unto them, Why reason ye, because ye have no bread? perceive ye not yet, neither understand? have ye your heart yet hardened?
18 Having eyes, see ye not? and having ears, hear ye not? and do ye not remember?
Though the neighborhood is considered a "bad neighborhood," there are still a lot of nice people in the neighborhood. There are senior citizens who have been serving the Lord Jesus for many years and they feel trapped in their own homes. There are people who have resisted the drugs and other temptations only to find that there is little or no job opportunity in the area. The area is filled with vacant factories and houses. Those who could afford to leave the area found that they couldn't sell their homes or buildings and left them as abandoned.
With a bleak situation like this, there is little hope for the neighborhood except for the Lord Jesus Christ. People who don't know Jesus, and don't have him in their heart have no hope. But we are bringing hope to the hopeless. We are offering peace where there is no peace. We are a light shining in the darkness offering hope and salvation where there was none.
Jesus is the only hope for a lost and dying world. Without Jesus there is no hope, for the people are blind and cannot see. But when Jesus enters their heart, there is a hope that surpasses all understanding.
Romans 8:24-25
24 For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?
25 But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.
We are offering a hope that cannot be seen, but is very real. We offer hope to a community that has lost the ability to hope. All they see is drugs, crime, and prostitution on every hand, while we are saying that there is a better way. There is a way that offers joy unspeakable and is full of glory.
1 Peter 1
8 Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:
We are a voice crying out in the wilderness for the sinner to repent and come to the Lord Jesus Christ. While other churches have closed down and left the area, we have stayed continuing to preach the Word to the lost and the blind.
