16 E Colonial Highway, Hamilton VA

What a joy it was to visit Hamilton Baptist Church for their online service as the 155th church visit on this humbling and precious journey. Every step of this path has held something meaningful, and today was no different. I am always grateful for churches that open their doors, even through a screen, and make room for people to encounter the presence of God wherever they are.

It was clear from the start that Hamilton Baptist Church is more than a gathering place. It is a community. A family. A body of believers who truly desire to share life together in a way that magnifies God and expands His kingdom. There was something deeply beautiful about that to me. I

I was especially moved by the heart behind who they are as a church: real people sharing life together because their unending joy and eternal salvation are found in Jesus Christ. That says so much.

Hamilton Baptist Church speaks of living lives of joyful submission to King Jesus while helping one another become what God created them to be, and I love that. I really do. Because real biblical community does not just gather for an hour and go home unchanged. It sharpens, encourages, convicts, and strengthens. It helps carry burdens. It points one another back to truth. It reminds us who we belong to when the world tries to pull us in every other direction.

I also love their desire to grow in love for God and for others while sharing His love with neighbors and the nations. That is the gospel on display. And the verse they highlight, Romans 5:8, is one that never loses its wonder: “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” What a staggering kind of love. A love that did not wait for us to get everything together. A love that came toward us while we were still broken, still wandering, still sinful, still in need of rescue. That kind of love changes everything.

Today’s sermon focused on Mark 8:27-33 and the mission of Jesus, and that is such a powerful passage. Jesus asks His disciples, “Who do you say that I am?” That question still reaches across time and pierces every heart. It is not enough to know what the crowd says. It is not enough to borrow someone else’s faith. At some point, every one of us has to answer that question personally.

Who is Jesus to us?

Peter answered, “You are the Christ.” And he was right. But what struck me again today is that even when Peter recognized who Jesus was, he still struggled to understand why Jesus had come. He wanted the glory without the suffering. The victory without the cross. The kingdom without the sacrifice. I think many of us wrestle with the same thing.

We love the idea of Jesus as Savior, but we often struggle with the reality of His mission. Jesus did not come merely to inspire us. He did not come just to make our lives easier. He came to suffer, to be rejected, to die, and to rise again. He came to do what only He could do. He came to save.

The cross did not look like victory in the moment, but it was the greatest victory the world has ever known. That reminds me that sometimes God’s mission in our lives will not look the way we expected, but that does not mean He is not still working.

One thing I always carry in my heart is that Jesus is not only our hope because He is powerful, but because He was willing to suffer. He understands rejection. He understands grief. He understands sorrow. He understands what it is to walk a hard road. And for those of us who have endured deep pain in life, that matters. It matters that our Savior is not afraid of suffering. He stepped right into it. He bore it. He redeemed through it.

Peter rebuked Jesus because he could not yet see that suffering was part of the mission, but Jesus turned and corrected him sharply. That part always makes me pause, because it reminds me how easy it is for human thinking to get in the way of divine purpose. Sometimes what we call protection is really resistance. Sometimes what we call wisdom is really fear. Sometimes we do not want the cross because it costs too much.

But the mission of Jesus was always bigger than human preference.

And in my opinion, that is one of the things the church must never move away from. We cannot water down the mission of Jesus. We cannot reshape Him into someone more comfortable, more convenient, or more culturally appealing. Jesus came to save sinners through His suffering, death, and resurrection, and that truth is still the hope of the world.

What also blessed me about Hamilton Baptist Church is that they seem to understand that following Jesus is not just about believing the right things in our heads, but about living in community with one another. Faith was never meant to be lived in total isolation. We need each other. We need encouragement. We need correction. We need people who will remind us of the mission when life gets distracting or hard.

And it is clear this church is filled with people who love each other well. Even through the online visit, that warmth came through. It felt evident to me that Hamilton Baptist Church is a loving family, and that is a beautiful thing to witness.

Thank you to the members of Hamilton Baptist Church for allowing me to join your online service. Thank you for the worship, for the Word, and for the example of a church family seeking to live in joyful submission to King Jesus. It was a blessing to visit.

As this journey continues, I remain humbled by all the different ways God keeps revealing His heart through His people. Every church visit carries something unique, and each one leaves me reflecting a little deeper, listening a little closer, and loving Jesus a little more.

I cannot wait to see where the Holy Spirit leads next week.

And the thought I leave with is this: the mission of Jesus was love willing to suffer. It was truth willing to stand. It was mercy willing to bleed. And because of that, we have hope that no darkness, no sorrow, and no sin gets the final word.

Jesus is still the Christ.
He is still on mission.
And He is still calling us to follow Him.

Love you all deeply,

Annie Stewart Lambert