May 2020
Message from Pastor Tom:
I open this new blog for the month of May with great hope, giving heartfelt prayers for everyone’s wellbeing and safety during this stressful time with the pandemic that has been laid upon the world. We need our faith in God to be stronger now more than ever just as stated in Lamentations 3:25-26, "The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him, it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord."
I know many of you are bored being quarantined, or feel alone when we are to be isolated from the world and our loved ones. The television, blogs, radio, and media bombard us all the time with how we should live our lives according to this world. Yet in the end, it is God who is the One we need to listen to through the reading of His Scriptures. I know what you're saying, I say this all the time and I sound like a broken record. Nevertheless, what record are you playing? Hope in God is power, present and eternal power. Hope keeps people from killing themselves, it helps people get out of bed and go to work each day. People such as our doctors, medical personnel, first responders, food service and grocery store workers. God Bless each and every one of them.
Hope gives meaning to everyday life, even during this locked-down stay-at-home life. Hope liberates us from the selfishness of fear and greed and empowers love. Not a risk-taking life style the world so often tries to seduce us with, as we know this is Satan's stronghold. In James 4:13-14, he stated it very clearly, "Now listen you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.' Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, 'If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.’” James makes sense as we do not know if we will live to see tomorrow, or even the end of the day. However, I know if we have hope in Christ, then we have hope in everything knowing we will live forever in and with Christ.
Hope gives meaning to everyday life, even during this locked-down stay-at-home life. Hope liberates us from the selfishness of fear and greed and empowers love. Not a risk-taking life style the world so often tries to seduce us with, as we know this is Satan's stronghold. In James 4:13-14, he stated it very clearly, "Now listen you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.' Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, 'If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.’” James makes sense as we do not know if we will live to see tomorrow, or even the end of the day. However, I know if we have hope in Christ, then we have hope in everything knowing we will live forever in and with Christ.
I would like to share something I read this morning about faith by John Piper. The biblical view of faith is not a leap in the dark. It is warranted and well-grounded. It’s called faith not because it has no foundation. It’s called faith because it involves trust. Jesus didn’t call the believers blind; he called the unbelievers blind (Matthew 15:14). “Seeing they do not see” (Matthew 13:13). Saving faith in God’s word is based on “seeing.” Real seeing. The Bible answers like this: Satan does all he can to blind “the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Corinthians 4:4).
I also find it is Satan who takes away our Hope. Through His Word, God has entrusted to us the knowledge of who He is, what He is doing, and how the future will unfold for mankind. The Scriptures were intended to lead us into a growing personal relationship with our heavenly Father and to empower us for fruitful service as Christ’s ambassadors. We are called to follow Jesus’ example in glorifying God our Savior, focused not on Him, but on the heavenly Father, whose plan is to reach the entire world with His saving grace. Please read your Bible and know God's will for your life.
Heidi and I pray God will open the eyes of our hearts to see and savor the beauty of Christ. To incline our hearts to hear His word, and know His Son, and His way by filling us with kindhearted love and courage to face each day.
Blessings from a pastor and his wife
