Sunday school at 9 AM & Worship at 10:15 AM
Come as you are. Experience God's love. Go out like Christ.
3864 Glenville Rd, Glenville, PA 17329
Come as you are. Experience God's love. Go out like Christ.
3864 Glenville Rd, Glenville, PA 17329
The righteous person may have many troubles,
but the Lord delivers him from them all. Psalms 34:19
As the Pandemic has raged, gee, I thought things would be easier. We were told back in 2020, if we all behave, follow the guidelines for a bit, well, things would return to normal in a relatively short order. Well, I think we can all safely say, we're still waiting!
And on this post Tuesday day after thanksgiving, I can't help thinking how Covid continues to define not only our life together in some cases as a church, but our whole lives. The backdrop of the Pandemic is now a normal word in our everyday vocabulary. Covid is in the minds of event planners and Holiday festival workers. Parties and family gatherings will happen, but Covid, even if not mentioned, is still very much at the forefront and may forever redefine what those events and gatherings look like, and who will participate or not.
So, amidst the troublesome times in which we find ourselves, may we remember we all have the righteousness of God within us. But that does not mean everything will turn out in our thinking of right. However, God, just as he did through the Israelites famine, the disciples’ emptiness, and through Daniel's terror in the Lion's Den, and even for Joseph amid isolation. God will in fact deliver even us through this Pandemic to enjoy the rest of life, however long that is.
Maybe our lives aren’t supposed to look the way they used to. Could God be using the Pandemic to help us consider new ways of living and being with each other? He might be calling us to appreciate what we really have, because the very presence of what we've known has been either shattered or very much altered over these last couple years.
Even as we're slowly returning somewhat to where we've been pre-Covid, we'll never be the same. But God will deliver us even through the changes to experience his life of glory and grace, of holiness and honor.
So, friends may we feel that deliverance this Advent. May we feel his blessedness, even in our quietness. May we feel his energy, even in our weariness. May we feel rebirth, even if in many cases, we feel dead. May troubles like the Pandemic, or whatever they are, never defeat us. Why? because, we have the ultimate defender as our deliverer!
To God be the glory in Jesus’ name.
Black Rock Church is a place of refuge where people are renewed and transformed by the Spirit to continue the work of Jesus peacefully, simply, together.