December 2020 From Your Congregational President
Declaring & Teaching – Jesus is Lord!
Romans 10:8-13
But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart”—that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes in Him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him; for “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
Getting closer, closer to the close of 2020 that is. We have all been through a lot this year and Advent is upon us with the start of a new church year and all that it promises. The temptation is to look back because that is sometimes easier, I personally really like November and Thanksgiving in particular as it reminds me of the times my family would all get together no matter what it took, the call would come from Dad to verify that you would be there. Looking back I can’t imagine anyone in the family having something else that was more important or any valid reason for not being there. It seems that going to church has been the same for many of us, we can’t imagine that there would be anything more important than gathering together to worship our Lord and Savior Jesus on Sunday morning.
We all have choices that we make every day, there are other things that we cannot choose, one of those seems to be our ability to meet as a congregation in our Sanctuary on Sunday morning, let that sink in. Who would have thought that would be the case for us and the many other congregations throughout our great land; hard to imagine, yet this is our reality.
With that said, we go on, we acknowledge our blessings and there are many and we continue to look forward to that time when we are all gathered together in worship. I want to encourage everyone to be in the Word and to be reading our Bibles. Sometimes we don’t know what to focus on, I like to use the Portals of Prayer with my study bible. The scripture lesson usually will lead me to just the right place to start and the Spirit takes me the rest of the way. The key is always showing up and being present for His leading and guiding. May it always be the case for each of you. If anyone thinks they would like a new study bible, please let me know. Shawn and Angie Forquer gave me a study bible for my birthday fifteen years ago in July of 2005 and I can truly say that it has changed my life. Blessings to all this Christmas season.
In His Service,
Tim Grace