Weekly Update July 20

What a blessing — to have these virtual services come to us in the comfort of our own homes! We can never tire of encouraging words, reassurance, and to be reminded we all have the gift of the blessing of our God — our advocate — especially in challenging times as we are all experiencing now.

We are all a family; we have the same Father and the creator of us all and all the earth surrounding us. He cares deeply about each and everyone of us, and we all have the gift of ‘faith’ to help us through our times of uncertainty — if only we would ‘let go, and let faith and trust in’. We all have the gift of knowing we have God, our Father, to turn our concerns, our doubts, and our fears over to, to give us strength and confidence to help us get through.   As Pastor Terry shared in his last week’s sermon (https://youtu.be/FskiCT89IaQ),  “we must have faith that God will get us through the pandemic. If we persist in our faith and call on the strength of God, we will.” Gary Montroy’s scripture reading (Ephesians 3:13-21) from Paul’s prayer in his letter to the Ephesians portrays how strong a man’s faith was. Even though he was nearing the end of his life, was in jail because of his deep faith, and had suffered a great deal along the way, it was Paul who wanted desperately to emphasize his deep love of God and what he knew to be the Truth with the discouraged Ephesians (who he had acquired a deep connection with) — before they completely lost heart.

 Paul prayed endlessly for the Ephesians to grow in their knowledge of God’s love and how they could rely on Him. He prayed to God to strengthen their reasoning; that their conscience would become more sensitive; and for Him to give them the will to pursue what they knew in their hearts was right. Overall, he prayed for a deepening, stronger relationship with God for each of them.

Faith …. “confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1) is the gift we all have at our fingertips to get us through whatever it is that we find difficult to face. Sometimes, doubt interferes, fear gets in the way, depletion of enthusiasm and loss of encouragement to go on take over. And yes, we each have setbacks in our lives that sometimes become roadblocks to moving forward; we each have questions about what the future will bring, and, yes, we all are wondering what’s happening in our world, and wondering what’s next regarding this pandemic we are in together. None of us know. But we do know that we have God by our side – and as long as we have ‘genuine faith’ (even “as small as a mustard seed”), it will grow and help each of us “overcome our struggles”! He wants us to depend on Him, and put our faith and trust that He’ll do right by us.

Thank you to Janet Montroy and Jody Sinkway for sharing such an inspirational and meaningful Hymn Sing. Really appreciate Janet’s sharing the background information with us of the composer Harry Emerson Fosdick and his “God of Grace and God of Glory” — written while the U.S. was right in the midst of the Great

Depression between the two World Wars. The words are so pertinent to what we are dealing with today —- ‘Grant us wisdom; grant us courage, for the facing of this hour’ — as are the beautiful “Amazing Grace” and “Lift High the Cross”. You might want to go back and re-listen to them (see link above), or even sing along again with Jody and Janet — bringing to life so much of God’s Love for us.

And, to Boyd Lowry, a continued huge appreciation for your talented gift to us all!

Made with Acapella