Welcome to Pentecost!

02 Jun Welcome to Pentecost!

Welcome to Pentecost!

Like so much in the church’s life…it’s a season not a single day…a way of life not a moment in time.
Let’s talk about that too this Thursday.

Lots on the agenda this week…
FIRST:
Bible study Catch-up on Acts 2 & a sneak peek at the following week!
Thursday – June 4, 2020 10:30 AM

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85446968136

Meeting ID: 854 4696 8136

SECOND:
Thank you! For what? You might ask…
Pam shared with the Steering Team the continued increase in your generosity over this desperately trying season.
Offerings received May 2020 $10549.30
Offerings received May 2019 $ 8172.35
Budget May 2020 $10941
Thank you! That’s roughly a 25% increase against last May. That’s about where we need to be every month as you can see by the Budget total included below. So…Thank you! And thank God who is faithful to every promise.
For God is the one who provides seed for the farmer and then bread to eat. In the same way, he will provide and increase your resources and then produce a great harvest of generosity in you. Yes, you will be enriched in every way so that you can always be generous. And when we take your gifts to those who need them, they will thank God. – 2 Cor 9:10-11

FINALLY:
We’re pretty close to being able to meet all together again in the Guide Hall. We want to do that in a way that honours the Government’s guidelines and addresses our local conditions. There is no one-size-fits-all approach and we’ll be wise about our “re-launch” of Living Water worshipping as one gathered family in Christ. I’d say we’re at least a couple weeks away…and the local guidelines will certainly help us do it well.

But I also want to reiterate what I have said from the beginning…in fact I didn’t say it, CS Lewis did & I’ll re-quote him: (and simply add the current conditions in () )
“…do not let us begin by exaggerating the novelty of our situation. Believe me, you & all whom you love were already sentenced to death before the atomic bomb (Corona Virus) was invented: & quite a high percentage of us were going to die in unpleasant ways…It is perfectly ridiculous to go about whimpering & drawing long faces because the scientists have added one more chance of painful & premature death to a world which already bristled with such chances…in which death itself was not a chance at all, but a certainty.

This is the first point to be made; & the first action to be taken is to pull ourselves together. If we are all going to be destroyed by (Corona virus) an atomic bomb, let that (virus) bomb when it comes find us doing sensible & human things—praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint & a game of darts—not huddled together like frightened sheep thinking about bombs (viruses). They may break our bodies (a microbe can do that) but they need not dominate our minds.” (that “microbe” line was in the original in 1945…did he know something?)

Too much of our current thinking has been “dominated” by fear over the latest way we could die.
I told my mother this week to turn off her TV. It’s good advice in the best of times. 21st century media (internet included) is a breeding ground for fear.

BUT…The church has the unique privilege of proclaiming, “Don’t be afraid of those who want to kill your body; they cannot touch your soul. Fear only God, who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” Mt 10:28 and we know with certainty that God wants both our resurrected bodies, soul & all, in his presence forever and has already accomplished that miracle through Christ’s resurrection.

It is THAT that should dominate our thinking and living: 2 Cor 4:18 “So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.”

We can chat about that too on Thursday…
God bless you as you fix your gaze on your eternal assurance this week.

John