A Thought From Your Pastor 6/5/2020

“Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”— John 14:27

A Thought From Your Pastor!

 Jesus Christ left us with a wonderful legacy when He left this world!

Do you ever feel that life moves too fast? Perhaps you can relate to the old saying “Stop the world—I want to get off.” Sometimes the world spins too fast; one day melds into the next; and, despite our frenzied and harried pace, we fall further and further behind on our obligations.

But God doesn’t want us to live this way. He wants us to Psalm 46:10 (ESV) “Be still, and know that I am God.  Jesus tells to us, Matthew 11:28 (ESV)  Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. In fact, God instituted the Sabbath, an important time of rest. When was the last time you sat still in God’s presence, enjoying His rest?

So many things try and take our time we don’t have time to read our Bible, pray, call a shut-in or many other things we know God wants us to do.  Sometimes we are so busy making a living, going to sporting event, concerts or just plain sitting home watching TV.  One thing this virus has done is help us slow down because some of these things we enjoy are not available.

We desperately need “downtime.” Dr. Richard Swenson, author of Margin, a book about reducing stress, says that we need to restore what he calls our “margins,” our reserves. He points out that we live overloaded lives today. But, Swenson says, we can’t deplete our spiritual, emotional, physical, financial, and time reserves for too long without paying for it in one way or another. 

  Jesus left a legacy to His disciples, a legacy we share in and  a legacy that keeps us from depleting all our resources. What is this legacy?  His peace. Christ declares to us, “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you.” Oh, how we need it in these troubled times when people’s hearts literally fail them for fear. Threats of terrorists,        pandemic and crime rob millions of people of peace. Nervous breakdowns abound. Pharmacies sell tranquilizers by the millions of pounds each year. We desperately need Christ’s peace, and to gain it, all we need to do is surrender ourselves to God. We find the secret of peace in trusting in His perfect will for our lives, yielding ourselves to rest in His trustworthy arms.  Remember how much He loves us: John 3:16 (ESV) “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Do you need a dose of peace today? Just look to Christ, the sovereign Lord of all      history. He will bring His peace as you trust in Him. Whatever your problems, fix your eyes upon Jesus, and peace will flood your soul.

Of course as always: Keep praying but also keep rejoicing in Jesus Christ our Savior and Lord.  Hopefully we will be meeting together again in the near future.

God’s Blessing,                                                                                                                                      Pastor Gerry and Carolyn

                                                                                                                             Corrie Ten Boom says: “Don’t wrestle, just nestle!”