Skip to main content

Virtual Worship Extended into May

Last week we were informed by the Handke Center that, due to the Governor’s updated guidelines, we will not be able to meet there through at least May 4 which means that May 11 is the first Sunday we could meet together again for worship. Because the Governor’s guidelines also include entertainment and event facilities like the Elk River Theater and the Holiday Inn in Otsego (which has a large enough meeting room for our church), it looks very doubtful that we’ll be able to secure a venue for worship before May 11, and who knows, maybe longer.

In light of this reality, I want to encourage you to redouble your resolve to live as a disciple of Jesus Christ in every season of life. Whatever you think about this crisis, it’s way beyond our control and there’s nothing any of us can do about it. But what we can do is bow our lives before Jesus Christ and say, “Our hope is in you, our lives belong to you, and we’re gladly devoted to worshiping you and serving you and loving the lost no matter the circumstances. So, Jesus, help us to live as a kingdom of priests in this world right now." 

Beloved, our gathered life together has been put on hold, but the Kingdom of God has not been put on hold.

Therefore, be encouraged in Christ and resolve to live as his children, as members of his body, and as a kingdom of priests in this world. In the coming days, Pastor Kevin and I will be posting some blogs and videos about how to live as disciples in this unique season of life, but for now I want to say this: it begins with resolve. 

May the Lord richly bless us as we resolve to live for the glory of Christ in every season of life. God be with you all! 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Reflective Glory: How the Moon Displays the Mercy of God

Our sun is a fitting metaphor for the glory of God. In the context of our solar system, it is massive, bright, beautiful, powerful, self-sufficient, heat-producing, life-giving, and dangerous. It is, by far, the dominant feature of our solar system and without it the system would fling apart and all living things therein would die.  On the other hand, our moon is a fitting metaphor for human beings, especially for those who believe in Jesus Christ. First, compared to the sun, the moon is tiny and dim. The sun is 400 times larger than the moon, its mass is 27 million times greater than the mass of the moon, and from our perspective its light shines 450,000 times brighter than that of the moon. The sun is so much greater than the moon that it’s difficult to quantify and express the difference. Likewise, the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, is so much great than each and all of us that it’s impossible to quantify or express the difference. Indeed, the Lord is very great and greatly...

To Have My Soul Happy in the Lord, by George Muller

To Have My Soul Happy in the Lord By George Muller “It has pleased the Lord to teach me a truth, the benefit of which I have not lost for more than fourteen years. The point is this: I saw more clearly than ever that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was to have my soul happy in the Lord. The first thing to be concerned about was not how much I might serve the Lord, or how I might glorify the Lord, but how I might get my soul into a happy state, and how my inner man might be nourished. “I saw that the most important thing I had to do was to give myself to the reading of the Word of God—not prayer, but the Word of God. And here again, not the simple reading of the Word of God so that it only passes through my mind just as water runs through a pipe, but considering what I read, pondering over it, and applying it to my heart. To meditate on it, that thus my heart might be comforted, encouraged, warned, reproved, instructed. And that thus,...

Rejoicing in the Wrath of God: Part 1 by Pastor Charlie Handren

This Sunday we resume our study of the book of Revelation and within the first eight verses of chapter 6 we will encounter the wrath of God being poured out upon the world. In one sense, being confronted with the reality of God’s wrath is uncomfortable at best, but in another sense, it fills the believing heart with joy.  One of the first essays I wrote in college was on the wrath and love of God, and probably the main effect it has had on my life is to cause joy to rise up in my heart whenever I contemplate God’s wrath. Sometime ago I shared this with a pastor friend of mine and though he said nothing in response, he looked at me as if to say, “If you knew anything about the wrath of God, you would not rejoice in it.” At the time, I wasn't sure how to respond, but I knew that the joy in my heart was not stemming from a belittling of the horror of the wrath of God. Then several years ago, as I was reading through Revelation, I came across a couple of passages in chapters 15 and 16 ...