In God We Trust!
Always seek Him.
Good morning church this is week 2 of no church due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
Let us be in prayer for those who have lost loved ones recently, yesterday I learned that Terry Shimbo passed away, it seems that so many families has felt the sorrow of losing a loved one recently and the pain is real. Pray for hope, comfort and peace in these trying times.
Although the church building doors are temporarily closed we still need to pay the bills. Many have asked what to do with their tithes and offerings. Here is the address to the church- #76 Hoff Street, Belington WV 26250. You can mail a check to this address or if it would be more convenient you can contact Patrick and he will lead you through the steps to donate online. God Bless you!
The church will be setting up a “Blessing Box” of non-perishable food items located outside of the church/ fellowship hall. This food will be free to any who is in need. I was at the church checking on the food that we have on hand and we do have some but are in need of more. I am asking for help in what is needed in the box as well as help in keeping it stocked. We will also be in need of donations to help with the purchase of needed items. Once this is set up and going I will let you know so that you can share the information. Pray that this will help those who are in need. Blessings!
Some has asked why I am sending out a written copy of the service instead of live streaming or another media. I have been in prayer over this and for now I am led to do it this way. I will text and email out this message to many folks who do not do social media. It is also my belief that as we read the text and dwell on what is written it will allow the Holy Spirit to speak deeply to us. God bless those who are live streaming or using another type of media but for now this is how I feel led to deliver the message that God has laid upon my heart. May you be blessed as you read and dwell upon it.
This morning I want to talk to you about 2 different subjects. Through out the week these subjects have weighed heavy on my spirit. The first being about how important that prayer is for our fellow man. Ephesians 6:18 says…And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. Right now we have never seen things such as they are in the midst of this pandemic.
For the last couple weeks we have experienced panic, fear, greediness, uncertainty, chaos, etc.. But we have also seen great kindness, love, caring, compassion, and sharing. We are in this thing together… we must continue to lift each other up in prayer so we do not grow weary. Church, no time in modern history has it been so important to lift each other up in prayer. Fact is we are to pray for everybody. An uplifting card, phone call, text or a message is a great boost to anybody’s day, but a prayer for the person who the Holy Spirit brings to mind… priceless! We have no idea what that person is going through at that very moment. Even the strongest person that you know needs your prayer. Life is difficult enough without all this added pressure. It would make sense to think that the longer this crisis goes along with the stay at home orders, and the social distancing we will begin to see much more anger and discontent. That should concern us all. What else should be concerning to us is the real issues of depression, anxiety, and loss of hope.
I have spoken to those who are going through this “bummed out” feelings already. Can’t get out to visit over a cup of coffee at the diner, cant hug that family member or friend, shoot can’t get within 6 feet of anyone and we don’t know when it’ll end… enough to bum anyone out.
No one is immune, no matter your age, financial status, or health. God knows, God cares, God’s will, will be done. It will come to a close. Things in life will change. Life will adjust. Good, bad or inconvenient life will go on. The children of God will persevere, in the end you win! There is a song about a godly man who was being threatened with death as a crook was robbing him, all the godly man could say was “Don’t threaten me with Heaven!” Think on that.
Church you are called to be in constant prayer for your church family, your Pastor and his family, your family and friends. Be in prayer for the nation’s leaders, medical workers, truck drivers, 1st responders, police and military personnel, and for the cashier at the local grocer and gas station. Pray for their strength, for their protection, for their wisdom, for them to find peace in this chaotic situation, but most importantly pray for their salvation, pray for a world wide revival! Nobody has been through something like this, there is no books written, no Thesis done, no “hind sight”. It’s like we are flying by the seat of our pants, doing the best we can with what we can. From Pastors to Management to the President of the United States all will make mistakes, will miss someone or something, they will not get it all right. Let’s uplift each other and help in times of uncertainty, negativity is of the devil. Stay positive! Stay praying!
In closing ..1 Chronicles 16:11….Search for the Lord and his strength…Always seek his presence.
It saddens me to say that in our churches today there is a great number of people that come to church, sit in a pew, sing the songs and listen to the preacher preach and that pretty well wraps up their week of “church”. The only spiritual “food” they got was from the preacher, maybe they got some from the songs but mostly it came from the sermon. 30 minutes or so a week. In the best times of life we cannot survive with just 30 minutes or so of feeding on the Word of God. Even if we attended every service, every prayer meeting, every Bible study its still not enough. How in the world can we expect to receive the spiritual nourishment we need if the church is shut down? If we cannot sing a couple songs and hear the preacher preach for 30 minutes?
It saddens me deeply to know that for the most part these are the same people that get too busy to read the Word of God daily, that distractions keep them from having that special prayer life that God wants, because of this we begin to lose the relationship that we once had with Jesus. Times such as these will begin to test the strength of your relationship with Christ. Is it well fed and nourished? Or is it sickly and poor? Will it stand the test? How strong is your relationship?
If the only nourishment you get is a 30 minute a week sermon then you are starving! It maybe a slow painful death and if you don’t realize that you are in trouble truth is you will die. If we only fed our bodies for 30 minutes a day we wouldn’t last very long, sure we’d lose the weight we wanted and look good for a short while but that would pass quickly, next thing you’d know you wouldn’t have the strength to even get back up. That’s what happens to our soul when we don’t feed it enough of Jesus! We don’t read, study, and meditate on the Word, we don’t make prayer important, we don’t think on and about Jesus.
You want to keep your spiritual life well fed and strong then do these things…. your life will change!!
We are in need of a great powerful revival to sweep over the world, to consume the people with the forgiveness that Jesus offers, and to turn from our evil ways. Jesus needs you, we need you! If you’ve just been playing at church, never really getting serious, maybe you were serious at one time but you’ve found you are not as close to God as you once were, maybe you never were but now you want to be.
Wherever you are in your relationship with your Maker it can get better. I like the illustration that says “ it doesn’t matter how many steps away from God you are it’s only one step back” Today if you see yourself as one that is struggling, admit it to the Lord, He knows anyway, confess your sins and short comings and seek His forgiveness, allow Him to make the changes in your life that you know needs changed, He will do it today, recommit your relationship and turn from your evil ways. Jesus loves you and so do I.
Blessing…. Ephesians 3:16 ( NLT)….“May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it, and may you be filled with the fullness of life and power that comes from God.”
Rev. Danny Linger