“Ponderings from the Pastor”

Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ! Fall has definitely arrived! Cool, crisp mornings and afternoons are here!  Perfect for early morning or early evening walks! The smell of firepits, the freshly picked apples, pumpkins popping up all around… yup, “sweater weather” is here! I for one welcome it with open arms! Pretty soon the leaves will change colors and the trees will burst forth in all their brilliant reds, yellows, and oranges. If you haven’t yet figured it out, I LOVE AUTUMN!

And as the seasons change, so do our lives. Pretty soon we will be complaining that “it’s too cold”, or “there’s not enough daylight”. We humans can be a finicky bunch, can’t we? It’s either “too hot” or it’s “too cold”, “too rainy” or “too dry”. We’re either “too busy” or “there’s nothing to do”. Add to that the fact that we are still somewhat restricted in our ability to enjoy our lives to the fullest due to the covid virus, and life can be pretty “ho-hum” and monotonous.

But it doesn’t have to be, does it? Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 3:1, that “there is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven”. Our loving Heavenly Father has a plan, and part of that incredible gift is the cycle of seasons that we all experience in our lives. I recently attended an on-line seminar in which the speaker discussed how even seasons of discouragement in our lives can be beneficial. He said, “If we handle it properly, our times of discouragement can lead to new growth”. Just like the seasonal changes in the air, discouraging times have an “ebb and flow”. They don’t change overnight, but gradually. Therefore, our discouragements do not last forever.

And there is much that we can do to help ourselves and one another during those times when things seem to be the most bleak. I have found that one of the best ways that we can learn to deal with the discouragements in life is to prepare for them.  I find encouragement from God’s Holy Word and from our brothers and sisters in Christ. Throughout the month of October in my daily e-mails and Facebook posts, I plan on sharing some of God’s promises and encouraging words with you, in hopes that you will find more “Up” days than “Down” - so, in turn, you will also be able to brighten someone else’s day.
With this in mind, allow me to share our Life Verse for October- in the words the Apostle Paul: “In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” (Acts 20:35). 

It’s worth pondering!

Pastor Bill

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