“Ponderings from the Pastor”
Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ! Welcome to the merry, merry month of May. Or maybe we should call it the “sneezy, sneezy” month of May! I for one am hopeful that this pollen will disappear as quickly as it came!
There is so much going on in our world and in our community right now, that I hardly know where to start. Please continue to pray for the people of Ukraine as they continue to fight for their freedom. While the struggle between Russia and Ukraine has boiled mostly below the surface for centuries, over the last 30+ years their relationship has become more contentious, and now in the past several months it has escalated even more. And while many nations, including our own, are seeking peace through diplomacy, lives are still being lost daily as the war rages on. Pray for real peace for these two nations, and for all people.
Closer to home, while the news on covid seems to be improving, the uptick in violence throughout the Richmond area, especially among young people, continues to increase. Those things that used to be “City problems” have branched out into the surrounding counties as violence and general lawlessness seems to go on unabated. While the finger-pointing and political rhetoric continues, lives are being disrupted, destroyed, and even lost, because of a real or perceived lack of respect for one another.
Unfortunately, this is nothing new. As we read through the history of humankind in the Bible, we find that this type of disregard for our fellow man has been a part of who we are since the Garden of Eden. And while I may not have THE answer, I believe that this is not the way God created us to be, and it is certainly not the world I want my children and grandchildren to inherit. And while this may be simplistic, I believe that if we all adopted Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:37, when He taught the people, “All you need to say is simply ‘yes’ or “no’, anything more comes from the evil one”, our world would be a much better place.
Related to that, I am going to be using my daily e-mails and Facebook posts in May to remind us all of what I believe might be the most important characteristic of our Heavenly Father, keeping promises. With that in mind, our Life Verse for May comes from Psalm 145:13 where it is written - “The Lord is trustworthy in all He promises, and faithful in all He does.” Can mankind live that way? I pray we will.
It's worth pondering!
Pastor Bill
