“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid: do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9
As we have begun the new year, I cannot help but to claim the promise from scripture that God is with us wherever we go. Joshua 1:9 is one of my favorite verses of scripture as it tells us that we can be strong and courageous as Christians because God will always be with us. In this new year we continue to see the effects that COVID-19 is still having on peoples lives as well as churches. We also see the division that is happening in our nation and the new administration is making decisions that dishonor God and is causing chaos in our nation. Here are a few things I want to remind us of:
a. God is in control! We serve a sovereign God, and we need to trust Him!
b. Scripture tells us that God has a plan, and His plan is to use us to carry out the mission of proclaiming the Gospel.
c. The Holy Spirit empowers us to live the Christian life and to lead others to Christ! We do not do it on our own and we must always follow the leadership of the Holy Spirit in our lives!
I believe if we all remember those three things and claim Joshua 1:9 as God’s promise to us, we will do great things for God despite the issues we will deal with in this new year. Let us commit to praying for each other and encouraging each other as we build the Kingdom of God!
I am extremely excited about what God has in store for us this year! We are moving forward and making plans for working together in missions and evangelism. I can tell you that we are formulating a plan to have summer camps this summer at Camp Houston. All our camps will be Day Camps as this will help us to do our activities and still be safe to prevent issues with the COVID virus. We will have dates set soon and they will be published in the March newsletter. We are also making plans to go back to Pittsburgh to work with Faithbridge Community Church in July. I will be putting more information out regarding this mission endeavor next month. The Evangelism team is also planning on having an Evangelistic rally in August. The date is still to be determined and we will publish that as soon as we can.
We are continuing to pray and seek God in other things we can do to help strengthen our churches and provide resources and opportunities for missions and evangelistic opportunities. Let me encourage each of you to pray as well! Pray that God will give us understanding as individuals and churches to continue our mission God has called us to and that we will not allow the distractions of the world to keep us from the mandate God has given to us.
I love each of our Pastors and churches and I am here to support you in your ministry! My prayer is that we will see a great Revival take place in our churches and that it will spread across this State! May we continue to seek God with all our heart and see what He will do in and through our lives!
Bro. Gary