Dear Church Family,
Well, here we are entering another new year. In years past I would have used my article at the beginning of a new year to talk about all that is planned for the new year and what we are going to do in ministry. But after 2020, I have a new-found appreciation for the truth found in James 4:13-15. God’s Word says…
13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— 14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”
Now these verses are not informing us that we should not plan, and they are not making a negative statement about wealth or prosperity. In fact, wealth can be used for furthering the kingdom of God and planning is an essential part of the stewardship God requires of us.
What we see here is that we need to trust God in all things. Security cannot come from what we have because it can be gone tomorrow. None of us knows the future. We live in a world that can bring change that surprises us and upsets the patterns of our lives. We all now know what this feels like after 2020. So how do we respond to a new year? What is the lesson that we were to learn from 2020? I like how one author put it… “James is not condemning all assertions about the future or saying that the statement “if the Lord wills” is a magic phrase that guarantees our trust in God’s hidden providence. Rather, he is speaking to matters of the heart. In all that we do or plan, we must remember that the future is unknown to us and that ultimately only God can be trusted to work things out.”
Considering the lessons learned from 2020, on January 10th, “if the Lord wills”, I am going to begin a four-week series of messages entitled, “Facing the Unknown”. We are going to consider how we are tempted to face unknown situations, and then find direction from God’s Word on how to walk through these times in ways that are best for us and give glory to the Lord. I am excited for 2021! No, I do not know the details, but I know God does and we can fully trust Him! Let’s face the unknown together and watch what God does!
On a personal note, I would like to ask you, as my church family, to pray for my family as we enter 2021. Of course, the whole year is unknown to us, but the plan is that Nick, Melissa, and Eliana are going to be leaving us to go to the mission field in Japan. We are so excited for this but there are also conflicting emotions of sorrow and loss as well. We will not be in their presence for some time. Possibly up to four years. We would covet your prayers as our family loves and supports them faithfully, but from a distance. The distance will make this especially hard. Please pray that we will love them well in this new season for our family and pray that God would be for us all that we need as we are separated from our loved ones. Church family please help us love and support them as well. They are really not “leaving” our church, they are being “sent out” by our church to be missionaries to the Japanese people. They will need constant love, prayer, and support that only a church family can give. I would covet your prayers for us as we are separated as a family, but even more importantly please pray, love, and support them because they will need all these things from their church family!!
I love you and I love being your pastor,
