Saturday, December 26, 2020
Dear Trinity Baptist Church Family, On Christmas Eve, as Devin sang “O Holy Night,” I was impressed with the phrase “He knows our weakness.” Because Jesus was 100% human, He understands our weaknesses. Hebrews says He was tempted in every way like we are. This ought to be a great consolation to us. This has been a year of trusting God through fears of the unknown. It has been a year when we have needed to give grace to many who have hurt us or who believe we are behaving badly. It has been a year that has required much patience. Through these things, I am learning that I need to be more dependent upon God. I cannot control anything – not COVID, not others, and not even myself. But I can learn to trust God.
I pray you are having a wonderful Christmas. Lin and I have richly enjoyed our time with family. God is good.
I want to rejoice in our Christmas Eve worship. Do you know that we had two original compositions in the music that was shared on Thursday evening? Jeremy composed the first son that he and Annika sang and Naiza the song she sang. Both were beautiful and both had a similar theme. Praise God! In addition to Naiza, Jeremy, and Annika, I’d like to thank Beth, Devin, Kayla, Roberta, Amber, Lin, Charlie, and Sarah for contributing to the music. Thank you to the Carters and Brakers for their work in sight and sound. The candles are put away and I am excited about next year’s service.
Sunday’s schedule is normal for a last Sunday of the month. We have our regular Sunday School classes. It’s Church Dinner Day! My afternoon devotion will be the story of David and Goliath from 1 Samuel 17. In our morning service we begin a 6-sermon walk through the delightful little book of 2 Peter. A question for you to consider: what do you need to be able to live a godly life?
I rejoice to be able to tell you that the side-effects of my big week of chemo seem to be peaking. I look forward to getting stronger. I have a one-drug chemo on Monday, but then I am through with this regimen! I have a scan scheduled for mid-January and an appointment on the 15th to learn the results of this journey. Praise God with me and pray that God might be glorified in healing me through this.
Pray for someone you have not seen for a while. Pray for your family. Pray for our country. Pray for our church. Pray that God might be present and uplifted as we come together again this Lord’s Day.
Embracing Truth, Pastor