Greetings beloved family of Common Ground,
How are you all doing? Between you and me, I’m struggling somewhat. This quarantine now for over a month is starting to wear on me. It’s not that this abnormal living is causing me to lose my faith and trust in Christ or that my prayer life is suffering or reading the Bible isn’t as enjoyable as ever or that the gospel isn’t front and center. And yes, I know that God is ultimately in control of this pandemic. And yes, God wasn’t caught off guard by it nor has He or will He ever abandon His church during any crisis situation; be it persecution, war, famine, hurricane, flood, tsunami, earthquake or pandemic.
But I think that God would agree that this is abnormal for His beloved church as we see laid out before us in His Holy Living Word. God desires for us to come together; He expects us to gather together. And where God is present to the greatest degree is when the church gathers corporately in heartfelt worship, prayer and Word. We are to be a gathered covenant community, a unified body of Christ who loves and worships the One True God supremely and one another extremely. For just as the body is one and has many parts and all the parts of that body though many are one body – so also is Christ (1 Corinthians 12:12).
Let us never forget, even though we are separate and apart during this strange time, yet positionally and objectively we are truly one in Christ! And God has called us to build up one another, encourage one another, edify one another, pray for one another, strengthen one another, equip one another and most importantly love one another. We are to seek, to strive to excel in building up the church (1 Corinthians 14:12).
Thus we are continuing to seek to excel in figuring out the best way possible in doing everything we can during this quarantine to see our church of Common Ground go deeper and further in their love, walk and faith in Jesus Christ. Stay encouraged my beloved church!
Because we are a body and every member in that body is valued and important, if you should have any ideas that you think would help in the building up and the spiritual growth of our church family, then by all means contact one of us elders.
I hope to see you all next Wednesday at 7:00 PM for our second-ever, best-ever Zoom prayer time. I lovingly challenge you to try out this new technology and not be intimidated by it. Make this prayer time a priority, besides what else do you have going while stuck at home that could be better than praying together as we lift up the name of Jesus?
Please send me any prayer requests no matter how big or small so that we as a family of Common Ground can lift each other up in holy, heartfelt, God-glorifying prayer!
Stay Safe! Stay Connected! Stay the Course in Jesus!!!
Making Much of Jesus!!! Pastor Gary