Posts by Gary Johnson

Greetings beloved family of Common Ground, It has been a while since I’ve last written to my beloved church family and thus, I felt it was needed and necessary to encourage all of you in your love and devotion to our Trinitarian God.  Our strange times that we presently live in continue to lure the church into lazy stupor.  We must as a people of God stay diligent, stay connected, stay in love with Jesus.  Barna Research has recently come…

Greetings beloved family of Common Ground, I‘ve been thinking much about the sin of racism.  It seems as if everyone presently is writing, posting, opinionizing, taking a stand and declaring their ideas and views on the ugly sin of racism and what needs to be done about it and what is the presumed cure for such a heinous crime.  And what I find interesting are those who are supposedly against racism spew forth some of the same hatred, bigotry, prejudice,…

Greetings beloved family of Common Ground, Lord God you know the condition of a person’s heart.  You see us and know us exactly as we are, as we are all laid bare before your precise and righteous judgment.  You know the evil that lurks within the hearts of all people, for there is no one righteous, no not one, no one understands, no one seeks for God, all have turned aside, together they have become worthless, no one does good,…

Greetings beloved family of Common Ground, This Covid Connection is going to be about some upcoming news and events and information that we as a leadership team are quite excited about.  This coming Sunday at 10:00 AM is our First-Ever, Best-Ever Outdoor Service.  Pack a few lawn chairs for you and your family.  We will be parking 6 ft apart and you will be shown where to park by a very friendly face, that looks a lot like Pat Moore,…

Greetings beloved family of Common Ground, The sun is out!  The weather is warming up!  Our garden is planted!  There is just something special about the change of season in Minnesota.  More opportunities to get outside and enjoy God’s creation during this Covid-19 overdrive.  There is also something much more special . . . like a church coming together again in sweet personal public worship and fellowship! What has been on my mind as of late and most likely due…

Greetings beloved family of Common Ground, Well this is “Covid Connection” number eight and this Sunday will be eight weeks since we’ve met together in real live personal fellowship within our very much missed sanctuary.  Yet in some ways it seems like eight years.  I’m starting to sense from many that this quarantine as the saying goes is just plain, getting old.  And my prayer is that sooner than later we will be able to come back together in sweet…

Greetings beloved family of Common Ground, To be able to pray, talk and commune with the One True God of the galaxies is beyond comparison.  To be able to pray and connect with the Lord of the universe is way over my pay scale.  To consider that He, the Creator God, who by His mere breath spoke the planets, the stars, the sun and moon and all of earth’s variable creatures into existence, desires to have a personal relationship with…

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…

Greetings beloved family of Common Ground, I so miss all of you, in person, in public, flesh and blood, real human togetherness. I pray no one is getting comfortable in living as we are today.  I hope no one is getting too relaxed or even lazy in this unreality church scene today.  Beloved, virtual church is not virtually church.  What we are doing is trying to stay connected as best we can during this quarantine.  Pray that God would soon…

Greetings beloved family of Common Ground, Strange times indeed.  It’s hard to comprehend that when your beloved mother or grandmother dies you cannot attend the funeral.  And it wasn’t because you were sick or an invalid or didn’t have the money to travel or you were out of the country on vacation or you were on a large floating ship as a navy pilot in the Indian Ocean.  No, you were healthy and able and wanting to be present at…