From the Pastor
In the past four months our congregation has been visited by death and disease like it has seldom been before. The sudden deaths or David and Carolyn Stewart just about two months apart, the passing of Mike Fuentes, the deaths of the mothers and fathers of several of our members, heartbreaking diagnoses of disease and injury, hospitalizations and surgeries have all driven us to our knees before our Lord.
It is in times like these that I take comfort in Psalm 90, the only psalm in the Bible specifically attributed to Moses.
“My Lord, you have been our home forever and ever. You were God before the mountains were born, before the earth and the world were made. You have always been and will always be God! You bring people into this world,
and you change them into dust again. To you, a thousand years is like yesterday, like a few hours in the night. Our life is like a dream that ends when morning comes. We are like grass that grows and looks so fresh in the morning, but in the evening it is dry and dying. We live about 70 years or, if we are strong, 80 years. But most of them are filled with hard work and pain. Then, suddenly, the years are gone, and we fly away.” (Psalm 90:1-6, 10)
What has happened in our midst is not unusual, Moses says. God is sovereign over our lives and over our death. He is completely in control and in His time according to His purposes He takes us home. We are also reminded that life is short and precious. As we know too well it can end in a moment.
In verse 12 Moses offers up a short prayer to God, one that I hope you will use in these difficult days. “Teach us how short our lives are so that we can become wise.” May God teach us to be wise with our time. May we spend it with family and friends, and with those who need to know our Savior. May God teach us to be wise with our things. May we use them to help and encourage others. David and Carolyn Stewart were so open with their home it amazed most of us. God taught me much through their example. May God teach us to be wise with our lives and invest them for God’s kingdom. That is a wise course to take in these difficult days,
You are in my prayers,
RB