Friends, the Corona Virus has made me keenly aware of how God has kept us connected before the pandemic. What do I mean? Well, take Colossians chapter 2 verses 1-5 for example:
“ 1 For I want you to know how much I am struggling for you, and for those in Laodicea, and for all who have not seen me face to face. 2 I want their hearts to be encouraged and united in love, so that they may have all the riches of assured understanding and have the knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ himself, 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. 4 I am saying this so that no one may deceive you with plausible arguments. 5 For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, and I rejoice to see your morale and the firmness of your faith in Christ.”
You may not realize this, but most of the letters you read, especially from Paul in the New Testament are from a huge distance to Paul’s original audience. Paul came to a city, introduced Jesus to people; then these new followers of Jesus organized themselves into a group of people who followed Jesus, called the “church”. Then Paul moved onto to ‘start’ new churches in other far regions & countries. Paul being a good pastor would send letters from a distance. Paul’s letters would: encourage, teach, and challenge these churches even though he was not ‘physically’ present.
So now here we are in the time of a pandemic where we are physically separated from our church family. But yet, we see in Paul’s words to the Colossians’ “For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, and I rejoice to see your morale and the firmness of your faith in Christ. ”
Friends we may be absent from our church family at the moment, but we have access through the Spirit of God to be with each other in a variety of ways.
So the following ‘letters’ and brief thoughts are a group effort. We want to encourage you and keep you connected with the First Pres Church Family. And what better way to do that then ‘read’ and be encouraged by your fellow church members and friends who are connecting with Scripture and feeling inspired to share with you!
We will release a post to you every few days, so keep this link bookmarked (www.fpcgh.org/blog). We will note in the weekly newsletter that a new post has been released.
May these reflections & short posts be a way to keep you connected to God. We as the church body may be ‘scattered’. But we are gathered together by God the Spirit. This may be new to us, but it is part of Jesus’ power and presence to teach us how he is with us in various ways. From all this we will see how we are still together in and through Jesus…
Thanks so much. Be encouraged and blessed by the great words from our church family to you!
Are you with me? (I heard you!)
Enjoy,
Pastor Bryant
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