Tag: Pray

Luke 21:29-36 Jesus is the Son of Man: Pay Attention

Luke 21:29-36

Jesus is the Son of Man

Pay Attention

All right let’s grab our Bibles and turn with me to Luke chapter 21. As always, if you do not have a Bible, or if you have need of a Bible, please see me after the service and we can work on getting one into your hands.

This week is going to be a kind of extension on last weeks message. The passages are inextricably connected, and some would say that this week’s passages are the application of sorts on last weeks passages.

Maybe, maybe not.

But it is definitely connected, so let’s review just a bit from last week.

Jesus started talking about some of the things to come in the future. He talks about the signs and the warnings in specific regards to the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in 70 A.D as a judgment from God on the unbelieving Jewish nation.

His focus was that bad stuff is going to happen. Remember to look to me, focus on me. He says, I will return and those who believe in me, will be eternally saved, eternally forgiven and eternally alive. He says, look to me, look up for I, your redemption draws near.

Now, some of you may have been wondering after that passage, what do we do with that?” Jesus partially answered that, and he will answer it deeper in the passage this morning.

Now, as a warning, Jesus is not going to give a feel good, “Its all-good guys! Nothing bad will happen!” message. Instead, Jesus is going to deal with reality, both earthly, temporal reality and heavenly, eternal reality.

So, lets go ahead and read this morning’s passage, Luke chapter 21, verses 29 through the end of the chapter, verse 38. I’ll be reading out of the English Standard Version, and I encourage you to read along in your preferred translation, so that you see for yourself what the Word of God says.

Luke 21:29-38, the Gospel writer, inspired by the Holy Spirit, records these words of Jesus:

 

And he told them a parable: “Look at the fig tree, and all the trees. 30 As soon as they come out in leaf, you see for yourselves and know that the summer is already near. 31 So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near. 32 Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all has taken place. 33 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.


34 “But watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap. 35 For it will come upon all who dwell on the face of the whole earth. 36 But stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.”

37 And every day he was teaching in the temple, but at night he went out and lodged on the mount called Olivet. 38 And early in the morning all the people came to him in the temple to hear him.

 

 

May God Bless the Reading of His Holy Word.

 

So, Jesus starts by reiterating how we are supposed to hear and read last weeks passage. At the time, this would have been a continuation of the same conversation and discussion. And so, in the parable of the fig tree, Jesus reiterates that there will be signs, and signs mean things. Signs are a natural part of things. And specific to this conversation, when you see the signs that Jesus pointed out that we looked at last week, when you see these signs then you know that the kingdom of God is nearby.

Jesus makes it clear in the Gospels that He is here to inaugurate the Kingdom of God. And He does, Jesus like, his incarnation, God made flesh, along with his death, his resurrection and his ascension mean that Satan has been defeated and the Kingdom of God is here, at least in part.

And Jesus that this generation will not pass away until all has taken place.

Everybody in history has a different idea of what this means. And how we interpret this all depends on what the word generation means when Jesus says it.

There are three historically and biblical feasible things that generation can mean in this case.

The first is the way that we use the word generation today. This would be all people alive who were born in a specific period of time and will die within a specific period of time. We have had the Greatest Generation, the Baby Boomers, Generation X, Gen Z, Millennials, and so on.

If this is the case, then Jesus is specifically referring solely to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. and nothing else.

We have also seen the bible use generation to refer to a specific race of people. We see Jesus referring to the time of the Jews and the time of the Gentiles and so this is a valid interpretation as well. Again, in this case, the time of the Jews started ending when the Kingdom of God is brought by Jesus and completely finished when the temple is destroyed and then is transferred to the time of the gentiles.

The one that I softly lean towards is that the word means what we often see in Luke, and we also saw in the Old Testament as well, referring to a specific wicked and unrighteous group. The people on earth that God wipes out in the flood were a wicked generation. And Jesus references this generation when he overlooks and laments over Jerusalem.

No matter what, Jesus tells the disciples, Trust what I tell you. And recognize the difference between this temporal and temporary world and the troubles of heaven and earth that come with this life. Between that and the eternal, the Kingdom of God, the Word of God and the eternal life that is offered.

Heaven and Earth will pass away, but my Words will not pass away. Jesus is putting his words on par with scripture. He is calling back to Isaiah 40:8, The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.

And so, as sure as the things that he has said will take place in the next 40 years, and we see in history that they all did take place. As sure as those things will happen, so too will his second coming take place exactly how and when he says it will, and exactly how and when God has predetermined it.

And so next Jesus tells us how we are to deal with all he has said. First, there will be bad stuff happening. He’s not saying don’t worry about it, though in certain ways, he says that elsewhere, but what he is saying is that you know it’s going to happen, you know the reason for it, don’t ignore it, don’t drown yourself, don’t get depressed, don’t become despondent, don’t get discouraged and don’t get drunk.

If I don’t think about it, it won’t happen. Hakuna Matata… Drown out the pain. Those are the things Jesus says not to do. Those are who pretending it won’t happen, will be the most surprised when it does. Its like when a mouse trap springs. IF you know its coming, it still makes you jump but it’s not bad. But if you don’t know the mouse trap is there, it comes as a huge surprise.

One of the takeaways is that when all of this happens, there will not be time to react. The time to act will have already passed. There will not be time to change your minds or change sides. Once it happens, it happens.

And Jesus says, make no mistake, it will come upon all who dwell on the face of the whole earth. Don’t trick yourself that it won’t happen. Don’t not believe Jesus as if he can speak falsehoods. Don’t ignore it as if its way off in the distant future that has no effect on you.

IT will happen to all. Either wrath or grace. Either Judgment or forgiveness.

So, what should we do? Stay awake and pray. Not literally stay awake and not sleep. Be vigilant and stay focused. Be prepared. Acknowledge and know what is coming. Knowing it could be anytime. Staying watchful in all times.

This call to vigilance and prayer is universal to all Christians in all times.

Pray, pray without ceasing. Not how he phrases it, but still. Now, again, the context. The immediate setting of this is the lead up to 70 AD. He is saying to pray that you will have the strength to escape all the things that are going happen.

We saw this last week as He told his followers, as time is getting close to the siege and the surrounding of Jerusalem, don’t flee to the safety of the walled city, but flee to the mountains. And he went into what was going to happen. And its going to be bad.

Jesus does not say to pray to avoid the bad but instead to pray that you will get through it and will stand before the Son of Man. Now, God does not, as a rule, spare his people form pain, wrath, disaster, not as a group anyway. The Flood, Egypt, the wilderness, the philistines, Babylon, Assyrians, Rome and so on. And I don’t see biblical evidence of that changing. I personally don’t see God taking his people out before the world gets worse.

What we do see is that individually, as believers and followers of Jesus will be brought through all of this by Christ. He promises those who believe in and follow him eternal life, eternal safety and eternal escape from wrath and judgment. He promises that we will stand before the Son of Man on the other side of all this. That s a phrase signifying salvation at the last day, the day of judgment.

Now, the last two verses here are just simple logistics. Jesus spent all day, everyday teaching in temple. People would come very early in the morning to the temple to hear Jesus teach and speak. But in the evening, he would go back out of the city proper and stayed on the Mount of Olives.

I saw one commentator write that this helped us identify with Jesus because just as we commute to our jobs, so too did Jesus’ commute here in and out of Jerusalem. That is not the way to apply this text, just to let you know.

This world is going to end. The world as they knew it ended in 70 AD. Jesus says to stay awake, stay prepared and pray. Everything he promises has come true and will come true. Everything in history is moving forward and it is headed directly towards Jesus. He is the Alpha and Omega. He is God. He is the one that will judge the living and the dead. He is the one that we are to focus on, believe in and turn our eyes upon.

And in that vein, I want to leave us with just a couple of scriptures about Jesus and who he is.

Colossians 1:15 & 16:

 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by[f] him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.

 

Titus 2:11-14:

 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, 12 training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, 13 waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, 14 who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

 

1 John 3:2 & 3:

Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears[a] we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 3 And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

 

Let’s Pray.

 

Luke 20:1-8 Jesus is the Son of Man The Authority of Jesus

Luke 20:1-8

Jesus is the Son of Man

The Authority of Jesus

 

All right, please grab your Bibles with me and turn to Luke chapter 20. As I say often, if you do not have a Bible or you need a Bible for whatever reason, please come see me after the service and we can help get one into your hands.

So, Jesus is in Jerusalem, finally. And he is getting ready to go to the cross. Last week in our time, in the last passage, Jesus flexed his power and authority. He cleared the temple and rebuked those who were turning the temple from a house of prayer into a den of thieves.

The scribes, pharisees and principal men of the people, they were trying to get Jesus. But they didn’t have the chance or the opportunity to grab him because the people all around him were hanging on his every word. It would not have gone well for them.

They knew where he was and where he was going to be. He had been teaching in the temple during the event we looked at last week and would be teaching in the temple throughout the next couple of days.

And so, they knew where to confront Jesus. And that leads us to this morning’s passage, Luke chapter 20, verses 1 through 8. I’ll be reading out of the English Standard Version, and I encourage you to grab your preferred translation and follow along as we read the Word of God.

Luke 20:1-8, the Holy Spirit inspires Luke to record:

One day, as Jesus[a] was teaching the people in the temple and preaching the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes with the elders came up 2 and said to him, “Tell us by what authority you do these things, or who it is that gave you this authority.” 3 He answered them, “I also will ask you a question. Now tell me, 4 was the baptism of John from heaven or from man?” 5 And they discussed it with one another, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Why did you not believe him?’ 6 But if we say, ‘From man,’ all the people will stone us to death, for they are convinced that John was a prophet.” 7 So they answered that they did not know where it came from. 8 And Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”

 

May God Bless the Reading of His Word.

 

 

                    So, Jesus was teaching, on one of the days, in the temple. Just like everyone knew he would be. He was teaching God’s truth and preaching the Gospel. The chief priests, the scribes, the elders, these guys came looking for Jesus. They wanted to ask him a question. And they wanted to do it in front of all the crowds and the hangers on and everybody. They wanted everyone to hear Jesus’ answer, because no matter the answer, they had him right where they wanted him.

So, they ask, “Tell us by what authority you do these things, or who it is that gave you this authority.”

          They come at Jesus, basically saying, who do you think you are What do you think you are doing? What gives you the right? Who gave you the authority?

They were asking about the events in the temple, clearing out the money changers and the sellers. And if they were asking the question out of pure curiosity, genuinely curious, then it would be a valid question. It’s a question we all need to answer for ourselves at some point or another.

Jesus, you are doing all these miracles, you’re healing all these people, you’re clearing the temple, you are teaching these crazy, previously unheard things. Jesus, from where are you getting all this?

We had already seen previously that they said Jesus got his power from Beelzebub, essentially from Satan. And so, we know that they recognized and acknowledged that He had power. In Marks Gospel, they and the people marveled at Jesus because he spoke as one with authority. He just sounded different. He was teaching what a bunch of previous rabbis had to say. He was teaching what He said, and he was teaching it with authority.

So, they knew he was claiming some authority, they knew he wasn’t a nobody. But they weren’t ready to acknowledge who He was and by whose authority he spoke and acted on behalf of.

They were trying to discredit him. If he said by Gods authority, he would be blaspheming. And if he said no one, then he was not a credible teacher, at least not within the context of 1st century Israel.

And Jesus knew they weren’t going to accept any answer he gave them. So, he didn’t answer them. Even upon hearing the truth, we know that Romans 1 says that we all, in our unrighteousness, suppress the truth. And so, Jesus basically says that, since you won’t listen to me anyway, I’m going to answer your question with a question.

He confronts them right back, Johns Baptism, meaning his ministry, not only the physical act, was it from heaven and therefore from God? Or was it from man, was he doing it on his own?

Well, the scribes, pharisees, elders, and all of them, they had to discuss this…

They weren’t discussing it in order to discover the truth, but to figure out and coordinate their answer. They weren’t answering based on truth, but instead they were discussing how to get out of answering this question because of how the people would react.

I was originally going to say that they were trying to give the Politically Correct answer, but I don’t think that’s accurate in the way the term is used today. Today, it is used as if all things are right and permissible. It’s used that all answers are valid and true. It is also that there was right and wrong, true and untrue, but you held back from saying something if it would be offensive.

Historically, it was for politicians and leaders, giving the answer that the majority wanted you to give, no matter what you actually believed. Giving the Politically Correct answer. Doesn’t matter what the truthfully right or morally right, but what is right politically. Check the Polling before I answer. Will this answer cost my votes or supporters? I don’t care what’s right, just what will keep me elected.

In that historical sense of the word, that’s what the scribes, pharisees and elders are trying to figure out here; What is the Politically Correct answer? Which answer will keep us out of the most trouble?

Their dilemma was this. If they said that John’s ministry was from heave, that it was from God, then why didn’t they believe him, listen to him. Most succinctly, why didn’t they acknowledge that authority when He was here?

If they say John’s ministry and baptism was from man, then they are in deep trouble. First, I suspect they know its not true. Second, the people who were around, the common people, they repented and were baptized by John. They believed his ministry was from Heaven. And so, if the chief priests, elders, etc., if they discounted John’s ministry, the people would turn against them and kill them.

I believe another reason they couldn’t admit that John’s ministry was from Heaven was that John himself testified that Jesus was the Messiah, that He was the lamb of God, who came to take away the sins of the world. If they would admit John’s ministry was from Heaven, they would have to admit John’s testimony that Jesus was the Messiah.

And so, they refused to answer. They showed themselves cowards. They refused to stand on or for the truth, whether it was the truth, the Johns baptism was form Heaven, or on their truth, which was no truth at all, that John’s baptism was from man.

We talked about this recently as well. As much as we want everyone in here and everyone we know to be saved, to believe in Jesus Christ and to be at a Bible teaching, Gospel believing Church on Sunday morning, don’t fake it. IF you don’t believe something, BE HONEST. Stand up for it. Yes, be willing to receive new information and to hear new ideas and evidence, but don’t lie about what you believe and don’t fake belief in something you don’t believe.

 

 

 

These men refused to give Jesus an answer for his question and so Jesus refused to answer theirs.

Jesus didn’t refuse to answer them simply because they didn’t answer. Their inability or maybe more accurately unwillingness to answer was a view into their heart. Jesus refused to answer them because they knew the answer and they would t listen. Jesus refused to answer them because their hearts were hardened. Jesus refused to answer them because the veil had not been lifted from in front of their eyes. Jesus refused to answer them because they had not been brought from death to life.

 

If these men had asked and had approached Jesus and were genuinely seeking him and were truthfully curious, Jesus would have answered in a heartbeat.

Don’t misunderstand, Jesus won’t turn away anyone who is genuinely seeking him, anyone who turns to him, anyone who trusts in him, regardless of their questions, or their doubts.

And that’s because, in order to seek him, he has to already be calling you and he knows the end result. Your heart has to already have been changed in order for you to be seeking and responding to Jesus. And in that case, he is not going to give up on you, no matter what.

But to those who callously, or half heartedly “Search” for answers, but more accurately searching for answers that confirm their own understandings, those who are suppressing the truth in their unrighteousness, don’t expect Jesus to answer your tests and challenges.

Instead, pray. Pray for God to change your heart. Pray for God to open your eyes. Pray for God to lift the veil. Pray for God bring you out of death and into eternal, spiritual life. Pray for God to change your heart form a heart of stone to a heart of flesh. Pray to be adopted into Gods Family, as one of the children of God.

Pray that you would become one in Christ. That you would find forgiveness and freedom in Christ. That you would find everlasting rest in Christ. And that you would find a family, a church family, fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.

 

Those of us who believe, we are one in Christ. Christ and his work on the cross are what unites us. And today, being the first Sunday of the month, we are going to come to the LORDs table, we are going to celebrate communion, celebrate our unity. We are going to this with partaking of bread and juice symbolizing his body and blood and with reflection.

Now, I ask that if you are not a Christian, if you are not a follower of Jesus Christ, please just pass the elements along. There is nothing magical about it. There is nothing special about it for those who do not believe that Jesus Christ gave his broken body and his blood for the forgiveness of our sins. There will be no pressure and no judgment. Again, like we said earlier, don’t play the part, don’t pretend to be something you’re not.

Stemming from that, Communion does not save us, it does not cleanse us, it does not do anything along those lines. It has no power to keep us clean or to restore our relationship with God, only Jesus can do that. This was given to us by Jesus for the purpose of remembering. Remembering who Jesus was. Remembering what Jesus did for us. Remembering how much he loved us and remembering just how big of a deal our sin really is. It is meant to be sobering and somber, but at the same time it is meant to be a celebration.

Thirdly, we are told that we need to come and participate with the right heart. As I said, we do this in remembrance of what he gave up for us, the sacrifice he made. We do this because we remember how big of a deal our sin is, that he died on the cross for it. We need to make sure that our hearts and minds have their hearts set on what’s important and that we seek God’s forgiveness and make our relationships are right with him. In addition to a tradition becoming too important and placed above the word of God, tradition can become bad is by it losing its meaning and becoming simply a ritual. Please take some of this time to reflect on what this tradition means and to make sure that you are prepared to receive. There will never be any judgment if you choose not to participate, and just pass the plate.

Paul recounts to the church in Corinth what I now tell you as well, in 1 Corinthians 11: 23-26:

 

23 For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body which is for[e] you. Do this in remembrance of me.”[f] 25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

 

          We have individual cups that contains both the wafers, which symbolize Jesus’ broken body on the cross. His Death that pays the penalty for our sins. It also contains the juice, symbolizing the shed blood of Christ, which purchases our eternal life in Christ, through faith.

First, we will take the wafer together. Afterwards, we will take the juice together and we will be united together under the cross and blood of Jesus Christ. I will pray and we will come to the LORDs table.

 

Special: Focus On Rural Missions (FORM) Partnership in Rural Missions

Focus on Rural Ministry

October 31, 2021

 

All right! I do want you to grab your Bibles, but there’s no need to open them right away. This morning is going to be a little bit different. I’m going to speak for a few moments and then we will have a video sermon from John Adams, the Executive Director of Village Missions.

Every year, Village Missions dedicates one Sunday as a day to remind churches and their congregations about why the Mission of Village Missions is so important. This used to be called Village Missions Sunday, though it has changed in name to Focus On Rural Missions Sunday (FORM).

Now, I don’t think I need to sell anyone in this room on the benefits on focusing on Rural Ministry and bringing the Gospel to rural areas of North America. There are many in this room who can tie their faith directly to Village Missions, or AMF, or some other individual or organization that was clearly and strongly called specifically to Rural Missions.

What I want to do is preemptively piggyback on the theme of this years VM Sunday. This year’s theme is Partnership in Rural Missions.

Village Missions is built on Gospel partnership. Vm does not run churches, they do not own churches, they do not plant churches or anything like it. They partner with the local church. This is straight from the VM website:

Village Missions places spiritually qualified missionary-pastors in churches at the invitation of local rural communities. These missionary-pastors serve in a full-time capacity, preaching the Word and loving the people. We support the leadership through prayer as well as financial and other logistical assistance.

 

They are in partnership with these local churches to Equip the church, to equip the saints to do the work of the ministry. This partnership is one of the biggest things in determining if VM will partner with a field. They are not here to compete with other Gospel sharing, Bible teaching churches. They are dedicated to ensuring that every community has a Gospel presence.

One way it was described to me, and ill adapt it to us, really stuck with me. IF our church, if Bangor Community Church were not here, many of us would travel to Oroville or Gridley or Palermo or Rackerby or wherever and would commute to a different church. But would a non-Christian go out of their way, get up early on a Sunday morning, drive all the way to Oroville and go to a church where they probably don’t know anyone and where they worship a God that the non-Christian doesn’t believe in. Now, with our church here, we have seen it happen and some of us have been that one who sees this church day in and day out and knows someone who goes here and thinks about it a long while and finally decides, “You know, its right here, right in town, its not really out of my way. Yeah, I’ll go.”

These are the communities that Village Missions partners with. To Equip our church, as a church body and as individuals to do the Work of the Ministry. Ministry as individuals that people know go to this church. And Ministry as a church to make ourselves presentable and welcoming to those who would come.

Now, John Adams is going to talk about some of the different ways that we can partner together to help bring the Gospel to rural communities and will preach mostly out of Paul’s letter to the Philippians. I want to share some of the practical ways that VM offers resources and some real-life ways that partnerships through VM have impacted lives.

Contenders Discipleship Initiative, CDI. Some of you already know about this and some of you started to take advantage of this program before we shut down for COVID.

The Contenders Discipleship Initiative (CDI) is a two-year program offered by Village Missions to equip Christians for ministry within their local church and to prepare those who are called for full-time ministry as missionary pastors.

The CDI program is tuition-free and involves two components:

  1. Biblical Education
  2. Mentoring for Ministry

 

 

The Way that we went about it was much more casual than it sounds here, but the goal is the same. To equip us to know our Bible more and to know how to know our Bible more. Taken as developed, completed these 6 courses is the equivalent to going to Bible school. This is offered for free, not just to VM churches, but to anyone who wants to get to know their Bible better.

When we were doing CDI here, we got about halfway through the first class, Hermeneutics, How to Study the Bible. We are going to start the classes back up again in January, for those who have been asking. The first class, the first half of it, since we have already gone over it, we will go through it slightly accelerated, a refresher if you already took the first half. And if you are interested in coming, we will be going through the first half again so that you won’t be left behind.

 

Another resource that I recommend, a website VM put together, vmchurches.org. This is a listing of all of the Village Missions churches throughout Canada and the US. IT lists the missionary serving there, it has addresses and services times and sometimes more information about their church and/or congregation. I’ve seen this be useful in a number of ways.

IF you are going on vacation and want to know if there is a bible based, Gospel preaching church in the area, you can look that location up on the website and they will let you know where the closest VM church is. This also works if you are moving and looking for a new church near your new home.

On this site, the missionary can also provide links to the church websites, Facebook pages, Twitter handles, and audio or video of sermons from the church. I personally enjoy, on those rare occasions when I have some quiet time, to go listen to another Village Missionary’s sermons. IT helps me stay connected to what others are doing throughout the country.

Each rural community is different. Many have the same or similar success or obstacles, different local backgrounds, traditions, history, it’s a completely different mission field.

The connection, the partnerships between VM churches can have wonderful affects and benefits.  I was counseling one gentleman, we met together a number of times. He was moving up to the Redding area. Redding is one of those areas that, along with many faithful Bible teaching churches, there are some very big, very prominent, very heretical churches as well. I was able to show him the VM churches website so he could look for himself, and because I knew some of the pastors in those VM churches, I was able to recommend some of them specifically.

Another way that the partnership and connection between fellow VM churches worked was just the last few months with the VM church in Greenville. Many of you have been there or been through that town. Hope and I met the Hendrix’s this summer at the Annual Staff conference. When the fire ripped through and burned the town down, including the church and parsonage, we have names and faces to put with the stories of what happened up there. Hope was able to talk to Janice and see what it was that was needed right now, what would be needed soon and what the specific prayer requests were. We also have been able to hear the answers to those prayers as well. That happened because of your guy’s generous hearts, your knowledge of what it means for a fire to rip through town, some of you lost your homes and so you know exactly how to pray and some of those practical needs that aren’t thought of till much, much later. It happened because of you guys and because of the connection and partnership of two Village Missionaries and their churches.

One of things that ministry has taught me that I absolutely didn’t know practically at the beginning, though I would have verbally affirmed it. We can’t do this on our own. God has created us for fellowship, for community and for partnership.

We are lucky enough to live in places that are, unfortunately, sometimes easily forgotten. But God has not forgotten. It is easy to see all the things going on in this world and specifically in this country where it seems like the church is losing, people are running away form God, rejecting him in all that they do. But God is working, he is moving mightily and the rural, forgotten places in this country are a big part of that.