"Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain."
James 5:7
Do you remember 2020? We all started with such high hopes. We were going to get the building project going again. The church's transition from a pastor with a decades long tenure to a new pastor was progressing. And then Covid-19 hit us like a freight train! It started out as "15 days to flatten the curve." Fifteen months later and California students still had not returned to public schools. People were furloughed from work, churches quit meeting in person, wildfires threatened our homes, and it seemed like we would never get started on the building again.
Here we are three years later and Covid is in the rearview mirror. God has been good. We just had to be patient. The church is growing, giving is up, people are being saved & baptized, and the new building is (finally) nearing completion. Patience is the ability to joyfully and optimistically continue to work on God's behalf even when it seems like nothing is happening. We must remember that God is in control. With faith and patience, we will reap the rewards of our efforts on God's behalf.
Pastor Scott Dean
God has been very good to us. We have a tendency to focus on the negative and notice all the things that we lack rather than to see all the gifts that God has given us.
When we experience the vanity that is life without God, do we return to the God who loves us?
Rest comes from rejecting responsibilities that God does not intend for us and accepting God's yoke for us.
The answer to America's social ills is God's grace and Christian love.