Amelia Baptist Church

Pastor Neil: 8/5 Update

A PASTORAL LETTER TO MY DEAR FRIENDS:

“I lift up my eyes to the hills.  From where does my help come?  My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth” (Ps. 121:1-2).

Six months ago the pandemic intruded on the peace of our lives.  And we are all aware that it has hit close to home. However, we know that our Lord remains unchanged in His power and grace.  While we remain vigilant we are reminded to respond to fear and distress with the confidence of Psalm 46:7, “The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.”

I saw a video about what we know about the virus.  It was a segment on a desert with a tumbleweed rolling along.  The point was, “the populous knows very little.”  We have a tendency to listen to what the ‘experts’ say, and (guess what!) they don’t agree. We don’t know what to believe!  Having said the obvious, let us mention what we do know.

  1. “The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.”  That’s a great start.
  2. We should take this health situation very seriously, for yourself and others.
  3. We should look for opportunities to love and serve others when possible.  While being consistent with health requirements, remember the call of Philippians 2:4 “Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.”
  4. We should continue to pray. Pray for our civil leaders, first responders, the vulnerable, medical personnel, school admins and teachers, parent who are making agonizing decisions about school, business owners whose livelihood is being threatened, and the employees who are without work. Let us pray for God to awaken this nation to its need to embrace Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord so that many will be saved.  Thank you for your continued prayers for your church leaders as we seek to make wise and godly decisions and to be able to respond to ministry needs that will arise.
  5. We should be prepared for gospel conversations with our unsaved friends.

Last Sunday there were 57 at 9 a.m. and just under 70 at 10:45 a.m. and 60 families viewed online during the service.  If you are still tuning in online, thank you for your continued faithfulness.

Just a reminder: a smaller room on campus is available to you during the sermon for your convenience.   We continue to enjoy our singing in the courtyard. The kids love playing together on the playground.

Blessings,

Pastor Neil