FROM PASTOR TIM:
Thanks to all of RVC for the grace so many of you extended to me as I prepare for a little breather in the coming weeks. I will be available yet this week, including Friday, and next week Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. You have no idea how encouraging it was for me to receive such supportive, understanding feedback.
We have very good Elders that have eyes for the long-term health of me, my family and most importantly the ministry of RVC. Give thanks to God for strong, biblical, caring and genuine believers who serve as our Elders.
Sunday’s message on Pascal and Jesus’s teaching on both hearing AND obeying His teachings hit home with many. How could it not? I hope that all of you will take my challenge from Sunday to read through the three chapters of Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5 -7) and note those areas where we have clearly heard His instruction, but are lax in obeying.
If you are like me, it will be a sobering exercise. And where the Scripture convicts us, cutting through marrow and joints (Hebrews 4:12 – worth reviewing!), God creates room for spiritual growth. If we want to grow, we have to allow Scripture to push us out of our comfort zones and change both our thinking and actions.
In the United States, there have been 249 mass shootings in 2019. The next closest nation has had……3. Then four nations have had one. The rest of the industrialized world has seen 0. There is something massively wrong and few are able to put their finger on it. I can’t explain it. I have ideas, but just ideas.
We know that Jesus is the solution, and too many have failed to even consider Pascal’s wager. Few care whether there is a heaven or a hell. And maybe that’s the problem. So, ask your unbelieving friends what they have to lose by following Jesus and see what they have to say. Respect their response and see if God will take you into a conversation that starts down the path of eternity.
Mourning these horrible losses with you, but with hope for Jesus’ return,
Pastor Tim