“The Lord Himself goes before you and will be with you, He will never leave you
Deuteronomy 31:8
or forsake you.”
Dear Friends in Christ,
I hope you had a wonderful Christmas in spite of the bitter cold temperatures. We wound up canceling Christmas Eve Service because of it, along with the problem of some frozen pipes. It was a matter of safety with the wind chill at –11. We did have Christmas Day service since Christmas Day was a Sunday this year and the weather was better. We celebrated the birth of Christ that morning, but we will celebrate it again on Sunday, January 8th at our 10:15am service. A lot of preparation and planning went into the service and it would be a shame to just let it go. Hopefully we can pull everything back together and have our Christmas Eve Service after all.
December was a great month of giving. The Social Ministry Committee and the generosity of the Congregation in giving gifts to nursing home residents, Veterans in need and local families. Christ was truly honored and we were all blessed as we celebrated His birth this year.
Now as we go forth into the coming year, let be in knowing, as Moses told Joshua and the people of old, that the Lord goes before us and is with us. It made Joshua strong and courageous as he took over for Moses and took the people into the Promised Land. They were leaving the past behind and moving into the future in faith and so are we. God proved that He was with us when Jesus came. They called Him Emmanuel, which in Hebrew means “God with us.”
Through the Holy Spirit Christ is with us today in the life of every believer. No matter what challenges we face in 2023, and there will be challenges, we can live by faith and not by fear. Perhaps faith is something we take for granted at times, but with the Lord we have nothing to fear.
I pray you have a good year and may God richly bless you.
Pastor Dan