March 10th, 2023
by Steve Marshall
by Steve Marshall
March 13, 2020
Happy Friday Church Family: Well, things have escalated pretty quickly in the USA including our small, somewhat rural Pender County. As believers, we have the opportunity to live in fear and panic or to engage our faith that has been given to us by the King of this Kingdom, Jesus Christ. Recall the last several weeks as we have exposited Luke 7-8. Jesus shows us that He is the God over winds, evil spirits, blindness, sickness, plagues and death. Jesus is the same today as He was back in the New Testament times (Hebrews 13:8) when He was showing His Kingship over all creation including disease. So, Jesus has dominion over COVID-19 and He chooses not to restrain it… yet. Can your mind allow your faith to accept the fact that Jesus can stop this pandemic but choses not to do so as of today?
We are told throughout Scripture that even though we have been made a child of God through faith and a fellow heir of the Kingdom of God with Christ, we will not be free from hardships, sufferings, persecution and loss. And yet, we are promised that in our weakness is when He is the strongest (2 Corinthians 12:9-10). In our weakness let us run to Jesus in His all-sufficient power and strength. What a powerfully hope-making promise! We are citizens of the Kingdom of God, under the rule of a loving and caring King who wants the best for us and yet He keeps us in the middle of disasters and plagues and wars for Him to show us His power and strength. How does He do this? Well there are an infinite number of answers to “how” He makes His power visible in our lives. Let's just dwell on one reason for a moment.
For believers who have thrown themselves on the mercy of Christ, we are promised by God that even though our outer self, what we see, is wasting away, our inner-self is being renewed moment by moment as we endure this pandemic called COVID-19. One of the Lord’s purposes of this “light, momentary” COVID-19 pandemic is God actively preparing for us an “eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.” Can you just imagine what an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison is like? Well the answer is, No, not really, because it is beyond comparison. Most things God does for us are beyond comparison and we will not fully experience the glory and weight of His blessings until we are in His presence.
The promise of God that we have as believers is that during every single moment of sickness and suffering within this pandemic, our loving God is personally seeing to it that He is making an unfathomable, unthinkable, incomparable glory that we will receive because of that suffering. His power is made visible by taking our suffering and making it into an eternal weight of glory that we will not fully understand until we are in HIs presence for eternity. We will experience a small glimpse of that glory during our stay on this earth and we will definitely rejoice in that glory to its fullest extent in eternity. So, don’t look to the things that are seen for hope and strength but let us fix our sight and our heart on the things that are not seen for hope and strength for those things are eternal. Church, none of this is meaningless, it is for an eternal weight of glory for you. Church, faithfully applying one Scripture like 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, creates great hope and peace and really does fight a mind of panic and terror that is not to be a part of our walk with Christ. Let us be a people who rest in the promises of Christ and are absent of panic and despair. Proclaim the hope that is available in Christ Jesus, the only hope that is eternal.
I look forward to worshipping together, this Sunday, our Savior Jesus Jesus who is beyond compression. - Steve
2 Corinthians 4:16-18 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
We are told throughout Scripture that even though we have been made a child of God through faith and a fellow heir of the Kingdom of God with Christ, we will not be free from hardships, sufferings, persecution and loss. And yet, we are promised that in our weakness is when He is the strongest (2 Corinthians 12:9-10). In our weakness let us run to Jesus in His all-sufficient power and strength. What a powerfully hope-making promise! We are citizens of the Kingdom of God, under the rule of a loving and caring King who wants the best for us and yet He keeps us in the middle of disasters and plagues and wars for Him to show us His power and strength. How does He do this? Well there are an infinite number of answers to “how” He makes His power visible in our lives. Let's just dwell on one reason for a moment.
For believers who have thrown themselves on the mercy of Christ, we are promised by God that even though our outer self, what we see, is wasting away, our inner-self is being renewed moment by moment as we endure this pandemic called COVID-19. One of the Lord’s purposes of this “light, momentary” COVID-19 pandemic is God actively preparing for us an “eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.” Can you just imagine what an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison is like? Well the answer is, No, not really, because it is beyond comparison. Most things God does for us are beyond comparison and we will not fully experience the glory and weight of His blessings until we are in His presence.
The promise of God that we have as believers is that during every single moment of sickness and suffering within this pandemic, our loving God is personally seeing to it that He is making an unfathomable, unthinkable, incomparable glory that we will receive because of that suffering. His power is made visible by taking our suffering and making it into an eternal weight of glory that we will not fully understand until we are in HIs presence for eternity. We will experience a small glimpse of that glory during our stay on this earth and we will definitely rejoice in that glory to its fullest extent in eternity. So, don’t look to the things that are seen for hope and strength but let us fix our sight and our heart on the things that are not seen for hope and strength for those things are eternal. Church, none of this is meaningless, it is for an eternal weight of glory for you. Church, faithfully applying one Scripture like 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, creates great hope and peace and really does fight a mind of panic and terror that is not to be a part of our walk with Christ. Let us be a people who rest in the promises of Christ and are absent of panic and despair. Proclaim the hope that is available in Christ Jesus, the only hope that is eternal.
I look forward to worshipping together, this Sunday, our Savior Jesus Jesus who is beyond compression. - Steve
2 Corinthians 4:16-18 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
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