by Shaun Murray

Over the next months our newsletter will be written by one of our elder candidates as a way for him to develop his ministry to the church.

Brothers and sisters, as we go into March there is one thing that keeps ringing in my ears and in my mind, something that I believe we all need. Each and every one of us has been hit on all sides the past two years. The trials we have experienced with Covid, the ups and downs of ever-changing policies, strained marriages, war overseas, children at home, friends and family who have died, politics that are divided as ever, pain and suffering–physical, mental, and emotional. What keeps us going? What can provide the hope and joy and life and PEACE that we all so desperately need?

It is this verse that rings in my ears and mind during this time: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God” (2 Cor. 1:3-4 ESV). What a beautiful and majestic verse, a verse that calls us out of ourselves, our navel-gazing and inward focus, and lifts our eyes to our great and mighty God. Our God, who is sovereign in his love and grace, who takes our fears and anxieties and lays them upon His most beautiful Son. His Son, who, for the joy set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is now seated at the right hand of God. He is there ruling through all our afflictions and trials, our High Priest who sympathizes with our weaknesses and responds with lavish love through our Comforter the Holy Spirit, who dwells within us. I want to reflect on a few things that should help us during this time.

1. God is sovereign – Our society has given and will continue to promise the latest and greatest technology to end the pandemic and bring life back to normal. Maybe some of these things have worked or will work, but we must remember at all times that our hope does not rest in the latest technology or thing that science creates. It rests in our all-powerful, sovereign God who has created all things. This God spoke the world into existence. Spoke us into creation by the word of his mouth. Created our bodies, our food, our world, and created them Good. When the world is unstable God says, “Come to me, trust in me, seek me.” He says, “I am here for you, each individual whom I have set my love upon.” What shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword, or Covid, or cyberattack, or war? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. We must trust this great God during this time. We must look to him as our ultimate hope, our ultimate comfort, our ultimate peace. On Christ the solid Rock we stand. If you are afraid to come to church, afraid of getting Covid, if you feel isolated and alone, God calls you to him. God says, “Come, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Isaiah 40:29-31 says, “He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up on wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.” We must band together during this time, meet together, hear the Word together, and encourage one another about our great and awesome God. 

2. Jesus sympathizes with our weakness – We have a Lord Jesus Christ who never stops pursuing, never gives up, and is always there with his abundant love. If Christ has come and has lived on this earth, humbling himself; if he has experienced suffering and pain of every sort, how will he not be there to hear our prayers and provide comfort in all our afflictions and trials? How could he who did not even spare his own Son—he gave his Son up!—not graciously give us all things and work all things for our good? Jesus is the good shepherd who pursues his sheep, faces the wolves, takes on their bites, and keeps pursuing until we are safe and secure in his fold. He is our Lord and Savior who is always there saying, “Your burden is too much for you to bear; throw it upon me. Take your burdens, your pains, your sufferings, and throw them upon me. For I am gentle and lowly, and you shall find rest for your weary souls.”

3. Our Hope as Christians – God has promised us an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in Heaven for us, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith. Read that again; stop and meditate on each of those words. This is your destiny; this is your life. Though our outer body and self are wasting away, our new self is being renewed daily. In this do you rejoice? In life eternal with our Triune God, in peace and rest and joy and life ever-increasing? In a knowledge and love for God and each other? All of eternity, ever-increasing, given Life upon Life. Oh, the joys that are set before us as we endure the trials and sufferings of this present evil age. Look to this hope. As Paul says, set your minds on things above where our Lord Jesus Christ is, seated at the right hand of God; set your minds on things above and not on things of this earth! For you have died to your old self, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, you will also appear with him in glory. This week turn off the news, turn off your phones, turn off all the things seeking to grab your attention. Stop and meditate on our Great Salvation, on God’s promises, on our Lord Jesus Christ, look to him at this time and find his peace that surpasses all understanding to guard your hearts and minds.

Beloved, my brothers and sisters, this is the Good News. Christ has come to bring salvation, salvation from fear, distress, anger, anxiety, depression, and lies. This is our God of all Comfort; may he comfort you so you may be a Comfort to others!

In Christ,
Shaun