Church Update and Encouragement
Church Reopening Prayer Request:
Please pray for wisdom as church leaders seek God’s will and actively consider plans to safely reopen. We want to reopen church with our members’ spiritual, emotional, and physical health in consideration.
Dear Church Family,
The Apostle Paul faced many physical difficulties in his life.
Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; 26 on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; 27 in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.. 2 Cor 11:24–27
These included mental and emotional stresses.
And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches 2 Cor 11:28
And yet, Paul would later write in Philippians.
11 Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. 12 I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. 13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me. Philippians 4:11-13
Paul “bounced back” from life’s adversities through Jesus’ grace and strength. There is a word for this, “resilient.”
An online Oxford definition of resilient is the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties.
We have faced many challenges in the past year, and none of us know what we will be facing this year. I know some ministry friends in Texas face another kind of adversity that has shut down power, water, and a burst water pipe damaged their church facilities. Another ministry friend in Portland was out of power for two days because of “freezing rain.” Pray and encourage those we know in impacted areas to be resilient through Christ! Pray we at BACBC will be resilient.
Blessings,
Pastor Steve