Devotions with Pastor Fran

Dear Church Family: 

As I watched all the riots and unrest in our country I couldn’t help but wonder how much of this anger stems from everyone being fearful about the future of America as we once knew it because of Covid -19.  People have lost their jobs, have been made to stay at home, been forced or enabled to work from home, homeschool their children, wear masks, and disinfect everything constantly. We have been made to stop eating at restaurants, stop going to the gym, stop seeing their families members, stop being able to be with sick family members, stop being able to attend loved one’s funerals, stop graduates from being able to enjoy graduation services with family and friends, stop going to church by closing church doors and the list goes on. It has caused many to change their entire lifestyles.

Although Covid-19 has caused a lot of good changes in lifestyles such as having more time for families, slowing down and reflecting on the things we just take for granted and even has made more people get into God’s Word; there is a an underlying feeling of unrest.

I’m sure many wonder the same things as I do…when is this all going to end? Is this really for real?  What is the real truth?  Is this the end times?  Is the rapture going to happen? Is this really just a political stunt? Or is God trying to get our attention because the end is coming like a thief in the night? 

When I think that it could be the coming of the end or close to the rapture I think of the Left Behind Series and it terrifies me to think what it will be like for those who are left behind.  It makes me more determined to live my life in such a way that I will be a strong influence on those I come in contact with.  That I will develop a stronger prayer life so that I can have a new boldness that will enable me to warn my family members and friends and acquaintances that they need to get their lives straightened out with Jesus before it’s too late!  That He is the only way, the truth and the life! That NO ONE comes to the Father but through the saving grace of Jesus Christ.

This whole Covid-19  has certainly caused a lot of unrest and anger which is being played out across America.   Our country has been and still is becoming very wicked and evil. We have pushed God out of so many things in our country. We took God out of our schools and out of our court systems.  Wrong has become right.  Lies have become truth. Babies are being slaughtered by the thousands every day because it has been deemed an essential business. Government officials are more corrupt than ever.  It seems as though we are experiencing what the Apostle Paul talked about in Romans 1:18-32.

God’s Wrath Against Sinful Humanity – Romans 1:18-32
 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.  Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools  and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.
 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones.  In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.
 Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips,  slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents;  they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

Doesn’t that describe our world today?

BUT praise God there is hope! 
In 2 Chronicles 7:14 God give us a promise.   
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If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

We as Followers of Christ need to humble ourselves and get on our knees and pray for our country.  Pray for our president and pray for our government officials.  Pray for our police officers and our law enforcement.  Pray for God to open hearts and for people to turn from their wicked ways and pray for God to heal our land!  If America ever needed the prayers of God’s people, it’s now.  Will you join me in making it a top priority to pray for America and for the lost and dying world we are living in?

God Bless,
Pastor Fran