“Look to the LORD and his strength” (1 Chronicles 16:11).

Facebook reminded me that a year ago on this day I was on the shores of Galilee with about twenty people from the Little Church on the Prairie and Lakewoodgrace.

How our world has changed in one year. Although this was only a year away the world of November 2019 feels like a world away and eons ago.

I try to stay positive. There is still much to be thankful for.

• My family and I are healthy and doing well.
• The people of the Little Church and Lakewoodgrace are doing well. There are many congregations struggling, but the Little Church and Lakewoodgrace is still doing well under the circumstances.

But so much has changed. With the Thanksgiving holidays and Christmas right around the corner, many of us will not be spending time with friends and family due to the spike in Covid-19 cases in our community and our country. This continues to be a hard time.

For this reason, it is even more important to start our day with God. More than ever, we need a daily reorientation and recalibration to God’s will and vision for our world. There is too much in our world that can get us down. We need a daily reminder of who we are because of who God is.

So, “Look to the LORD and his strength.”

God can do more with our surrender than we can do with our control.

We are not alone in this world, to make sense of our rapidly changing world on our own. God is with us, always.

You are God’s beloved. You are not alone. God loves you. God wants what is best for you. God knows best what is best for us. Trust in him.

• 

“Not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching” (Hebrews 10:25).

Online worship.

Meh. I know. It was cool for the first couple of weeks.

I know. Online worship is not the same thing as gathering in person as a congregation.

In light of the spiking Covid-19 cases in our area and around the country, I don’t see the Little Church and Lakewoodgrace opening up for full worship anytime soon.

Here’s the thing about worship. Worship is not something we can choose to opt out of. If God is God, if Jesus is our Savior, if we are Christians, worshiping God is one of the main things Christians do. We worship because God calls us to worship. We worship because worship is one of God’s tools to touch our hearts and lives. We worship because it is one of the best testimonies to a world who doesn’t know who God is.

As Jesus was entering into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked Jesus to order the disciples to stop. Listen to Jesus’ response: “I tell you, if these were silent, the stones will cry out” (Luke 19:40). Praising and worshiping is what we are called to do.

I know online worship is not the same as in person worship. But until a cure and a vaccine for covid-19 is available, this is what we’ve got.

Let me close with a story I came across on social media.

A lady went to her pastor and said, “I won’t be attending church anymore.”

“May I ask why?” the pastor inquired.

She said, “I see people on their cell phones during the service, some are gossiping, some just arent’ living right, they are all just hypocrites.

The pastor got silent and said, “Ok. But can I ask you to do something for me before you make your final decision?”

She said, “What’s that?”

He said, “Take a glass of water and walk around the church two times and don’t let any water fall out of the glass.”

She said, “Yes, I can do that.” She came back and said, “It’s done.”

He asked her three questions:

1. Did you see anyone on their phone?
2. Did you see anyone gossiping?
3. Was anyone living wrong?

She said, “I didn’t see anything because I was so focused on this glass so the water wouldn’t fall.”

He told her, “When you come to church, you should be just that focused on God so that you don’t fall. That’s why Jesus said, ‘Follow me.’ He did not say follow Christians. Don’t let your relationship with God be determined by how others relate with God. Let it be determined by how focused you are on God.”

So, friends, when it comes to online worship what are you focused on?

“Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life” (Proverbs 4:23).

2020 is full of surprises! As far as I am concerned, I would be perfectly fine with no more surprises for the rest of the year.

When we’re faced with perplexing and confusing situations, how are Christians to lead? What is the basis by which we ought to live our lives?

Something I hear a lot in such situations is “Go with your heart. Go with your gut feeling. Go with what feels right to you.”

STOP!!! That’s terrible advice. That is a recipe for terrible decisions.

The heart has no business leading. The heart is something that is to be kept and guarded. The heart is not something that should lead. The heart is something that should be led.

The word for “keep” is also translated as “guard” in the NIV. The Hebrew word mishar actually means to imprison, jail, watch, keep, or guard. The sense is that the heart is something that must be watched and kept under control because the heart is unreliable.

Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is devious above all else; it is perverse – who can understand it?” Look at the words God uses to describe our hearts: devious and perverse. You see the heart is devious and perverse because it has no boundaries and no morals. The heart doesn’t care that you made a solemn vow to God and your spouse. The heart doesn’t care about right or wrong. When the heart feels tenderness for someone other than your spouse, it tells you to go for it. The heart says, it feels so right it must be right.

NO!!!

The heart is to be guarded and kept under locks because it must be led. Christians cannot allow the heart to lead.

Then what is to guide us? For the Christian this is a no brainer. It’s God’s word. God’s word is the only true guide for the Christian.