From the Pastor…
As we enter into the month of March it appears
that Spring is just around the corner. We will soon celebrate Easter and one of my favorite events of the year begins this month – Daylight Savings Time! I always look forward to longer days, allowing us to be outside and enjoying more of life later in the evening. It almost seems like we have more time. But do we really have more time?
The truth is that none of us knows how much time we have. Whether our days seem longer – like during Daylight Savings Time, or shorter – like Winter in Alaska, we all get 24 hours per day. After just celebrating another birthday (thank you to everyone for your cards, calls, gifts, and kind words), I recognize that I have fewer days left to live than the number of days I have already lived. Still, I don’t know how long that will be – and neither do you.
The Bible tells us, “whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.” (James 4:14). My purpose in bringing up this sobering reminder is that we have been called to share the good news in a world where people are dying every day without a personal relationship with Jesus. It has been a year since many of our brothers and sisters have been in church. Many may never return – for fear of contracting a deadly disease. But I believe the safest place we can be is in God’s house. That is not a cavalier statement, but a fact based on the safeguards we have enacted at Roberdel.
While there is no guarantee of complete safety anywhere, there is a 100% guarantee that we all will someday meet the Lord face to face. When that day arrives, I don’t want to hear him ask me why I stopped sharing my faith. As I have shared many times this past year, we want everyone to be safe. If you are in a vulnerable population, please take precautions and seriously do all you can to avoid exposure. But remember that our responsibility to share the gospel is just as important today as it was pre-COVID. We must do all we can to win the lost to Christ and that is something that we must do during a pandemic just as we must when our world feels safe or it seems convenient to do so.
Let’s enjoy the extra daylight hours. But let us not become slack in our responsibilities to the Lord and His church. Some things I am praying for include: more of God’s people coming back to church; more involvement in personal soul-winning; more of God’s people taking seriously God’s call upon their lives; and a return of our times of fellowship and physical gatherings. I am also praying for the return of Christ and the faithfulness of God’s people until He does so.
While we don’t know how much time any of us has left to live, we do know that God has plenty of life left for the time we do have! Thank you for your patience and your faithfulness.
In Christian Love,
Billy Dennis
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