Dear Liberty Church,
As you are all aware, this is certainly a challenging time. In particular, we are realizing how isolation can be quite a soul-shrinking predicament. Rather than promoting being alone for extended periods of time, the Bible conveys the strongest commitment to community; the entirety of Psalm 133 is about this theme. “How good and pleasant it is when brothers [and sisters] dwell together!” The psalmist continues, using evocative metaphors to describe this unity: “like oil on the head,” “like the dew of Hermon.” Oil and dew are pleasant gifts, signs of God’s provision to both humanity and creation alike. Then the psalmist ends the poem with a striking declaration: “For there the Lord has commanded the blessing, life forevermore!” The ’there’ is the congregation, the community of saints, and it is there that the Lord does not merely give blessing, but COMMANDS IT! The blessing of brothers and sisters together is life, not only life today, but life FOREVERMORE!
So what now? What do we do when we cannot gather together in person? Are we missing out on the blessing of God? Yes and no. Certainly, there is no replacement for being together, and I urge you, pray to that end. Pray daily that, by whatever means appropriate, this quarantine will soon end and we can gather together as the people of God. There will be tremendous life in that re-gathering!
But though we are isolated from one another, this does not mean we must be isolated from God. Indeed, it MUST NOT mean that we become isolated from God, for during this time, perhaps more than any other, we are in desperate need of His presence in our life. Isolation from each other is certainly destructive, but isolation from God certainly destroys. Our relationship with God – our faith in Christ, our trust in His provision, His promises found in His Word, our prayers to Him – are the only weapons available to us to fight back the traumatic affects of isolation and quarantine. Do not lay down these weapons! Pick them up in earnest, and rather than COVID-19 shrinking your soul, let this be a season in which our souls expand to behold the glory and power of our God in new and profound ways!
Yours in Christ,
Pastor Nathan
There have been quite a few requests for music during our worship services during the quarantine. I’m glad to hear this; I miss it, too! I am happy to announce that we plan on implementing music in our services once again. This will not happen this upcoming Sunday, but the next, and I look forward to worshipping with you all in this way once again!
Also, a few people have contacted the office and mentioned that the sound volume of the worship service is low for them. We are not sure why this is, since for the majority of people the sound level seems to be fine. We will continue to monitor it, however, and if you are still having trouble hearing, please let us know.
Lastly, I want to give some more exciting news: we are going to re-start Sunday school! Here is a message from Elder Steve Madden about it:
Dear Liberty Church,
I would like to begin an online Sunday school class starting Sunday, May 3rd. We will go through a 14-week Ligonier Ministries Video series called “No Other Gospel: Paul’s Letter to the Galatians” taught by Dr. Derek Thomas.
The format would be that you download the study guide and watch the video (all free!!) beforehand. Then we would conduct a ZOOM meeting on-line to discuss and share our thoughts and observations about what we learned. This would take place during our normal Sunday school hour, at 9:30am each week.
If you have any further questions, please email me at sbyronm@gmail.com. Further instructions concerning the Zoom details will be sent to the church in the followings weeks.
Here’s the link to the Sunday school series:
I think this will be a great time to connect our church together under the teaching of God’s Word. Hope you can be there!
Sincerely,
Steve Madden