Dear Liberty Church,
As we continue to persevere during this crisis, I want to draw your attention to words of encouragement given by Jesus to all seven churches in the Book of Revelation (no, I am not discussing Revelation because I think this is the end times!). To these churches, Jesus makes a series of statements that are common to each one:
He starts off with “I know.” These two words pack a punch. It is comforting that Christ, the King of the Church, knows even our little ol’ church, what we are going through, what adversity we are facing, and what fears we are dealing with. His omniscience is not diminished in the slightest, even by the ‘unknown’ of COVID-19.
Secondly, to the churches of Revelation, Jesus uses this line: “To the one who conquers…” Every church receives this admonishment (Rev. 2:7,11,17, 26; 3:5,12, 21). Without getting into too much of a discussion about the precious doctrine of the perseverance of the saints, our own perseverance in faith is a sign of our belief in Christ; those who have Jesus WILL persevere, for it is Christ that empowers us to do so.
Lastly, Jesus always uses the phrase, “He who has an ear, let him hear.” The truth of Jesus’ words are not going to be accepted by all. Many refuse to come to Him for comfort during this time (though I believe COVID-19 will ultimately have a positive effect on religion). When fear grips us, some seek to mitigate against it by all manner of ‘self-help’ and ‘self-preservation,’ i.e. guarding, hoarding, worrying, etc…but those who have ears to hear, that is, those who have had their ears opened by the power of the Spirit of God, understand that the Prince of Peace not only brings peace between God and ourselves, but also brings an everlasting peace to our own hearts. No matter the calamity, we have the power to PERSEVERE and the power to CONQUER, a power that this world does not know. Persevere today in this power of our Almighty God!
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Join us this Sunday morning and evening for corporate (but virtual) worship. I believe God truly blessed this time last week, as I heard from many of you how He encouraged your hearts during this time. Please join us again at 10:45am and 6:00pm on the Liberty website as we commit to worshipping God on the Sabbath. I promise the lighting will be improved for this next service 🙂
I want to also mention that our online giving is up and running. I am aware that COVID-19 is perhaps affecting the financial situation of some of you, but for those who are able, please continue to tithe to your church during this time, as we seek to support the many ministries and missionaries of Liberty.
Giving online is incredibly easy. On the top right corner of the home page of Liberty’s website (libertychurchpca.org), there is a button that says, ‘Online Giving.’ Clicking on this button leads you to a page where you can do a re-occurring tithe, which is the simplest way since you will not have to continue putting in your information each time you tithe. Or you can do a one-time gift. Your tithing envelope numbers will be automatically matched when you give online. We are using a nationally recognized platform to implement this, and all of your financial information is very secure and encrypted.
Due to principle, the Session has decided to only allow debit and checking bank account transactions; no credit cards are accepted. We do not believe going into debt to tithe! For those of you who do not want to give online, you can continue mailing your tithe check to the church. We are checking the mail every day and depositing any checks in the safe until the counting team comes each week. Thank you all for your selfless sacrifice to the Kingdom of God, even during this time of increased uncertainty. You are storing treasure in heaven!
Also, our prayer list is now found in two places: this email, and at the bottom of the Sunday morning worship bulletin. Please continue to be in prayer for our church and our country.
Lastly, even though we are not doing music during our worship service on Sunday, we have a playlist on Spotify of many of the songs that we sing on Sundays. You can access that playlist here:
https://open.spotify.com/
I look forward to being with you in spirit this Sunday!
Yours in Christ,
Pastor Nathan