Hi Church,
We hope you are continuing in your deep, abiding trust in our God. He remains enthroned over all the earth. (1 Chronicles 16:31; Psalm 24:1; Psalm 29:10) Therefore we can trust and know that nothing is out of His control. During days like we are experiencing right now, Paul’s words to the Colossian church are especially poignant - If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. (Colossians 3:1-3)
As we have reflected over all that is going on with the pandemic and what the Christian response should be, we thought of some words that the prophet Jeremiah spoke to the nation of Israel as they were in exile in a foreign land. He said - But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. (Jeremiah 29:7) If the expectation of the Lord was for His people to seek the welfare of the citizens of a foreign nation, then most assuredly He would want us to do that for the country He has put us in to live. Unless we are told to violate the will of God, we should seek to be the best citizens we can be for the glory of God.
It is in that spirit that the elders made the decision that we will not be meeting corporately on Sundays. Our President gave us direction and requested that we avoid gatherings of more than 10 people. In light of that, love, wisdom and submission to governing authorities (Romans 13:1) has led us to forgo meeting together.
However, even though we will not be physically meeting together at our church building, we will be meeting together online. Thank God for technology! Join us on Sundays as we will be streaming our worship service live on Facebook. You can find us on Facebook here. Our service will be at 10:00am. Please take the time to join our spiritual gathering. Our worship team will be leading us in worship, and hearing the word of God preached. Remember that worshiping the Lord by giving your tithes and freewill offering is available online here, and we hope that you will continue in your selfless giving. Please start praying for our time together. I am trusting and believing that the Holy Spirit will be powerful in our time together.
We love you church!
GCBC Staff & Elders