Church Family Update - June 17, 2020

A Word of Thanks:

Thank you to everyone who responded to the online survey regarding reopening our services. I’m so encouraged by how many people took the time to give thoughtful feedback. As you can imagine, we have the full range of opinions at our church about this topic (and about every other topic as well!). What a blessing! How boring life at Ebenezer would be if we all agreed on everything. We’ll take all this feedback under advisement and keep you informed as to our next steps. As a very next step, I’ve got a conference call this afternoon with the manager of community development for Leduc to explain how non-profit organizations can begin to reopen under the current conditions. Again, thank you for your patience.

A Prayer Request:

I would like to ask you to pray for people who are struggling right now with addiction of any kind. Addiction is cruel because it makes people feel shame and it makes them want to isolate. But that’s the worst thing for people who are struggling with addiction. There is no shame in being a regular, flawed human being. We all struggle at times. And isolation is the worst thing for someone fighting addiction. We need support. We need community. All of us. 

So may I please ask you to join me in praying for members of our church family who are wrestling with this issue right now? Some situations I am aware of and I’m sure there are others that I don’t know about. And if you are struggling right now, would you please let me or someone else close to you know about it so that you can receive the love and support that you need? Thank you.  

A Quick Note About Our Thursday Patio Coffee:

We will not be hosting a patio coffee tomorrow (June 18th) but we do intend to host a coffee get together next week Thursday (June 25th). I look forward to seeing some of you then.

A Devotional Thought:

“Trust in God at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us.” Psalm 62:8

King David was a warrior but he wasn’t afraid of emotions. Here David encourages us to pour out our hearts before God. Emotions are a God-given part of what it means to be human. To ignore your emotions is to ignore reality. Your emotions are an essential part of who you are. 

Too often we try to deny our emotions in order to give ourselves the impression that we’re strong. But that’s not strength; it’s weakness. In this verse we find David trusting God and at the same time pouring his heart out to God. You can do both. 

So let me encourage you today: trust God. But don’t use that trust as an excuse not to feel emotion. Pour your heart out to God. He wants you to do that. He’s not impressed by slogans and a stiff upper lip. He wants the real you. Both the faith and the fears. If we neglect our deepest emotions we’re not being real with ourselves and we’ll limit our ability to know God. Sometimes our most meaningful encounters with God come during those times when we honestly make ourselves vulnerable before Him.

So go ahead and emote. Pour out your heart. And you’ll experience that God truly is our refuge.

Be blessed today.

Pastor Jason