Hey church.
I went to write something encouraging to you, and then read what my friend Jaime Owens, Pastor of Tremont Temple in Boston, wrote. I couldn’t say it better, so I am sharing with you.

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“Dear Friends,

For most of us, the instability of our world has us a bit on edge. It’s shocking to wake up to video clips of exploding missiles and tanks steamrolling cars in the street. Perhaps, most striking of all aren’t the sights of war, but the sounds. The cries of children. The farewell of a father who will stay, to his daughter who will go. The Russian invasion may be felt by us more palpably than most other foreign conflicts in history because we’ve never had such unfettered access to the sights and sounds of war. As we’re seeing in real time, the most vulnerable are the greatest casualties. How are we to put all of this together? How do we respond to yet another distressing report?

There are some who will pile this onto our wheelbarrow of troubles. We have been collecting gloomy headlines for the last two years! Is this another reason to despair and flirt with the idea that there is no God? Surely, many in the world are bearing the news like this. But the church, God’s people in the fray, are built for times like these. If it’s jet fuel that power weapons of war, it’s God’s promises that fuel our faith. And what God tells us is that every scrap of steel, aluminum, and titanium fashioned to bring destruction will themselves be destroyed along with war, itself.

My Christian friend, receive this powerful promise from God’s supply to put everything into perspective:

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them as their God; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.” ~Revelation 21:1-4

There are many kinds of promises that feed and stoke the fires of faith in the blistering cold and in the darkness. Today, lift your eyes to the future promise. Turn your ears. Be more shocked not by what you hear, but what you don’t hear. No more explosions. No more cries. No more goodbyes.

That’s where our hope lies.

Thank you, Jesus.”

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GVC, things might get crazy, expensive, and crazy expensive in the days ahead. We have one another. In these days, whatever may happen, I am here to serve you however you may need.

Be blessed.

- Pastor Riley