I Will Build My Church
LESLIE HOLMES Moderator
thinking. “Not so fast!” Huxley’s Brave New World was inspired by social, po- litical, and technological upheaval that was brought about by a combination of events including the Industrial Revolution, World War I, and the Great Depres- sion. It describes a society run amok. Huxley was a professed unbeliever. His was a world without reference to God or the church. It was a world without hope. That is not the world we live in, and it never will be.
How can I be so certain? Because I believe in Jesus Christ, His Church, and Dear favored people, A
s I write these words to you, we have entered what ap- pears to be a strange new
world. All across the map, people are being forced to give attention to the coronavirus pandemic, aka COV- ID-19. Many in-person church servic- es have been cancelled, not only all across the United States and Canada but in the United Kingdom and main- land Europe. Many congregations and small groups of Christians are meeting digitally, or not at all. Church leaders are urging members to sup- port the church financially through digital giving. Churches are prepar- ing innovative and exciting ways to minister to their communities in the midst of the pandemic. The desire of my heart as I write to you is to bring a word from the Lord that rises above the gloom and doom that some are expressing.
Today on the radio, I heard one
reporter saying that we seem to have entered the Brave New World of Eng- lish writer and philosopher Aldous Huxley. “Not so fast,” I found myself
His Gospel. He says, “I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18). These words, I am persuaded, are the most hopeful words in Scripture when we go through hard times together because they are a promise from the Lord Himself. Here is what I know: The coronavirus pan- demic did not catch our Jesus off guard. He has this situation. He is and will be as surely Master of the Universe before, during, and after this strange season has passed. Scripture says, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8).
Have you ever thought about the fact that the Church is the only thing God
has had to pray for? We read, “…the church of God, which he bought with his own blood” (Acts 20:28). That is a major part of what makes the church so precious to me. As your Moderator, I am heartened by daily reports of generous responses and for the caring hearts of so many of our ARP church members. In the midst
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The Associate Reformed Presbyterian
Moderator’s Challenge
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