I miss you so much! I hope you are doing well. Because of our inability to safely gather for worship and other groups for health and safety reasons, I will be sending out a newsletter to you each week giving you updates on what is happening with the church. It will be a way for me to stay connected with you! You may respond directly to my email with questions, prayer concerns, requests or needs, or just to let me know how your family is doing. I welcome your at home photos! It would be neat to share some of them in our electronic newsletter each week. Those who do not have email, will receive a paper copy in the mail.
Happy birthday today to Bill Gill and Louise Mickelson, Nala Layton on Saturday, and Julie Smith on Sunday! Happy belated birthday to Jo Kaser (April 1) and Tom Magness (April 2).
Happy anniversary to Lance and Dawn Fulks (April 4)!
Some of you have already received a check-in phone call from me. If you haven’t already, will you put my number into your contact list so you don’t think I am a pesky telemarketer when I call? My number is 321-634-4870. I am calling to say hello and ask if you need anything, and to be available for prayer, questions, storytelling–whatever will help you during this difficult time. Consider it a “home visit.” I just want you to know that I am still your pastor and we are still the Church together, no matter what happens in the world around us. Praise the Lord and rejoice always!
Worship online will continue this Sunday for Palm Sunday through my blog: pastorkaren.org and through links or video posts at the church Facebook site, as well as my Facebook site. For the first time ever, I will be sharing my messages with you from my home. Yes, it feels strange to me, too. But we will continue to worship, including on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday evenings, in spite of our not being able to gather together in our building. Praise the Lord that we are able to do this!
Those who ordered Easter flowers will still receive them! They will be delivered on Good Friday to the church and will be available for pick up outside the chapel entrance beginning around noon. Contact John Addy to make other arrangements for delivery if you are not able to be there for pick up.
Here is a link to one of my audio devotions this past week:
Hear me sharing my devotion by clicking on this link:
Hello, friends!
How is today going for you? Hope everyone is well in your family. Do you need anything? Please let me know.
I had a good day yesterday—a feeling of peace in my heart that stayed with me. Looking back, I think it is because I was more focused on others most of the day, instead of thinking about my own situation or worrying. Worrying takes a lot of energy, doesn’t it? If you find yourself doing that, remind yourself that those anxious thoughts aren’t from the Lord and they aren’t good for you. And then do something to help someone else.
What did I do yesterday? My morning devotions, prayer, meals with my husband, Jim, and phone calls to members of our congregation. The funny thing was that so many of them said, “Who?” when I identified myself. Now, it could be that I have a 3-2-1 exchange and many people mistake me for a telemarketer, at first. But I think they were also surprised to hear from me because they weren’t my regular pastoral calls. They were people that God placed on my heart to call and say, “How are you? Do you need anything? Is everything OK in your family?” And, of course, I said to each one, “I miss you,” and “I look forward to when we are gathered together, once again, in worship.”
In the evening, I had a wonderful Zoom video conversation with the confirmation students and their mentors. They shared how they are feeling, as well as scriptures that are encouraging to them today. And they shared their prayer requests, which I wrote down and promised to pray for every day.
The apostle Paul wrote many letters to his churches when he was far away and sent them by personal messenger. He told them about his personal situation, which was usually difficult, to try and help them with their ministry, build up their faith, and share his affection. He always promised to pray. He wrote to churches no matter what was happening in his life. This included the numerous times that he was in prison isolated from the world and the people he loved because he shared with others about our Risen Lord.
In Philippians 1:2-6, he writes, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God every time I remember you, constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you, because of your sharing in the gospel from the first day until now. I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ.”
The Scripture is still as relevant today as it was thousands of years ago in Paul’s time. We are isolated and struggling to encourage one another and build each other up in the faith. We aren’t in prison, but we don’t have the freedom of movement that we are used to. Let us keep reaching out to one another in various ways, praying for one another, and sharing God’s love and many promises, which He will be faithful to keep.
Listen again to this one: “I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ.” God’s not finished with us, yet. He loves us the way we are, but He loves us too much to leave us the way we are. The Lord is working in our hearts, transforming us, and in our midst as we seek to serve Him and others. Hold onto the promises of God’s Word and reach out with God’s love and compassion to your neighbor today. And may you be blessed with God’s peace and joy.
Remember, I am praying for you and thanking God for you. You are always in my heart.
Let us pray. Holy One, thank you for the promise that You who have begun a good work in and among us will bring it to completion by the day you return for your Church. Keep us focused on serving you and caring for others and not slip into worry or fear. Open our hearts to hear your voice today and respond obediently, just as your Son was always obedient to you when he came to save us from our sins. It’s in His name we pray. Amen.
Music: “I Know Who Holds Tomorrow” by Alison Krauss, The Cox Family.
If you click on the audio, you will hear my voice.
Hello, friends!
How are you, today? I miss you so much! I hope you are well and staying safe and healthy. I look forward to when we are gathering together in person, face to face, once again.
Since we can’t be together right now, I want to share a virtual word of encouragement.
While having my coffee this morning, I looked out my kitchen window and smiled when I saw the neighbor’s black cat at my bird feeders. I have never seen him actually catch a bird. He is well fed and cared for by his owners. It’s more like entertainment for cats to watch my feeders—television for felines.
But he wasn’t looking up at the birds this time. He was staring down at the ivy-covered soil behind them. He was very still—every muscle in his body tense. I know he was waiting for an appearance of a chipmunk. I know because I have seen chipmunks often running through the ivy there, sometimes eating seed from the feeders.
Funny, a bird landed not too far from the black cat while he was waiting for a chipmunk. He turned his head to look at it, but didn’t stir from his place of waiting. He wasn’t distracted. Soon, he was back staring at the soil. He knew that if he waited long enough, eventually, a chipmunk would pop out of its hole. He would get his reward!
One of my favorite scriptures is Galatians 6:9. “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”
The apostle Paul is teaching the church at Galatia about continuing in the loving and peaceful ways of Christ, even when we don’t see the harvest. Yes, he is talking about patience and waiting while walking the journey of faith, sowing seeds of kindness, though we don’t see the seeds taking root or plants bearing fruit.
It isn’t just the fruit in others we are waiting for. It’s the fruit in ourselves.
I am waiting for God to strengthen me to be patient and do the things he asks me to do each day, without being disappointed or sad. I cannot minister as I am used to ministering since the Coronavirus began disrupting our lives, and we were forced to stay at home for our safety and for the protection of others. It’s very hard to not see the shining faces of my flock every Sunday. I know for you, it’s hard to be isolated from the ones you love.
What are you waiting for God to change in your heart and mind? Because with all this social distancing, it really is a battle of the heart and mind–not growing weary of doing good, even when it isn’t the life we are used to living.
I urge you, today, to not grow weary in the acts of kindness God is calling you to do. Keep on praying for healing and peace for all who are sick and help and protection for those caring for the sick and others having to be out working in the world. Don’t grow weary. Because at the time that God has ordained, we will reap a harvest—and see ourselves and our world transformed.
Let us pray.
Holy One, please heal the sick and help and protect the medical workers and caregivers, and all who must be out in the world each day. Help us to be patient and satisfied with the acts of kindness and goodness that you are leading us to do from our homes, unable to be with others, face to face. Thank you that you are using all of us to plant seeds and nurture one another in faith and love. We look forward to the harvest of peace and transformation of our world. In Christ we pray. Amen.
11 Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair; her brother Lazarus was ill. 3 So the sisters sent a message to Jesus, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” 4 But when Jesus heard it, he said, “This illness does not lead to death; rather it is for God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” 5 Accordingly, though Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, 6 after having heard that Lazarus[b] was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.
7 Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again. .. Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to awaken him.” 12 The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will be all right.” 13 Jesus, however, had been speaking about his death, but they thought that he was referring merely to sleep. 14 Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead. 15 For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” 16 Thomas, who was called the Twin,[c] said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”
17 When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus[d] had already been in the tomb four days. 18 Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles[e] away, 19 and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. 20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. 21 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.” 23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24 Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life.[f] Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” 27 She said to him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah,[g] the Son of God, the one coming into the world.”
28 When she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary, and told her privately, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” 29 And when she heard it, she got up quickly and went to him. 30 Now Jesus had not yet come to the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. 31 The Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary get up quickly and go out. They followed her because they thought that she was going to the tomb to weep there. 32 When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” 33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. 34 He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” 35 Jesus began to weep. 36 So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” 37 But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”
38 Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. 39 Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.” 40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” 41 So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you for having heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.” 43 When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”
***
Yesterday, we gathered for a small, private family service in our chapel to celebrate the life of John Baird and bear witness to the Resurrection. The decision to gather was made after much prayer, discussion, and careful consideration of our health situation. Although we are sorry that we couldn’t open the service to the church and wider community or have lunch together afterward, the service was a blessing, a gentle time of worship, song, prayer, and sharing stories and healing words. The tiny gathering was a reminder of what the Church is called and empowered to do, by the Spirit, wherever we are. We don’t have to be in the same building to love and serve God and neighbor and share our hope in God’s Son, through whom we have everlasting life.
Today is the Fifth Sunday in Lent! Next Sunday is Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week, already. This day in the church year is sometimes called, “Refreshment Sunday,” as it is like the Third Sunday in Advent, when we light the pink candle and remember that while we are in a season of darkness, preparing for the birth of our Emmanuel, we can also rejoice and celebrate our God who has already come! Here on the Fifth Sunday, as we retell the story of the raising of Lazarus, we cannot help but look ahead to Easter and rejoice in our Risen Lord.
There’s so much here, but what speaks to me in this passage today is Jesus’ conversations and relationship with Mary and Martha. He first talks with Martha, the one without whom he wouldn’t have had that delicious meal at her home in the gospel of Luke because Mary wouldn’t lift a finger to help her. She meets him on the road, not waiting for his to arrive at her home. “Lord, if you had been here,” she says emotionally, “my brother would not have died!”
Still, she hopes against hope! “But even now,” she says, “I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.” She doesn’t know that this two-day delay was intentional, as Jesus says in verse 4, “for God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”
Then comes a theological discussion that reminds me of the one he had with the Samaritan woman at the well, who would go on to bring many others to the Lord by her testimony. Jesus wants to make sure that Martha understands his true identity. He has plans for her.He says, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” Though this is directed as a question, it is an invitation.
“Yes, Lord,” she says. “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.”
The miracle waits until all the community is gathered, including Mary, who sat at his feet when Jesus came to dinner at her home and hung on his every word. John says this Mary was also the one who poured the expensive perfume on his feet at another dinner party, then wept and wiped them with her hair.
The story of Lazarus unfolds in wonderful detail. When Mary sees Jesus, she says the same thing Martha has said. You can just imagine them repeating those words to one another, over and over, in the days following their brother’s death. “If only Jesus had come. If only he had come in time to heal him.”
And if you are wondering if God really cares about human suffering, then see how Jesus weeps after he sees Mary and her community weeping together. He is “greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved.” Our God loves us so much that he hurts when we are hurting. Just like those of you who have children of any age. Don’t you feel terrible when they are sad or suffering? God feels this way about us!
At the cry of, “Lazarus, come out!” the young man is restored to new life. He will never be the same again; nor will his family and community. Those who witness the miracle will believe in Jesus. But some will tell the Pharisees, who worry that if Jesus keeps on doing what he has been doing, “everyone will believe in him and the Romans will come and destroy” their holy place and nation. From that day on, they plan to put him to death.
A dark shadow falls over this day of joy, “Refreshment Sunday,” in our Lenten journey to the cross.
***
But we who have come to know Christ as our Savior, the Light of the World, refuse to allow evil or darkness to intimidate or discourage us. For we know that death doesn’t have the final word!
In this time of 24-hour news reports of sickness and death around the globe, it is tempting to give up hope for a miraculous healing of our world, because we haven’t seen or experienced it, up to now, just as Mary and Martha had never seen Christ raise someone from the dead. Maybe we have already prayed about the world’s healing, but gave up when we didn’t feel our prayers were being answered. Maybe you don’t think your prayers will make a difference.
We could choose to be like Mary and Martha, who sank into despair and blamed the Lord as they laid their brother in a tomb. Why hadn’t he come when they needed him? They didn’t anticipate the miracle that God had planned.
Or, we can use this time to keep moving forward in our walk of faith, drawing nearer to the cross, climbing into our prayer closets, digging into God’s Word, and seeking to follow in the footsteps of our Redeemer, from the comfort of our homes. You and me—we can be a healing balm for the world.
Here’s something that came to me when I was studying this passage. Would it change how we live if we decide right now to live as if we have no doubt that our lives don’t end at the grave? And what if we decide to give up all the plans we were making, filling up our calendars through 2020, and entrust our every moment to the care of our loving Lord?
What if we ask the Lord to reveal the miracles of love, transformation and reconciliation that he is doing every day? Because we serve a God of miracles, who weeps when we grieve and suffers with us.
Reach for the one who proclaims, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.”
He is asking you now, “Do you believe?”
Let us pray.
Holy One, we confess that we have been like Mary and Martha, and have not anticipated the miracles you have planned for us every day. We admit that sometimes we are stuck in our hurt and disappointment when things don’t go our way. Lead us to see the wonderful things you are doing in our midst, your every day miracles, and feel your loving presence with us, wherever we are, so we never feel alone. Teach us how to pray for the healing of the world and work for peace, transformation, and reconciliation as we seek to follow in Christ’s footsteps all the way to the cross. Stir us to let go of the plans that we were making and trust you to lead us in your will and care for us every moment of our lives. In Christ we pray. Amen.
Here is a link to the audio of the complete service, including music and children’s and adult messages:
Fifth Sunday in Lent
The Presbyterian Church
142 N. 4th Street, Coshocton, OH 43812
Pastor Karen Crawford
Caroline Heading, Pianist
Prelude “In the Garden”
Greeting/Announcements
Opening Sentences
Thus says the Lord: “I will put my breath within you, and you shall live.”
In gratitude, we praise the Giver of Life.
Jesus says: “I am the resurrection and the life.
In gratitude, we praise the Source of our Being.
We gather to worship the One who frees us from the grave and stirs dry bones to life.
Spirit, come and enliven our worship!
Call to Confession
Prayer of Confession
Holy One, we have set our minds on wrong things—on selfish gain, not generous service; on pursuits that distract, not inspire; on tasks that diminish, rather than give, life. We long to set our minds on eternal things—on your way of mercy and compassion; on paths that lead to justice and peace; on living as people of hope. Spirit of God, dwell in us. Give us grace when we fall short, transform our hearts and renew our minds, and set us free to follow you faithfully.
Assurance of Pardon
Hymn
Time with Children and Youth: The Memory Box: A Book About Grief by Joanna Rowland
Prayer for Illumination
Scripture John 11:1-45
This is the gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, O Christ!
Message “I Am the Resurrection and the Life” Pastor Karen
Devotion from All God’s Creatures: Daily Devotion for Animal Lovers 2020
Written by Amy Lively
Read by Pastor Karen Crawford, The Presbyterian Church, Coshocton, OH
Those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings, like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:31).
Jesus, please grow my faith and teach me to trust you during my wilderness seasons. As I wander and wonder, I am safe in your care. Bring me closer to you with each step. Amen.
Music: “It Is Well With My Soul,” sung by Audrey Assad
“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believein God, believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. 4 And you know the way to the place where I am going.” 5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you know me, you will knowmy Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
15 “If you love me, you will keepmy commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. 17 This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be inyou.
18 “I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. 19 In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live.
—John 14: 1-7, 15-18
John William Baird was born in Coshocton to Margaret and Maurice Baird on January 14, 1937. Imagine the world into which he arrived—a week before FDR is sworn in for his second presidential term and six days before Howard Hughes establishes a record by flying from L.A. to New York City in 7 hours, 28 minutes and 25 seconds. He was born the day after record-breaking rain begins to fall across Ohio for 12 days, triggering a natural disaster. The Ohio River floods and leaves millions without homes and many more without electricity or fresh water to drink for weeks.
John was just a little boy when he first started visiting The Presbyterian Church of Coshocton with his Grandma and Grandpa Page, his mother’s parents. Lester and Laura Page were longtime members here. John was baptized at Central Christian, where he attended regularly with his parents and would later worship with Margie, whom he married at Adams Mills Presbyterian Church in 1957. They would raise up their two children, Cyndi and Bobby, in the faith at Central Christian. Later, John and Margie would follow Cyndi and her husband, Tom, to join the Presbyterian Church of Coshocton in the early 1990s. They were welcomed as members in this chapel at the same worship service in which their granddaughters, Tiffany and Ashley, were baptized.
It is possible that JW, nicknamed by Ashley, caught the entrepreneurial bug from either or both sides of his family. It could have been in his DNA. Grandpa Page was a pharmacist who partnered with Clyde Lorenz in 1909 to open the Page & Lorenz Drug Store at 545 Main Street, Coshocton. John learned about customer service and supply and demand through hanging out at Grandpa’s store, doing his homework and sipping soda at the soda fountain. At the same time, he became intimately involved with his father’s feed and grain business, Baird Supply Company, formerly J.A. Baird and Son, founded by his grandfather in 1904.
JW never did anything half way and was a lifelong learner, a reader, a self-taught, self-made man. In his teens, when he wasn’t drinking soda at Grandpa’s store, he hung around car repair garages, developing his mechanical skills and knowledge. He worked hard, but also knew the importance of play and spending time with family and friends. He enjoyed hunting, fishing, boating, sports and dressing up as the school’s Indian mascot to lead the football team onto the field.
In spite of his lifelong passion for Ohio State and especially the Buckeyes, JW never attended college. He went right to work full time in the family business after graduating from high school. At 20, he expanded his family’s feed and grain company to include ready-mix concrete and the production of metallurgical briquettes. His continued innovation allowed the business to serve his hometown and partner with industrial foundries with a global impact.
But no other passion came close to his love and appreciation for his family.
The greatest sorrow of his life was the loss of their son, Bobby, killed in a car crash in 1990, coming home from a movie in Zanesville. He was only 23. The loss brought the close-knit family even closer. The community mourned with them. Expressions of love and sympathy poured out from all over, like a healing balm. Even the Amish community, served by John’s business, shared in their grief.
***
Jesus tells his disciples about His Spirit, the Advocate, Helper or Comforter, that he would ask the Father to send to them when he was no longer with them. The Spirit would help them in their time of grief—after Jesus had gone home to his Father’s house.
Hear the many promises of this passage—that Christ is going to Heaven, not for his sake, but for ours! To prepare a place for us, to make a way for us, so that we may live with him for all eternity.
“I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you,” he assures those who are already mourning his loss, and expressing their distress and doubts. “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?”
They DID know, for Jesus had been telling them, if only they would listen and believe. But what Thomas was really saying was, “Lord, we don’t want you to go! This is not the way it is supposed to be! We love you and we don’t want to live and do your work without you!”
Jesus responds by promising that they will never bewithout him. He will give them—and us—all that we need to carry on. After the cross takes him from this world, his Spirit will return and help them continue to do all that Christ had showed them to do—calling the world to repentance, forgiving people their sins, healing the sick and brokenhearted, casting out demons, feeding and caring for the poor, setting the captives free, and leading us all to new life through faith in Him.
Don’t miss the hope of our resurrection in this passage that begins, “Do not let your hearts be troubled!” He is going to prepare a place in the Father’s House for us and come again and bring us to himself, so that where he is, we will also be. The grave is not the end. For on the third day, Mary sees the empty tomb, the angels, and then the risen Lord. Hear the promise in this scripture that we will see him, too.
And we who have died with him in our baptisms will be clothed in glory with him, in the everlasting. Our Savior says in verse 19, “In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live.”
***
I met JW only about a year ago, after he had become seriously ill. He wasn’t walking 2 miles on the treadmill before work anymore or getting up at 4 a.m. as he used to do. He couldn’t attend church because of his fragile health and vulnerability to infection. Much of his life, in these last few years, was taken up by medical treatments and procedures, doctor visits, and too many hospital stays. But it was also spent with his family. He never gave up hope that he would get better and had made numerous comebacks after numerous health setbacks.
I saw the handsome, gentle man, with sparkling eyes and clean-shaven face, who was interested in meeting me and wanted to share his story, even though he wasn’t feeling well. I remember talking about his business and how the company had changed over the years, under his leadership. He was so proud of his family, still in love with Margie, and grateful to his daughter, Cyndi, his business partner, best friend, and tireless caregiver.
Ashley, his youngest granddaughter, says that everything she is—the choices she has made in life, what she has become, is because of his advice, teaching, encouragement, and example. He was the rock of the family. He was tough and stubborn, but also gentle and patient. He was the calming presence with her; the reassuring voice that is still in her head. He was he best friend, the one she called every day, just to talk. A compassionate listener, who understood and cared about the things that mattered to her and all the family.
In his last months, weeks, and days, he wanted just a few things out of life. He wanted to attend Ashley’s wedding, which was scheduled for June but is now delayed till next year. He wanted to take his great-grandson, Tanner, fishing. And he wanted to get better and repay Cyndi for her kindness, he said. Holding Tom and Cyndi’s hands in his last moments on Monday morning, passing from this world into the loving embrace of our Heavenly Father, those unfulfilled longings hung in the air.
When we lose someone we love, someone so close to us that it seemed like they were part of us, we can’t help but wonder how we can we carry on. Even Christ’s followers, who believe in the resurrection and eternal life with Him, struggle with grief and loneliness, just as Christ’s first disciples missed the one they called Rabbi, their teacher, their friend.
The answer is only with God’s help. We rely on the Advocate, the Helper or Comforter that Christ sent, as he promised, to His followers on Pentecost, when he was no longer with them in the flesh. The Holy Spirit lives and breathes in the community of believers, not just to make us feel better and cope with difficulties and loss, but helping us to do what Christ has commanded—and continue on, serving others with the gifts and talents God has given us, ministering in His name. This is how we show Christ our love.
Let the Spirit help you carry this burden. Let the community pour out God’s love onto you through words and acts of kindness and be a healing balm for you. And may the prayers of all the saints, the great cloud of witnesses in every time and place, lift you and strengthen you, day by day.
You do know the way, the truth, and the life. You know Him—Jesus Christ.
You can trust in the One who will abide in and with you, forever.
10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place,15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.
(Ephesians 6:10-18)
I pulled into my driveway, waving at my neighbor Myriam and her little girl Elizabeth. Over the years, Elizabeth had grown accustomed to our spontaneous chats lasting longer than the promised “few minutes” and morphing into prayer meetings. She climbed the tree planted in the center of their front yard, dangled her legs over a branch, and busied herself while her mother and I spoke. After a while, Elizabeth hopped down from her roost and ran to where we stood. Grabbing our hands, she smiled and almost sang, “It’s time to pray . . . again.” Even at an early age, Elizabeth seemed to understand how important prayer was in our friendship.
After encouraging believers to “be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power” (Ephesians 6:10), the apostle Paul offered special insight on the crucial role of continual prayer. He described the necessary armor God’s people would need during their spiritual walk with the Lord, who provides protection, discernment, and confidence in His truth (vv. 11-17). However, the apostle emphasized this God-given strength grew from deliberate immersion in the life-giving gift of prayer (vv. 18-20).
God hears and cares about our concerns, whether they’re spoken boldly, sobbed silently, or secured deep in a hurting heart. He’s always ready to make us strong in His power, as He invites us to pray again and again and again.
Heavenly Father, thank You for the privilege of coming to You in prayer and that you never grow weary of hearing our voices and answering our prayers. Stir us to pray every day. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
A Spectacle of Glory: God’s Light Shining Through Me Every day.
Read by Pastor Karen Crawford
The Presbyterian Church, Coshocton, Ohio
“Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the voice of his servant, who walks in darkness and has no light, yet trusts in the name of the Lord and relies upon his God?”
(Isaiah 50:10)
“even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.”
(Psalm 139:12)
Your Heavenly Father will never lose you in the dark.
Praise you, Father. You have been with me in many places that have been so very dark. I have cried out to You and reached for Your hand, and You have always been there. As David prayed, “Darkness is as light to you.” I won’t even fear the valley of the shadow of death, because You are with me. Amen.
Tonight, our presbytery is hosting a time of prayer. We have more than a dozen pastors who helped put the evening together. Eight pastors will be on the live stream at 7:30, and more will welcome you and encourage you through dialogue in the comment window. Please invite your loved ones, and friends to join us at http://www.facebook.com/mvpjourney/. It is going to be a special time together. As a reminder, this is a public page, so you do not need a Facebook account to join us.
Sharing God's Love and Grace 