Greetings and grace to you in the wonderful name of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Praying for each of you to be encouraged and strengthened in the Lord during this time.  We continue to meet in four groups for Sunday School @ 9:30am, Sunday Morning Worship @ 10:30am and Wednesday Worship @ 7pm.  Sunday Evening Worship will begin August 9 @ 5:30pm, Lord willing.  Sunday evenings will have a time of praise singing, preaching and a time of discussion as we study The Church Functioning.  Booklets for this study will be available beginning Sunday August 2. 

     To say this has been a most unusual year would be the greatest under statement uttered in 2020.  Very wet but mild winter and then came Coronavirus!  Our daily life altogether changed.  Who would have imagined a run on toilet paper that would empty the shelves?  Eight weeks of “forsaking the assembling” of ourselves together, though it might have seemed wise at the time, has done irreparable harm to the Church and Christians alike, apart from the intervention and reviving work of God.  We will remember 2020 goes without saying.  What else will we remember?

     “Remember the word unto thy servant, upon which thou hast caused me to hope.  This is my comfort in my affliction: for thy word hath quickened me.  The proud have had me greatly in derision: yet have I not declined from thy law.  I remembered thy judgments of old, O LORD; and have comforted myself.  Horror hath taken hold upon me because of the wicked that forsake thy law.  Thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage.  I have remembered thy name, O LORD, in the night, and have kept thy law.  This I had, because I kept thy precepts.” (Psalms 119:49-56)  This stanza of Psalms 119 causes us to Remember to Remember!  David begins by remembering the Word of God which gave him hope. David is asking the Lord to remember His Word, as though He would forget anything other than what He chooses to forget, our sins that are covered by the blood of Jesus Christ (Heb. 10:17).  When all around you appears hopeless, remember the Word of God which promises you hope in the Lord Jesus Christ (Col. 1:27) as well as all the other promises in Him.  David also remembers the past and how God has proven Himself faithful over and over again.  Our current circumstances might have changed but God the Father and God the Son have not (1 Cor. 1:9; Heb 13:5-8)!  David was a singer and musician and he remembers songs.  Songs which have impacted our hearts and spirits can be of great comfort and encouragement while we walk with the Lord during difficult times.  Though it occurs last in this stanza, always remember the Name of the Lord first!  Call upon the Him in prayer and trust in His glorious name (Ps. 20:7; 50:15; 91:15; Jer. 33:3).  Therefore, let us REMEMBER to REMEMBER!   

 

    

By His grace,

Toney