Reflections From Sunday Evening

We had a blessed day at church today.  Worship was uplifting.  Preaching (thanks Nancy) was strong.  We gathered at the Lord's Table and shared in God's grace.  We were blessed.
The people of First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas were also having a blessed day of worship when God's presence was shattered by violence and death.  God in your mercy...
We hear calls for prayer and we will find the Holy Spirit leading us to pray for the church and those affected by this act of violence.
There will be many opinions expressed in the next few days.  And then this event will fade from our consciousness.  God in your mercy.
I wish I had an answer for this.  But I do not.  I do believe we are seeing things in life that we consider unthinkable.  At the same time what we are experiencing in America is something that much of world Christianity has been going through for ages. 
From the days of Jesus the followers of Christ have been persecuted.  It appears to be a fact of faith that those who love Jesus will be in conflict with those who don't.  Our American experience has not reflected this.  Our persecutions are more like inconveniences rather than death.
Death is seeking to encroach upon the life of the Church.
I pray for the people of Sutherland Springs and I pray for Coptic Christians in Egypt.  I pray for Palestinian Christians.  I pray for Iraqi Christians and Christians in other places in the Middle East.  I pray for the underground Church in China.  I pray for all our brothers and sisters in Christ throughout the world.  And today I pray more specifically for First Baptist.
We will also talk about safety.  I promise that we have continual conversations about what we can do at our church to deter situations like we read of today.  We have people who are always alert to situations.  We will continue to move ahead.
At the same time our mission is not "being safe".  Don't hear this wrong.  Of course we avoid risk that has no place among God's people.  But we are people of life.  We do not live in a bubble.  We do not avoid people.  We do not screen everyone at the door. 
We do continue to worship, serve, and love one another.  We will love God and serve people when we feel safe and when we experience fear.  We will trust in our God of love knowing that perfect love casts out fear. 
So we pray.  We remember.  We continue.
In spite of it all...It's been a good day because it is God's day.
steve