Dear Cobham Park Church Family,
Can you imagine living through a Northern Neck summer a hundred years ago? Our ancestors did what they could to deal with the heat and humidity. They slept with their windows open and braved mosquitoes and flies. They sat on the front porch. They went swimming. They bought ice blocks and carried hand-fans.
My grandmother was raised before air conditioning. She told me how it would sometimes get so hot that any exertion became impossible, and most people just stayed home. I once asked her how people endured life without air-conditioned homes, businesses, churches, and cars. She replied, “Well, we just did. That’s the way it was, and nobody knew anything different.”
In many ways, we’re not as tough as our ancestors—even a bit spoiled. If we suddenly lost our air-conditioning, electricity, or internet, we’d be undone. In a similar way, today’s Christians are feeling undone in a world that seems to have turned against us. We panic as we find more and more people disagreeing with us. When politicians disappoint us, we rage. When fewer people go to church, we despair. Why? We’ve been spiritually spoiled in this country for generations. We’re used to being in the majority, and persecution feels strange and unprecedented. But this is not uncharted territory. We’ve forgotten that our spiritual ancestors lived in a world that misunderstood or even hated them (read the New Testament if you don’t believe me). Early believers had governments, communities, and even families that opposed them. Christians were radically countercultural in their beliefs, thinking, and lifestyle. So, how could they stand the heat? It’s true that they didn’t know anything different, but, more importantly, they found unshakeable strength in each other and Christ!
Friends, you and I have the same resources that the first church had. We have a God Who loves us—and He’s in complete control. We have the Holy Spirit empowering and guiding us. We have Jesus saving and helping us. And we have each other! It’s time to stop wringing our hands and to reacquaint ourselves with the power that turned the ancient world upside down.
Dear friends, don’t be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through, as if something strange were happening to you. Instead, be very glad—for these trials make you partners with Christ in his suffering, so that you will have the wonderful joy of seeing his glory when it is revealed to all the world (I Peter 4:12-13, NLT).”
In His Love,
Pastor Keith
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