We’re a month and a half away from COVID impacting us for an entire year.  We’re just beginning a new chapter in our nation with a new president.  We see mounting deaths from COVID.  Continued rioting for various reasons, from our Capital building all the way to the west coast in places like Portland.  Close to half the nation is at the very least concerned about where we go next under a new administration.  We see our kids and grandkids struggling with online school or abnormal in-person schooling.  We ourselves struggle as our jobs has changed, if we’ve been able to keep them at all.  Our lives have changed at a dizzying pace.  It’s easy to get discouraged, depressed and even to the point of despair as we navigate the challenges of day to day live.  The good news is there is hope, hope for positive change, hope for the future, hope for eternity, hope found in the right perspective of life.

Ecclesiastes 3 is a great place to start to find hope, to be reminded of the perspective we can have on life as Christians. 

“For everything there is a season,
    a time for every activity under heaven.
² A time to be born and a time to die.
    A time to plant and a time to harvest.
³ A time to kill and a time to heal.
    A time to tear down and a time to build up.
⁴ A time to cry and a time to laugh.
    A time to grieve and a time to dance.
⁵ A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones.
    A time to embrace and a time to turn away.
⁶ A time to search and a time to quit searching.
    A time to keep and a time to throw away.
⁷ A time to tear and a time to mend.
    A time to be quiet and a time to speak.
⁸ A time to love and a time to hate.
    A time for war and a time for peace.

⁹ What do people really get for all their hard work? ¹⁰ I have seen the burden God has placed on us all. ¹¹ Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end. ¹² So I concluded there is nothing better than to be happy and enjoy ourselves as long as we can. ¹³ And people should eat and drink and enjoy the fruits of their labor, for these are gifts from God.” NLT

One of the things we get to enjoy in Missouri is all 4 seasons.  Even if it is all 4 seasons in the same week sometimes.  The way the different seasons change, the way they come and go each year, how you can rely on them to change is refreshing.  Ecclesiastes 3:1 provides us that refreshing reminder that “For everything there is a season”.  That means there is a season for Covid, there is a season for political turmoil, there is a season for rioting, there is a season for job loss, there is a season for schooling to change, for our marriages to change, there is a season for ministry to change, there is a season for EVERYTHING…”every activity under heaven”.  That means it’s ok, it’s just a season.  Even if it’s a long season, we know the seasons will change. 

When you begin to read in verses 2-8, you can see there truly is a time for everything…a time to be born or die, a time to tear down and build up, to search and to give up searching, to keep or to throw away, to love and to hate.  That’s just a few of them but if we’re honest there are things in that list we don’t want to experience.  So as we sit here, in a difficult season as a country, as a church, and in many cases as families…we can know that things will change, they always do.  In many ways this past year has felt like a season of tearing down of the church…but a season is coming of building up the church.  Almost all of us know someone who has died of Covid, but the good news is things will change and we’ll celebrate new life in the next season.  Whatever difficult season you’re experiencing…you can know for certain…it’s like a season and it will change.  The one thing we know that will not change is the one in control of the seasons…Jesus.  Hebrews 13:8 says he’s the same yesterday, today, and forever.

When you get the right perspective on life, you can begin to enjoy life more.  If all we had to look forward to was this season, this difficult season…there would be nothing to hope for.   We don’t live that way, we trust a God who is in control, a God who “works all things together for good” like it says in Romans 8:28.  We serve a God, that when we trust Him, we can enjoy life…even in the difficult seasons.  As you read verses 9-13 in Ecclesiastes we can see that with proper perspective, we don’t have to be discouraged, depressed, and definitely not in despair.  The writer of Ecclesiastes acknowledges the hardship or the burdens places on us in this season of life.  He also points us to how God has planted eternity in our hearts.  We’re limited to seeing things through the scope of seasons.  Completely unable to see the whole picture the way that God sees it.  That brings us to the conclusion the writer draws for each of us in verses 12-13 “there is nothing better than to be happy and enjoy ourselves as long as we can.  And people should eat and drink and enjoy the fruits of their labor, for these are gifts from God.”  We can always find joy, or in this translation happiness, in the Lord.  When we have the eternal perspective of life, when we understand it’s made up of seasons that change and when we trust in the Lord who has given us so many good gifts…we can enjoy each season. 

Wherever you’re at today, whatever your outlook on life.  Take joy in what Christ has done for you.  Take joy in the fact that the difficulties of this season will pass.  Take joy in the fact God is in control and has the whole picture in mind.  Take joy in the fact you are blessed by God and He’s given you many good gifts.  I’m just like you, I’m looking forward to the next season of life.  It’s ok to look forward…but don’t forget to enjoy the present season God has you in!

Missions Emphasis 2021

 Wow, what a year was 2020!  We are indeed grateful to put it behind us and move forward into 2021.  Prayer is a powerful tool and was used across the country and around the world as Covid-19 spread like wildfire.  Many lives were lost without Christ.  We need to remain in prayer for those who have this illness that the Father turn back this disease and would have mercy and heal our land. 

 Many plans and activities were put on hold for the better part of the year, and we are ready to take action! We need to continue to pray that the Lord use FBC Wentzville and show us what He would have us do.

 The book of James is one of my favorite books because it is about faith in action.  In chapter two, James tells us that faith without works is dead.  So, this year we intend to demonstrate our faith in action.  You, too, can be involved by praying, giving, and going—in support of international and domestic missions and disaster relief.  That said, it would be disingenuous to say we have made plans for mission trips and not taken into consideration the limitations imposed at local, state, and national levels before going on a mission trip.   So first, let us take a look at our work in Disaster Relief. 

 Despite the pandemic, last October seven were trained to give our church a team of 14 certified to go and support the Missouri Baptist Disaster Relief teams wherever needed.  They respond to hurricanes, tornados, floods, and other catastrophic events when called.  Training will be offered again April 9-10, at the closest location in recent history, FBC O’Fallon.  There will be other training opportunities, but NONE so close to our region.  MO Baptists were called out to help for flood response 13 times in 2019, with 11 events here in Missouri.

 Today we can assist by filling sand bags and having them ready to go when called up.  On February 20, we need volunteers to join us and help fill sandbags and get them on pallets, ready for shipment to the sites when needed.  When the floods strike, it is too late.  We must prepare and be ready.  That will be here at the church at 9AM.  If interested, call the church office and leave your name and number so we have an idea of how many volunteers we will have.

 Next, the Missouri Baptist convention is seeking churches that are willing to consider partnering with churches in Montana.  This spring we will send a small team to examine and survey opportunities in Montana.

 Finally, we have been going and working in international partnerships, most recently in Panama, for almost twenty years.  While the Covid vaccine is slowly being made available, international travel requires time for quarantine which makes a one-week trip impossible to accomplish.  We are still optimistic and have scheduled a tentative return mission trip to Panama, July 31 – August 7.  But, we will go only if we are confident that it is safe to do so, and we are not time constrained by the quarantine.

 This is our plan for 2021.  International, domestic, disaster relief work, bathed in your prayers and your willingness to go and give.  We continue to support missionaries around the world through Cooperative Giving Program with thousands of other Southern Baptist Churches.  Your continued giving to the Lottie Moon Christmas offering for international missions and the Annie Armstrong offering of North American missions keeps spreading the good news of the gospel.   Every missionary I speak to, without exception, says “Thank you” for giving to Lottie Moon or Annie Armstrong because without those offerings, they would not be able to go.  They rely on you!