December 31, 2020

Dear Road Church Friends,

On the last day of this momentous and challenging year, I want to express my gratitude to all of you for your faithfulness to our church despite our inability to hold our usual services since March. I also thank you for your patience as we slowly learned how to produce an abbreviated service for your viewing on-line. Every dark cloud has a silver lining, and for us that has been the technological experience we have gained that enables us to expand the range of our outreach. We will continue to make good use of it even beyond this pandemic when we resume our regular Sunday in-person worship services.

The title of my Sunday message is:  “What Gives You Hope?” 

The New Year is commonly portrayed as a toddler in a diaper and a top hat, usually with a banner across his chest identifying the New Year he represents.

There is no more fitting symbol of New Hope than a child. Children are an expression of our faith in, and hope for, a safe and prosperous future.

I was amazed when I learned that a child was born to one of the families on the Mayflower during it voyage across the Atlantic 400 years ago. The Pilgrims were known as a people of great faith, but those parents take the prize over all the other 100 passengers!

We bring to the coming year our hopes and dreams. There are things we want to leave behind in the old year, and things we want to gain or achieve in the new year. Beginning are always times of high hopes. But where do we find hope and how do we get it?

I have a few thoughts about this I want to share on Sunday. Hope is a gift of God. Hope requires work. Hope is a joyous journey.

The Scripture for this Week is Jeremiah 31:7-14

God gives hope to his discouraged, exiled people.

The Lord says, Sing with joy. Sing songs of praise, The Lord has saved his people. He says,

“I will gather them from the ends of the earth. The blind and the lame will come with them, pregnant women and those about to give birth. None will be left behind. My people will return weeping for joy, praying as I lead them back. I will guide them to streams of water, on a smooth road where they will not stumble. I will be their father. I will gather them and guard them as a shepherd guards his flock. They will sing for joy and be delighted with my gifts of grain and wine and olive oil, sheep and cattle. They will be like a well-watered garden; they will have everything they need. Young women will dance and be happy, and men, young and old, will rejoice. I will comfort them and turn their mourning into joy, their sorrow into gladness.”

 PRAYER

As a new year begins, O Lord, inspire us with a vision that will give us hope, and give us a heart for doing your work, until your will is done and your kingdom comes on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.

Happy New Year, and Blessings to all,

Pastor Norm

January 3, 2021 YouTube service of Road Church: https://youtu.be/LjBfN9zNESs