Lutheran Church of Providence

January, 2020 Newsletter

Pastor’s Corner

Well, here it is the end of one year and the beginning of another. Many people are making resolutions to improve their lives and to get a new start on things? I wonder how many people are resolving to grow in their faith and relationship with God. How many are committing to eliminate a certain sin that has been hurting their relationship with God? How many have decided to become more regular in their daily devotion life and in their church attendance to worship God?

Often we concern ourselves with our bodies and not with our souls. Often we want to make our life on earth more complete but neglect to improve our life with God and to prepare ourselves to be with Him forever. God has richly blessed us in the past years and wants us to draw closer to Him so He can bless us even more in the future. God has chosen us through Holy Baptism to be His sons and daughters.

    I predict that the church, Christianity in general and our faith will come under increased pressure in 2020. Satan wants to draw us away from God and will do all he can to be successful. Seldom will he act openly but he will challenge us to “water down” our faith, only observe the parts of our faith that we like, or scam us into believing that we can do whatever we want as long as we tell God ‘I’m sorry.’

Not everyone can and will follow God because He calls us to such a high level and expects us to imitate Him in all ways. Just belonging to a church or saying we are a member isn’t enough. We are required to ‘walk the walk’ and show people who our God is by our actions and not just our words. We need to strive to keep the entire Word of God and not just the parts we want to keep. We need to ‘be about our Father’s business’ daily in all we say and do.

In the years I have been with you at the Lutheran Church of Providence, you have worked hard and helped the church get back on its feet. I thank you from the depths of my being ― but, we aren’t done yet. This year we need to invite others to join us, we need to rebuild our Sunday School, strengthen our bonds with the preschool, serve the underprivileged in our community and strengthen our bonds with God and with one another.

God has a mission for us in the new year and we must tackle it with joy and determination. Again, I thank you for your love and support and I look forward to serving God with you in a new year.

Pastor Weikart