For Such A Time as This May 22, 2020 – Bethany Hoffer

To the Good Folk of the Palmyra Church of the Brethren,

Sunday Worship Service:

Sunday morning, around 8am, you will receive an email with a link to this Sunday's Worship service.  Our worship times in May will hopefully remind, challenge, and encourage us as we continue this journey through a COVID-19 world.  This Sunday I will be preaching on the topic “We Will Adapt.” The service includes some great music, a time of sharing, and prayers.  Please join us as we gather in spirit through our virtual worship service. 

Looking Ahead to Graduation Sunday!  Three day left for graduates to respond!

If you or someone you love is graduating this year (5^th, 8^th or 12^th grades, or post high) we would love for you to be a part of our virtual Graduation Sunday service on June 7! Please take a moment to fill out this short informational form. https://forms.gle/DGLmKDBGHLCbXA5H7

Forms are due this week, no later than Sunday, May 24. Questions about the service may directed to Bethany Hoffer or Rachel Witkovsky.

Joys and Concerns

If you have a joy or concern you would like us to share and pray about, please call, text or email it to me.  If you would like it included in our Sunday Worship sharing and prayer time, please share it with me that week by Friday morning.

Thank You: 

To all who call others to check in on them and share our emails and devotions.

Today’s Devotion:

I am thankful to Bethany Hoffer for providing today’s devotion.  Bethany first shared this devotion on May 3^rd in where weekly Connect post on our website Youth Page.  Thank you, Bethany, for your ministry to and with our youth.  If you wish to respond to Bethany directly, her email address is bhoffer@palmyracob.org .

Shalom,                                                                                                                        Dennis                                                                                                                                  

SCRIPTURE:

Galatians 5:22

By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace...

Luke 1:78-79

By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.

Thoughts:

This verse in Luke is part of a prophecy spoken by Zechariah about his son, John the Baptist. The people of John’s day didn’t have the easiest of lives – particularly those of the Jewish faith. They were suppressed by their government, required to pay taxes to fund projects that were not in line with their faith, and had long been waiting for a savior to come and to break them free. This prophesy of John’s ministry offers hope and the promise of peace.

As I reflected on this, I recognized that one way that I find peace is when I acknowledge the ways that other people and past generations have struggled and made it through issues similar to or even more difficult than those that I am facing. Stories of others triumphing over despair and hopelessness help to bring me strength in tough times. I can find peace in my own life experiences when I reflect on the faith of those who have struggled before me.

When I struggle to find peace in difficult times, I find it best to take a moment to stop and take a step back to look at the big picture of what I am going through. Where can I still find joy? Where can I still find love? And then I look at those stories of those who have struggled before me. There are people and stories that we can look towards as a light to carry us through as we see their hope and their faith. And then when our suffering comes to an end, we can tell our story too and maybe one day we will be the light to carry someone else through their difficult time.

Prayer:

Faithful God, like John the Baptist, may we be guided into the way of peace, and when we find peace, may we help others to find it too.  Amen.