Dear Faith Family,

We never saw anything like this! (Mark 2:12)

Have you heard those words recently?  Maybe “unprecedented”?  “These are strange times”?  And, although we know that there is nothing new under the sun (Ecclesiastes 1:9),  these are certainly new sights for us:  “U.S. oil prices plunge into negative territory”, I-26 is nearly traffic free, the Walmart parking lot isn’t full, my dining room has become my new office.

Mark 2 finds us in familiar territory.  The familiar gathering of a crowd.  The familiar preaching of His Word.  The familiar neediness of the people.  And then, in drops a physically broken man from the ceiling!  What?!  A sermon sac!  An opportunity for Jesus to demonstrate who He is.

Don’t you just love the audacity and the faithful determination of this man’s friends?!  They couldn’t get to Jesus because of the crowd.  So, up on the roof they went, made an opening, and dumped out the contents of the sermon sac right in front of Jesus as he spoke!

Talk about nerve.  Can you imagine?!  And what did Jesus do with such “unprecedented” circumstances?  Jesus not only healed the man, He demonstrated clearly who He was.  He forgave the man and healed him physically.  Jesus doesn’t just take advantage of opportunities.  He orchestrates opportunities.

Here’s my point.  Rather than feeling constricted by the word quarantine, have you ever considered that God has you in His sermon sac?  How does He want to use you today?  What about Himself does He want to put on display through you today?  Maybe He intends to demonstrate His kindness through a word that you speak to someone.  Maybe He intends to demonstrate His strength by giving you peace during a storm.  Maybe He intends to demonstrate His wisdom as He leads you today.  Maybe He wants to demonstrate His tender faithfulness by making you aware that He is with you right now.

Whatever our God is up to, know that He wants us to see things about our infinite God that we have never seen before.  Are you looking?

In His love,
Pastor Karl