Dear brothers and sisters in the faith,
Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always. 1 Chronicles 16:11
No matter the situation. No matter the crisis. No matter the chances, statistics, time frame, or ramifications. Always look to the Lord and his strength. Seek his face always. Why? Because He is always strong. Because He is always waiting for you to ask him for help. Because of Jesus, God is always waiting to rain down grace upon grace to you. Today is no different. As you wonder how this situation will continue to unfold, seek the face of your Savior. Read the Word. Remember how God delivered his people time and time again and finally, how he delivered us all from our sins, our death, and our fear! He will deliver us from this too.
In the meantime, we have had to make some decisions under our current climate. As you may have heard, Governor Evers has issued an order for no more than 10 people to gather together. We will therefore not be having services or any church activities in person until the order is lifted. We pray that time may come soon!
However, the need for God's Word in your life and the lives of all our neighbors has only increased! As we are faced with trying times, God calls us to draw near to him for safety, peace and leadership. So even though we will not be having in-person worship for now, that does not mean that you should be any further from the Word. Have devotions with your family. If you have your meditations booklet, read the devotion and read the extra section referenced at the top. If you have the YouVersion Bible App, begin a plan and read the devotions and scripture associated with it. If you have the WELS app, or if you click on this link: https://wels.net/serving-you/devotions/daily-devotions/, you can read daily devotions there.
Along with those daily things and opportunities for your family to grow closer together to each other and God's Word, I pray that you will be able to tune in to our sermons which will still be posted every Sunday. The exact details of how we will be doing that will be ironed out in the next day or so... but Dave Heup and I will get it streamlined and we may be able to have a livestream service to you by tomorrow night. As we work on that, we will update you so that hopefully, you can tune in live with me and your brothers and sisters in faith, and we can worship together... not in the same building... but still close.
I am excited that in this digital age, we can have this extra opportunity to connect with fellow believers and encourage one another by our shared experience around the Word especially when the going gets tough.
So in short... no Worship, Bible Study or any other activity at church at this time. However, stay tuned for ways to connect with me and your church family to still get the sermon and hopefully a shortened service that we can tune into together live.
You can always reach out to me by email or phone call at 7154603148 if you need assistance, have a prayer request or if you simply need to talk. I and your church family are here for you.
May God bless and keep you this night and may you remember to always seek his face that shines upon you!
In His grace,
Pastor
P.S. Click here to read a recent update from our Synod President that is both comforting and informative.