July 2, 2020
Colossians 2:5-7
For though I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit and delight to see how disciplined you are and how firm your faith in Christ is.
So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.

New International Version (NIV)
My friend Harry said goodbye to his wife Sally last week.  Their sixty-four year marriage spanned parts of seven decades.  I never knew how Harry met Sally.  It turns out it was in a library.  Then they went to a Dirt Track Car Race for their first date.  But last week they said goodbye.  They had moved away from our area when Hurricane Harvey came through.  I missed them so much I called to see if they were ok.  This week I stood with him beside her grave.  With their remarkable family, I was honored to honor the life of his amazing wife.  Just seeing Harry helped.  I so rarely see any of my sheep these days.  Some time that morning it hit me that I’m never quite sure if the shepherd takes care of the sheep or the sheep take care of the shepherd.

Paul pastored from a distance, too.  So often he started a church and then the Lord took him somewhere else to start another church.  But he never forgot the people.  Paul didn’t even start the church in Colosse.  But he felt like he knew them.  Why would they care what a prisoner in another city thought about their church?  Well, he had been their pastor’s pastor in Ephesus.  Now their pastor was with Paul in prison.  So he acknowledged his absence from them but said, in effect, “I am with you in spirit and I am watching over you.”  He urged them to continue to live their lives in Christ, rooted, built up and strengthened, overflowing with thankfulness. 

Will this season of absence from corporate worship in person cause our hearts to grow fonder for each other or make us give up on assembling together?  One pastor friend lamented to other pastors, “We will never see some of our people again.”  We know that the enemy comes to steal, kill and destroy.  He would love to divide the body of Christ.  Pervasive anxiety threatens to undo us.  What do we do when we can’t see each other face to face?  We continue to grow in Christ.  Paul wrote to the Philippians, “As you have always obeyed in my presence, now much more in my absence continue to work our your salvation with fear and trembling.”

So how are we doing?  Someday, there will be an end to this season of Covid-19.  Who will we be on that day?  Will we be closer to Christ or farther away from him?  Will we still love Christ’s church?  Both shepherds and sheep want to know. We need each other to get through this.  I’m never quite sure if the shepherd takes care of the sheep or the sheep take care of the shepherd.  I’m pretty sure it’s both!

Pray with me:         
Father, you are our Shepherd.  Thank you for giving us what we need to grow spiritually.  Guide us on your path through this time of crisis.  Do not let us wander off on our own.  You would leave 99 to find one.  So if one sheep has wandered, help us to find them and to care for them.  We pray also for your undershepherds who feel the stress of all the challenges of life and in addition feel the weight of responsibility to care for the souls of their sheep.  Help their ministries to be a joy and not a burden.  By your Spirit fill us with faith, hope and love as we take care of each other.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.
Join us in memorizing the Word.  Scripture for this week:    
Matthew 6:7-8
And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.  Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
Our 2020 Every Day with Jesus readings will follow the Foundations New Testament reading plan.  Copies of the reading plan are available at Tallowood Baptist Church, or download your copy at REPLICATE.ORG 
We would love for you to join us as we read the New Testament through this year, five chapters a week.  In addition I will continue my long-standing practice of reading one Psalm a day through the year.  Use Robby Gallaty’s H. E. A. R. plan to study each chapter (also found at REPLICATE.ORG). Highlight verses which speak to you, explain what they mean in your own words in a journal, apply them to your own life, then respond by doing what God tells you to do.  
Joyfully, 
Duane 

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