Pastor Joe's Weekly Letter

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Dear Bethania Moravian Family, 

The world seems to be falling apart around us… and I am filled with sadness and sorrow and doubt and fear. After all that has happened in the last three years, the news of yet another school shooting is almost too much to handle. 

When I feel overwhelmed with life, I turn to the Psalms. They are the way that God’s people cry out to Him in our pain, our anguish, our suffering, our fear. Ever since I heard the news about the killing of 19 children and 2 teachers, I have been praying the words of the 130th Psalm. Please join me in this prayer for our children, our neighbors, our country, our lives, ourselves: 

Out of the depths I cry to you, Lord; 

Lord, hear my voice. 

Let your ears be attentive 

to my cry for mercy. 

If you, Lord, kept a record of sins, 

Lord, who could stand? 

But with you there is forgiveness, 

so that we can, with reverence, serve you. 

I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits, 

and in his word I put my hope. 

I wait for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, 

more than watchmen wait for the morning. 

Children put your hope in the Lord, 

for with the Lord is unfailing love 

and with him is full redemption. 

He himself will redeem us from all our sins. 

Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.

Pastor Joe