Covenant Update
Dear Covenant Family:
Today was another great day at Covenant, we had a large group today of 33 attendees. It was great to see Carl Romey back with us, Beverly Wurts was back for her second Sunday in a row, and it was great to see everyone again! Attached is today’s bulletin for your information.
Please keep Madge and Francis in your prayers as it seems it is close to Madge’s time to go home to God. Carl also asked for continued prayers for the family of his nephew who died recently from COVID. Hs nephew left behind a wife and 3 children between 11-15 years of age, so they continue to need our prayers. Also, please continue to pray for Marilyn’s brother who has now moved into a rehab unit at Shands, pray that he will gain enough strength to return home. We also need to keep Tina and Lee Pinkoson in our prayers as Lee’s younger sister died yesterday, her death was not unexpected but still is difficult to deal with the death of a sibling.
Continue to remember our October ministry for SWAG, as well as our 5th Sunday contributions to Pine Grove and toiletries for local high school students. Both of those stacks of contributions grew again this week, thanks so much to you all for your dedication to Covenant ministries!!
Don’s sermon title today was Snake Bit and his scripture was:
Numbers 21:4-9 – They traveled from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea, to go around Edom. But the people grew impatient on the way; 5 they spoke against God and against Moses, and said, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!”
6 Then the Lord sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died. 7 The people came to Moses and said, “We sinned when we spoke against the Lord and against you. Pray that the Lord will take the snakes away from us.” So Moses prayed for the people.
8 The Lord said to Moses, “Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.” 9 So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived.
Don started his sermon by noting that in our society “snake bit” means that someone is unlucky or unfortunate in their life. Don stressed that when we appear to be snake bit that we need to wait for the outcome rather than just complain about the issue in front of us. In the scripture, the Israelites were impatient with God’s plan for them, they were dissatisfied with what God was providing them to eat and drink. When they complained, God showed them that life could actually be much worse, and they had all that they needed. The Israelites now understood they really weren’t as bad off as they thought, they now again appreciated all God had done and was still doing for them, and now going forward did not have to worry anymore about dying from a snake bite.
Don concluded his sermon by noting the irony in that the symbol of medicine, including two snakes intertwined on a pole, sends an interesting message because many people have a fear of snakes yet medicine is the discipline that we have to treat conditions and save lives. For people with interest in this topic further, I found on the Internet that the “caduceus” is the symbol described here, and like many things on the Internet has competing theories. So I will let it go here, but it can be a fascinating topic to investigate further if you are interested. Don concluded by asking if you are groaning and complaining? Or are you instead seeking the answers you need through God ….. because He has given us the answers to everything we need!!!
Have a blessed week, and we hope to see you next Sunday!
Please note that next week I will not be able to send out a weekly update. Cindy and I will be at church next Sunday but will be leaving town right after church as I have some business meetings I need to attend that week. So I hope you can forgive me for missing a week of updates. We will be back for the following Sunday and I should be able to send out an update for that service.
Ron
