Pastors' Weekly Message: From Pastor Pat

Greetings Beloved!

I invite you to pause with me for a moment and reflect on the Old Testament Book of Exodus chapter 17 verses 1-7. You are encouraged to read it for yourself; it is included with the Scripture passages below. In this particular text, the Israelites, when faced with crisis, resort to an all too familiar strategy. They lash out at leadership and lament what they lack. The perilous prison-life of Pharaoh is more desirable than the seemingly elusive taste of the Promised Land. They seem to have forgotten all that God has done before and since they’ve left Egypt.

Life has a way of disregarding our need to recover before it serves up another layer of chaos. This never ending tide of “stuff” washes over us and before we can catch our breath, and sweeps us off our feet. It is in these moments when it seems all is lost that we forget what God has already brought us through. 

Do not for a moment think that the real troubles of this time can be wiped away by positive thinking or pretending it’s not that bad. These are the times where we must remind ourselves of the foundation of our faith, that God indeed is our Rock!

In a Christmas film made years before her death, Whitney Houston sang these words, which are also part of Psalm 118:

“I go to the Rock of my salvation, I go to the stone that the builders rejected. I go to the mountain and the mountain stands by me. When the earth all around me is sinking sand, on Christ the solid rock I stand. When I need a shelter, when I need a friend, I go to the Rock.”

Go to the Rock, and have your thirst quenched!

-- Pastor Pat 
pallen@stpaulsk.org