Maintaining Faith in a Season of Change

Malo Ni, kaiga, (greetings family)! I missed Tokelau language week whilst I was away so I’m just sneaking in a part of the diversity of our beautiful church and nation. It’s great to be back with my wife although I had been struck down a bit just as I got home but thankfully recovered and ready to go this Sunday.

My wife Carolynn, God bless her, was straight back into work and even leading youth on Friday just gone. I’m glad to hear that you were well looked after by wonderful services and speakers with Karen Mitchell and Rev Won Hyuk over the last couple of weeks. I’m sure you were well blessed by them and what God might have said through them. Also for all those who continued to keep the wheels of ministry and relationships going, you all know who you are, our wider community are well blessed by you all.

That’s the church though isn’t it, the Spirit continuing to empower and guide us individually and collectively, weaving it all into waves of ministry as God wills. In doing so, oblivious though we might be to the overarching machinations of God’s plan, many of us might feel that familiar tension between what once was and the uncertainty of what might be. Some of us wait for clear direction; others maybe a little disillusioned by what feels like slow progress and I hope we might hear what God might be saying through our lectionary passages this week, Haggai 2:1-9 and Psalm 98.

In Haggai, the exiles were tasked with rebuilding the temple, but it looked nothing like the past glory of Solomon’s temple and so they were discouraged. We might hear the encouragement of God, “I am with you…My Spirit remains among you. Do not fear.” And in Psalm 98 we find further encouragement in the posture that we might keep, expectancy, praise for what God had done, and the unstoppable future of victory is the gift that should empower us as we journey through this wilderness. We must be strong and continue to work faithfully because the glory of God is guaranteed and God’s promises never return void and the promise that we find in Haggai is this: "The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house." Let us maintain our faith in this season of change.

May God bless you in your continued faithfulness family.

Josh