{Evangelical Orthodoxy) 925 South Shamrock Avenue, Monrovia, California Bishop Dr. Wm. LaRue Dillard Parish-shepherd/Soul-watcher Office (626)358-2136 * Fax (626) 303-2477 Email: sbcmon@aol.com www.sbcmonrovia.org
Epistle
February 19, 2017
WHEN THE BLACK DARKNESS OF LONELINESS ENSHROUDS YOU! (Psalm 42:1-11) Sons and Daughters of my Flock, Grace to You! Your darkness may have drawn the curtain down on your day and it became night again for you. The sweet stillness of the night invites you to rest. We say to ourselves, “Everything must wait until tomorrow. There is nothing that can be done tonight.” But then, after a few hours of sleep, long before your bodies or psyches are rested, your minds stir you awake. It’s still night and the black darkness enshrouds you. And that’s when you realize that there is something you can do before tomorrow; you can worry and wrestle. Suddenly you are attacked by the pestilence which stalks its prey in the dark hours of the night. Perhaps all your questions about why of your suffering, when you’ve done your best to please the Lord by going to church weekly praying and reading your Bible. You feel alone and vulnerable. You lie awake and feel the full impact of the reality and aloneness long before dawn to bless you with distracting diversion of Sunday morning when you can go to worship. While you are waiting for time to come, the darkness around you is matched by the darkness of the night in your souls. You may quickly discover that the dark night of your suffering is not limited to sleepless hours. It can come in the brightness of high noon or in an ungraded moment. What you need to do is surrender it to God by faith. It might even call for fasting as the Lord directs you. At any unguarded moment when our own or others’ suffering gets at us, the demanded question slips from our hearts, “Why, God, why?” And with that its night again regardless of the time of day. What is the black darkness for you? Your own physical pain or disability? The emotional tension of unresolved memories or fear of the future? Disappointment over life, your children, yourself or someone else? Loneliness that’s deeper than the absence of people is it grief over the loss of a love one that no amount of time seems to heal turbulent worry over what’s happening to a love one or friend whose pain has invaded your heart? Psalm 42:8 says, “The Lord will command His lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night His song shall be with me---a prayer to the God of my life.” Amen Until He Comes, I Am Serving Christ Joyfully, U|á{ÉÑ WÜA jÅA _t eâx W|ÄÄtÜw Parish under-shepherd
THEME: “BORN AGAIN- WHAT HAPPENS IN THIS NEW BIRTH” JOHN 3: 1-18