Pastor's Note - September 24 
Our world is raging. And rightly so. Sometimes rage, anger, disappointment, discouragement, grief, and lament are the only rational responses to a broken and sinful world. It is why the Psalms and wisdom literature in the Old Testament have plenty examples of grief and despair. Sometimes, it would seem that if you don’t feel some sense anger or despair, then you aren’t really paying attention. So the world is going to continue to rage. In the midst of this lies a great opportunity for the church. We have the opportunity to be a different kind of community. We can actually be a people of peace and joy and life – dare I say even happiness. Not because we are blind to the needs or brokenness of the world, or aloof and unwilling to get our hands dirty, or because we don’t sometimes feel that same rage and despair; but because whatever pain we experience we know is only temporary. We have a deeper, abiding, permanent joy in the knowledge of our Savior. When the world around us is raging, the church can be an incredible, much-needed oasis of joy and life. I think this will be more and more important to our witness in the days ahead. We can be totally counter-cultural in the simple fact that we are happy. Not naively so, and not without real pains. But we can be content, joyful, and peaceful in a world that desperately longs for these things. And we can be these things because we know the Source of life, joy, and peace. This raging worlds needs Jesus, and we have an opportunity to be the people who demonstrate the joy of knowing Him. What an opportune and important time to be the church of Jesus Christ!