Although this past January our church has made it plain that we need to ask God's help in becoming more effective in outreach, the coronavirus has come upon our nation unexpectedly with world-wide implications.  Currently we find ourselves in social isolation, and many of our people are trying to make sense of it all - a pandemic of this magnitude that hasn't happened before in our life time. 

Because of this, Gateway plans to spend two weeks on the topic of Finding Meaning in the Wilderness, and one week on the topic of When Financial Loss Leads to Spiritual Gains. 

The scriptures have several examples of when God called someone to a wilderness experience, such as when Elijah spent 3 1/2 years alone, praying for there to be no rain, or when Moses was sent to the Sinai peninsula to watch sheep for forty years, or when the children of Israel were kept in the wilderness for forty years, or when Jesus was moved by the Spirit to go into the wilderness for 40 days, or even Paul as he spent three years in Arabia.  These times of isolation proved to bear rich spiritual changes through the increased focus of these men on the Lord and his will for their lives.  

The second theme of financial loss is also evident in scripture, when Jesus says, "do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume, and where thieves break in and steal..."  or Paul's instruction to Timothy that he would teach the rich of this world "not to focus on their riches but on God, who richly provides us with all things to enjoy."  

Join us every Sunday morning to dive deep into God’s Word concerning these very timely issues.