Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you, I will uphold you with My Righteous right hand.
-Isaiah 41:10
Dear friends and ministry partners,
As I sit and type this letter to each of you, I know one thing for sure, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are still on the throne of heaven and this is all I need to know. The world is in turmoil like perhaps never before in human history, the seriousness of the pandemic that is now know to us as Covid-19 is without question, and many are living in a growing fog of fear. But this is not the case for those of us who know Jesus as Lord, who have been filled with the Holy Spirit, and know the Father’s love.
As I lead Standing Together into our twentieth year of ministry here in Utah, having just observed our nineteenth anniversary on March 12th, I could never have imagined how 2020 was going to shock us all. I thought this was going to be a year of Kingdom advance, but we are less than 90 days into 2020 and we have already experienced horrific fires of destruction across Australia, the coronavirus pandemic, and today Utah even suffered a 5.7 earthquake. Will 2020 be a year of Kingdom advance or perhaps more of a year of destruction and death? I say it will be a year that God reveals Himself powerfully to our sick and dying world and a year when many will come unto Jesus and be saved!
I choose to stand on the Lord’s side and believe with confidence that 2020 will indeed be an historic year. It will be a year in which God’s holy character and loving mercy will be revealed in ways we could not have ever imagined. The Church of Jesus will learn anew that we are not a building, a program, or a club. We are not to simply seek entertainment and comfort while we dance with the world, but we are to stand out from the world and offer a better way to live life and to share that life is eternal. This is actually an exciting time to be alive brothers and sisters! Let’s live for Jesus!
Don’t misunderstand me, things are truly dire and our world is a crazy place to be right now. We must be cautious, we must respect the leadership of our governing authorities and the wisdom of medical doctors and scientist who are doing all that they can to defeat the scourge we are facing. But we should not walk in fear, but rather fall to our knees and worship and beseech our God to heal our land and our world.
Earlier this month, Standing Together hosted three universities from California and a college ministry from Alabama for our 17th year of hosting Mormon/Evangelical Student Dialogues at six LDS Institutes and at BYU. We met with an LDS General Authority a leader from Seminaries and Institutes, and had dinner at a BYU professors house. We built bridges of love and friendship, our students shared their love for Jesus and amazing things happened. I could not have been more encouraged by the profound conversation that took place during the first two weeks of March.
As we move forward into 2020, God has allowed Standing Together to convene an electronic Strategic Pastors Virus Response Team that will facilitate, through on line video meetings, community prayer and the collective wisdom of our pastors and spiritual leaders.
I know that the days ahead will be challenging financially for all of us and as a ministry we are seeking to trust God, like all of you, for our daily bread and needs. We are trusting Him, just like all of you, to continue our work as we seek to serve him here in Utah through our work of unity and transformation. If you can support us with additional prayer and finances during the days ahead, we’d be most grateful. Honestly, the most important thing you can do for us is to pray that we will be all that Jesus needs us to be here in Utah during this hour of opportunity!
From the Johnson’s of Utah, our love and prayers for you and your family!
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