He Still Holds Tomorrow

By Bishop Oscar Pimentel, General Overseer of The Church of God

That blessed song titled “I Know Who Holds Tomorrow” says, in part,

I don’t know about tomorrow
I just live for day to day,
I don’t borrow from the sunshine
For its skies may turn to gray.
I don’t worry o’er the future,
For I know what Jesus said,
And today I’ll walk beside Him,
For He knows what lies ahead.
Many things about tomorrow,
I don’t seem to understand,
But I know who holds tomorrow,
And I know who holds my hand.

None of us know about tomorrow or what it holds, much less what may take place in the next several weeks and months. A year ago this time, none of us foresaw where we would be today, nor the circumstances under which the world would be living currently. Everyone, except the Divine, was caught off-guard and never saw present world conditions coming so swiftly with all its changes in our daily lives. World politics, economics and religion, along with “talk around the table” have all changed. Your life and mine have been altered in some way to some extent in a way not experienced before. In the midst of all the unknown, uncertainty, and changes, the soul whose heart is fixed on the Lord Jesus Christ is able to partake of a peace that passes all understanding because such peace is not founded on anything earthly, but on the heavenly everlasting Word of God.

“The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want… Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me” (Psa. 23:1, 4). If you have not given up on Him, you can be sure that He is still your Shepherd and able to furnish all sustenance and supply every single need you may have. Be encouraged dear saints. We are not the only ones who have ever gone through trials that seem like the dark, dark valley of “the shadow of death,” where we see no sunshine; there have been others before us. Just as they were, so shall we be today; by the grace of God we will fear no evil! Have we forgotten that God is with us in this valley? Did we forget that He has been leading us and has brought us to this place, as terrible as it may be? But He is with us! As a matter of fact, He is nearest to us when we go into the valleys.

As many of you may know, if not all of you, we have had to make some unpleasant decisions and changes concerning many of our year to year activities and events that we enjoy celebrating, along with some that we had hoped to inaugurate for the first time this Assembly year. Our regular scheduled services have been disrupted and put on hold, along with much of the scheduled visits to members’ homes, local churches, regions and nations by workers at every level of the Church. It certainly has made things different for us who are, by nature, creatures of habit and who live lives that are typically undisturbed and tend to think that we know what is on schedule for the year to come.

Perhaps we, in the Church, as a whole, slipped into the mind-set of the man who said, “To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain” (James 4:13). He thought he knew what he would be doing and felt as if he had it all figured out, maybe it was “business and usual” for him, but James goes on to instruct, “Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that” (James 4:14, 15). Did we forget that we are on God’s time clock?!

Days are different and challenging and the Church today is living through circumstances similar to those experienced by our forefathers one hundred years ago, but when world circumstances could have become stumbling stones, they allowed them to become stepping-stones.

There is a proverbial phrase that is often used to encourage optimism and a can-do attitude when facing adversity or perhaps some misfortune, it says, “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” I’m sure you have heard it before; perhaps you’ve even used the phrase. Now that we remember, we may be made to blush if we have not made lemonade with the lemons life has handed us this time, realizing that sometimes things are easier said than done.

Some of us may feel that what we have been experiencing these last several weeks, due to the pandemic, is only bitterness and an undue difficulty in life, and we can find no reason to praise the Lord. We have found all the reasons in the world to complain and be unhappy about present day conditions because we are not doing what we would normally be doing about this time compared to previous years.

What type of Church shall we be? What type of member shall I be? Shall we wallow in what appears to be our misfortune, or shall we rather make the best of our situation? Will we simply stand holding the proverbial lemons, feeling sour or will we make something of our situation? Do you see stumbling stones or stepping-stones? Do you see obstacles or opportunities? There is always something to do, we are not limited to only function in our regular church services, yearly conventions, camps and retreats, are we? I’m sure that if we are interested, and we begin to look we will find that there is something for our hands to do.

Is the only way that I can stay spiritual by attending all the aforementioned activities and events? A daughter was telling her saintly mother about how she didn’t need to go to church to be saved, to which her mother responded, “You’re right, and you don’t need a parachute to jump out of an airplane, but it helps.” Holding and conducting our regular church services and other activities have their very important place in our lives—they help our spirituality—and we will get back to the “regular order of business,” so to speak, if the Lord wills. But have you stopped to think that everything we, you and I—the Church, is going through has been allowed by God to bring about the fulfillment of His Word?

I might be tempted to say, “Well I can’t do this or that, because of the pandemic,” “I can’t go help or reach out, because of the sickness,” “I can’t rejoice,” “I can’t pray,” “I can’t sing,” “I can’t, I can’t, I can’t.” The truth is, “I can’t” never did anything! What about “I can”? Scripture says, “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do….” I just need to find what I can do instead of staring at what I can’t or haven’t been able to do. But I have to seek in order to find—so seek I will, and when I find that which I can do, the Bible says “do it with thy might” (Eccl. 9:10).

During the influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 and all the prohibitions that were put in place, which closed all churches and did not allow any public gatherings of any kind in order to help stem the tide of influenza deaths, Bishop Tomlinson was able to report in his diary the following words, “The Church is growing and the work is spreading in spite of all oppositions and discouragements.”

I must again ask; are we limited to only being able to function if our regular church services and yearly conventions, camps and retreats are going on? The Church is a living, breathing organism, made up of flesh and blood members who were able to adapt to world conditions in 1918 through 1919 and she is able to adapt today and function in 2020. We can have growth despite the pandemic! The gospel of Jesus Christ and the message of the Church has never been so widely spread throughout the world, no not even by our own ministry like it has in the last several weeks. Today many of our ministers have taken to preaching by way of the Internet.

Is it because they wanted to? Is it because they had planned to? No, it’s because they were compelled to do it on account of the present-day circumstances! Some are preaching in prayer band meetings, some are preaching to only their families, some are preaching to folks who never looked twice the way of the cross, some are preaching by phone, video, or audio, some are preaching over different social media platforms like never before and through many other media channels that many would otherwise never have done. “What then? notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretence, or in truth, Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice” (Phil. 1:18).

I’ve heard testimonies from our own ministers where atheists have softened their hearts during this pandemic and have given the gospel a chance, and now, they have believed in God and His Son! We have received reports from Church members that some family members of theirs have come back to the Lord and opened the doors of their homes for the minister to come and talk to them about Jesus! One Church minister has been preaching and singing for over 51 days on social media during this time, no doubt, touching countless lives!

Many of you who were at our past General Assembly may remember that on Saturday afternoon during Sister Sharon Griffin’s WMB program a message and interpretation flashed down into our midst via God’s wireless as the choir sang, and we heard these words, “My children, My children. I am here in your midst this day. This is the year of Jubilee. I say My Church, move forward, put those things that are evil behind. March forward, I am in your strength and in your might. I will give you what you need to march forward, My children. I say unto you, be obedient unto Me this day. I love My children and I want what’s best for you. I want you to march forward this day, saith the Lord thy God.”

I remember hearing these words. I, like many of you, rejoiced as images of a year full of great work, celebration, harvest and growth filled my heart, and I firmly believe that’s the sort of year He expects us to have, but perhaps not the way I have thought or imagined it. Just a few days ago, while I studied, I was reminded of this message from our last Assembly, and I took another look at what the year of Jubilee was in the Old Testament. The prevalent thought that then stuck out to me was the fact that it was a year of rest. All debts were forgiven, every man returned unto his own possession, they did not sow nor reap, the land rested and everything in it rested. What they had routinely done day in and day out for the last forty-nine years would not be done during the year of Jubilee. God scheduled this year for them.

Is this what the message and interpretation meant? I do not know for certain, but I know what I felt just a few days ago when this came to me in study—it was the difference between “What’s going on, Lord? What would You have us to do?” and “Is this what You were telling us at the Assembly?” It would seem that in some sense of the word, we are resting from our normal yearly work that we are so accustomed to doing. Does this mean then that we should do nothing? No, there is still work to do and reason to celebrate, because God still sits on His throne, and we praise Him because it is good. There are still souls to harvest and, while we may not be on the field as we typically would like, there are many souls in our own families and households whom we probably have been around more frequently due to the conditions in the world whom we can and should focus on for the glory of God. There is always room for betterment and growth in our personal relationships with the Lord.

I do not pretend to know everything, and I certainly don’t have all the answers. “Many things about tomorrow, I don’t seem to understand, But I know who holds tomorrow, And I know who holds my hand.” You never know what He has in store. Keep looking up, for our redemption draweth nigh.