A Note From Dan

Change is not easy and is sometimes even considered a “dirty” word. We at Eastern Hills have had our share of change over the past month. Although change causes us to be uncomfortable, it also stretches us and causes us to be more dependent on the Lord to take care of us. It is no different when it comes to our church. We know that God has His hand on Eastern Hills and He has great things in store for us. Thank you for your faithfulness during these days as we make adjustments and as we get use to a ‘new normal’. There are several things that we can do as a church during the coming days. First, we can remain faithful to what God has called us to do. It has never been more apparent than now that He still wants to use us to reach this community for Him. We must trust Him and know that He is depending on us to be faithful to His church with our attendance as well as our support. Second, we must lift up our church and the leadership in your daily prayers. Every day we see how God is leading us and using our church to carry out His purpose. Thank you for faithfulness.

Inserted in this edition of The Messenger is a copy of the proposed budget for 2018. Our Stewardship Committee has worked hard to bring to you a budget that we feel will be challenging as well as meet the needs of our church for the next year. Please review this budget and on November 8th we will have our quarterly business meeting and you will have the opportunity for budget discussion. On Sunday, November 12th, at the end of our morning worship time you will have an opportunity to affirm this budget with your vote to approve and support this budget.

Please be in prayer for several events that are coming up this week. First, on Friday and Saturday we have 20 couples participating in our Marriage Retreat. Dale and Jena Forehand from Birmingham will be leading this retreat and we know that God is going to do great things in the lives of these couples through this retreat. On Sunday, October 29th we will have our annual Fall Festival. This event gives us an opportunity as a church to love on the people in this community and share Christ with them in a safe event as an  alternative to Halloween. We receive a lot of prospects through this event each year that do not have a church home. Come out and have fun and help us as we serve our Lord in our community.

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FOCUSED

One of the casualties of aging to which I find myself a victim is the dimming of the eyes.  Ecclesiastes 12 counsels the young person to remember God, their Creator, in their youth before the aging process takes over and various faculties, as listed in verses 1-7, are diminished.

Clear eyesight when we are young may be something we take for granted. However, as we age the realization that our vision is not as sharp as it once was takes hold. “Readers” become standard fare for all intricate tasks. Our once keen laser sharp focus is now blurry and in need of help to restore its youthfulness. That restoration is found through glasses or some sort of rejuvenating surgery. Especially in the early stages of this degenerative eye problem we may be able to fake it and get by, but eventually we must relent and do something to correct the problem.

There is a parallel between physical and spiritual vision. “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus” was written in the early 20th century. The hymn writer, Helen Lemmel, was strongly influenced by the artist and later little-known missionary, Lilias Trotter. Miss Trotter started off as an aspiring artist but early on felt a call from God to reach the lost. She began her ministry by rescuing prostitutes from the streets of London. Later she went to Africa, without missionary funding, and served for over forty years. While there she penned a poem that would greatly influence the writing of the hymn “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus.”  The poem was entitled “Focused: A Story and Song.” 

The poem centers around focusing one’s attentions fully and completely upon God. She writes that Satan knows that if a person uses all their powers of concentration on being led by God’s Spirit, they will have a great intensity and impact upon those to whom they are called to minister. Lilias Trotter, writing in a more formal use of the English language than we are accustomed, shares some timeless insights which could very easily have been written today but with a different accent. She writes: “Never has it been so easy to live in half a dozen good harmless worlds at once—art, music, social science, games, motoring, the following of some profession, and so on. And between them we run the risk of drifting about, the ‘good’ hiding the ‘best’ even more effectually than it could be hidden downright frivolity with its smothered heartache at its own emptiness.”

The “good” hiding the “best” leads us to emptiness.  Could this be true of us today especially as American Christians? Have we sought the “good” while missing the “best”? The chorus of the hymn, which we will be singing in worship this Sunday, says it best.

                Turn your eyes upon Jesus, Look full in His wonderful face,                                                                                                                                        And the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.

Keith Pate

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