A Word From Pastor Dan

Sunday our high school graduates did an outstanding job leading us in worship. It was a special time when we could commission our graduates as they go forth in planning for their future. They will be on their mission field as they prepare for their future. It was great to be a part of sending them out. Congratulations to our high school class of 2019!

VBS
Vacation Bible School is one of the most important weeks in our church. It is a week packed full of Bible study, worship and a lot of fun for our kids. Please be in prayer for this week as we have the opportunity to touch a large number of kids with the gospel. It takes a lot of workers for this week to be a success. We look forward to having a fun week but a week that will make a huge difference in the lives of many kids.

Crossover Birmingham
We have the opportunity this year to be the host state for our Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting. Before our convention begins, we have the opportunity to join with many other churches in our state to conduct an evangelistic blitz in the areas around Birmingham. We have joined with First Baptist Church in Pelham and will be working in Shelby County. This will take place on the Saturday before the convention begins. We need volunteers to help us as we share the gospel and make an impact for the Lord in Birmingham. We will leave from our church at 6:30 am and travel to FBC Pelham and have training for the day beginning at 8:30. We will then be off in groups of three to share the gospel. We will be given information to share and literature to give to those we will talk with. We will leave Birmingham at 4:00 and be home by 6:00 PM. I hope that we can count on you to help us represent Eastern Hills for Crossover Birmingham. Please call the church office to get your name of the list to help us with this opportunity or sign up in your Sunday School class.

We hope that you will plan to be with us this Sunday as we worship together on this Memorial Day weekend.

Pastor Dan Harrison

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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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