Pastor’s Paragraphs: August 4, 2017

Let me give you an update regarding the Mission VBS with Greg Gosselin and a team from our church, they are part of a larger group serving a church on the outskirts of a U. S. military base in Germany.  God has blessed with a huge group of children both from the military families and others from the surrounding area.  It has been a great time to plant spiritual seeds and to find new families for the church.  Continue to pray for their work and return early next week.  In addition to Greg are Miles and Anne Stepp and LaQuanda Hall.

One of my most favorite books of the Bible is “Philippians.”  This little book of four chapters has been an incredible inspiration to me throughout my ministry.  I am beginning Sunday a series of messages from this marvelous book which will continue to the conclusion of my ministry here.  Let me encourage you to take time to read “Philippians” through this week and plan to be present for all these messages.  Maybe it will become one of your favorites also.

We have been blessed to have Kyle Allen and Cara Walker as our Youth Summer Interns.  They have been among the most effective ever.  Our youth, their families and many in the church family have been amazed at their spirit of dedication and relationship abilities.  While neither knows for sure the final destination God has for them in Kingdom service, both are committed to serving wherever and in whatever area the Lord has for them.  Join me in thanking Kyle and Cara for a job well done!

Think Biblically.  It sounds so simple doesn’t it?  Yet the culture in which we live constantly pushes us to think on its own world view.  We sense it in our commercials, hear it in our language and see it in our movies.  The Bible says that what we think shapes who we are.  The natural mind alone can never distinguish what is good and bad for us.  Isn’t what is happening around us example enough?  If we pay attention, the Bible will give us guidance on matters of lifestyle, gender, science, education, government and economics.  The Bible never intends to replace education, but gives us a frame of reference and filter for much of what we hear and see.

Share this post

Related posts

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

God Leads Us

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not unto your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge…

God is Enough

Immediately Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd.…