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Pastor’s Paragraphs: June 23, 2017

We are in the midst of an exciting VBS. Like many of you, I can clearly remember some strong spiritual impressions which came to me through VBS. I am confident the same will be true for the children we were privileged to have this week. Join me in a huge thanks to our teachers, youth assistants, support teams, ministers, office staff and especially Brother Greg!

June has been an incredible month for missions events as well as VBS. You will recall our Youth Choir and Carpenters for Christ returned last week from outstanding work. This Saturday a team of Acteens will be traveling to Knoxville, TN on an Acteen Activator Trip. They will be involved in significant mission service work next week. We are proud of our fine Acteens and appreciate leaders Candace McIntosh and Jennifer Noah. Remember to pray for them as they invest their lives in this mission work.

I am still blessed by reading again Kyle Idleman’s book Not A Fan. If you have not read it I urge you to do so. He reminds us that following Jesus always costs us something. That is in contrast to many who want to follow Christ and enjoy the benefits of a church without cost or life changes. How telling it might be if we were to sit down and actually write down what following Jesus has cost us. Fans don’t mind a little touch-up here and there, but few of us are willing for Christ to make us completely new. He thinks overhaul; we think tune-up. He wants a make-over; we want make-up. We think redecorating; He thinks compete remodel. So I ask again, what difference has following Jesus made in your life?
Because of mission trips and bad weather, particularly this past Sunday morning, we have not had many of our people here for Sunday School and worship as usual this month. Let me urge each of us to be in our place this coming Sunday morning.

As you know during the summer we have two or three Sunday evenings set aside for church fellowship. This coming Sunday evening is one of those. Please join your church family and friends at the Sweet Creek Farm Market located at the intersection of Pike Road and Highway 231 South.

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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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