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Pastor’s Paragraphs – October 17, 2014

Dr. Rick MarshallOn Sunday morning the congregation will vote to affirm the 2015 Church Budget. Some have asked the reason for voting on a Sunday morning. Doing so is a reminder that the budget is for the whole church. It represents how we get the work of our church done throughout the year.

Unfortunately there are those who take a church budget for granted or fail to see its importance. A church budget represents a spending plan for ministry, not just a wish list. We live in a day and time when most church activities and ministries are planned months or years in advance. Some assume the budget will take care of itself or that someone else will give sacrificially to meet the ministry needs and operational costs for the church. In most churches, including ours, the majority of members give little or nothing financially to the Lord’s work. If we all followed God’s plan of tithing, the budget would be five times larger or more. Over the last few years we have reduced ministry budgets for each of the areas of our church in an effort to keep spending in line with giving by the end of the year.

This year, perhaps because we had a campaign earlier in the year for the sanctuary lighting, we are more behind than usual in budget gifts. Two things are needed. One, an immediate action is to catch up on our regular budget tithes and offerings. The Stewardship Committee has asked us to let the first Sunday in November be a day we demonstrate what we could do if all were faithful in giving and to catch up where we may be behind for the year. A second need is for everyone to assess his or her stewardship and to reach towards God’s plan for giving.

Further, let me remind you that you may contact Donna Brown, Financial Secretary, in the church office if you need information on your budget gifts to date. Also, please note that “On-Line Giving” is available. Many have begun to use it and find it both convenient and secure. Check the church website or see Dan Harrison if you have questions.

I am so pleased with “Connected” on Sunday evenings. Be sure to join us Sunday evening at 6:00 p.m. for this important discipleship opportunity.

L. Rick Marshall

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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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