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Pastor’s Paragraphs: September 8, 2017

Some of you were not here Sunday and did not get the Week of Prayer brochure which was in the bulletin.  This coming week is a concentrated time of prayer for this state and various Great Commission Ministries of the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions and the Alabama Woman’s Missionary Union.

In addition to the week of prayer information which was in the brochure, the Myers-Mallory Mission Offering will help fund these various ministries.  We are blessed with more than sixty missionaries who are leading our churches in reaching our state for Christ by empowering churches of all sizes in their work, revitalizing others through strategic prayer and planning as well as starting new work.  Additionally, this offering helps support the work of disaster relief coordinated through our state convention.  Hundreds of Alabama Baptists have been trained and others are undergoing training at this time to respond to disasters both in our state as well as in places like Louisiana and Texas.  The work of Woman’s Missionary Union, organizations like GAs and RAs and camps like Shocco Springs and WorldSong Mission Place are encouraged to continue missions training and support through this offering.

I trust that you will share in this offering which meets these and other needs in our own state.  While Alabama is known as one of the most religious of all states, there are still vast populations in our state who have no relationship to Christ.  Alabama Baptists are uniquely blessed with tremendous capability to support our churches and to lead us forward in evangelism and missional living.  Join me in making your offering toward our church goal of $9,000.

Recently the church nominated Deacons for the coming three-year term of service.  We are pleased to report to you that twelve will be elected to serve this coming Sunday morning.   Some of these will be ordained as Deacons in the Installation Service on Sunday evening, September 17.  Please keep all of these men and their families in prayer as they are elected on Sunday morning.

This is a “last call” for anyone for “SERVE DAY” on Saturday morning.  Be at the church by 8 a.m. if you will be willing to serve in one of the two designated ministry opportunities.

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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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