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The Investment is worth it!

Recently I cleaned out my small garden bed, removing the accumulated grass and vegetable plants that had outlived their prime productivity. I then planted some seeds for what I hope will be my fall garden.

Ephesians 6:7-9 is a great passage about seed sowing. Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please the flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

I believe Eastern Hills is on the threshold of great days ahead! God has positioned us to clean out the garden bed and replant so that we may reap a harvest!

Our youth challenged us Sunday morning by sharing what God has been doing in their lives through camps such as Student Life, Super Summer, Mix Music Camp, VBS and Choir Tour!  Not only did we have two great testimonies in worship we had other students who led through singing on the worship team, ensemble and other special music.

Seeds have been planted in these young peoples’ hearts and minds for a number of years here at Eastern Hills Baptist Church! Thank you to Scooter for his superb leadership these past several months as well as countless youth and children’s Sunday School, Missions and Music leaders who have impacted our young people in eternal ways over their lifetime!

These seeds are now firmly planted; some have matured into full grown plants, others into small samplings.  It is through the efforts of many that we now reap a harvest!  Aren’t we glad that we didn’t give up on any of these young people but have continued to pray, encourage, inspire and cultivate the spiritual seed within each of them?

As our pastor, Josh Wootton, joins us this week we stand on the threshold of a new day, a new start!  We celebrate the past and reach forward to grasp what God places before us! The investment we made in days gone by is well worth it!  We continue to invest in lives for the future in preschool, children, youth, college and adult ministry…. to grow God’s Kingdom here on earth!  If you don’t have a place of service presently, invest…join the work!  The field is ripe unto harvest.

To God be the glory!

Keith

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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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