Secret Mourners
God blesses those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
~Matthew 5:4, NLT
The world sees sin and reports it. The Christian sees sin and mourns it.
~Charles G. Trapp
Sin is exceedingly deceitful and it takes time to see its true nature: once you see it, you are horrified. Richard Alleine was a Puritan writer and he wrote a devotion entitled “Secret Mourners.” He presents some soul searching questions: what bothers us most about sin, the fact that it hurts us and those we love or the fact that it dishonors Holy God? He also mentions the fact that we love to talk about how sinful the world is becoming. It seems that the world loves to report horrible crimes. I don’t watch news because there is never any good news. Even we in the church talk about the wicked “Out There,” instead of dealing with the wickedness of our own hearts. We are bad to throw the first stone and we don’t realize it is a boomerang and it is coming back to us. Yes there is sin out there and it bothers me but my sin bothers me even more. It is not that I do not care about the world, I do, but it is my sin that keeps me from doing more to turn this world to Christ.
David said in Psalm 119, “I beheld the transgressors, and was grieved; because they kept not thy word.” David was grieved because the transgressors were dishonoring God’s word. The world we live in is a fallen world. People do not acknowledge God; they are not thankful and they have no appreciation for His word. They basically live as they please. Alleine charges us with being more concerned with our own affairs than we are the glory of God and in my case, he may be right. I am appalled and, at times, outraged with the sin that is in our American culture but at the same time, much of my concern has to do with the future of my children and grandchildren. Many of us had a dash of hope when Trump got reelected but that hope has been dashed by the presistance of the left whose aim is to destroy the Republic and establish a social democracy {Marxist State}. The Republicans in congress where the first to bestray us and since the caravan of America/Trump haters has gotten even longer. Now the oil industry has sold us out. They have created the shortage just to make sure that Trump supporters are not reelected. So I admit, I am selfish. I want my children and grandchildren to be raised in a free Republic and apart from divine intervention, the free Republic is in jeopardy.
“My flesh and my heart may fail,
But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”
—Psalm 73:26
- Another very pleasant morning with cloud cover and fog at 83 James Road. Our power bill was almost $400 so we need to cut back somewhere. We have five separate A/C units which may be the problem. Anyhow, we love the cooler weather.
- 49er Luncheon Tomorrow @ 11:30
- Tell Gate Party tomorrow @ 5:00
- Don’t forget someone out there needs you to intercede for them today.
- Outdoor Church Sunday September 6 @ 8:00. We are holding to the 8:00 am due to the heat
- GOD’S WORD FOR ALL PEOPLE is Sunday September 13th. I am challenging every member to give $35 to translate a scripture verse so that people who have never had a bible in there language will have one. Our goal is to do the book of JAMES, 108 verses. I think we will give you two Sundays to get your $35, September 13 and 20. So far this year Wycliffe has translated 828,776 verses and we would like to tack on another 100. Wycliffe’s project could effect 2.1 billion people this year. Today there are 535 known people groups that have no scripture at all, not even John 3:16. Your gift of $35 will translate one entire verse. June and I are going to do a verse for ourselves and each of our children. Step up the the plate guys and let’s knock this one out of the park…108 verses for the POINT.
- Slidder and Hotdog supper Wednesday night September 16. Originally had this for the 9th but we decided to use the pavilion and so maybe the weather will be cooler by the 16th.
- Monday October 26…we are hosting the pastor appreciation banquet at the POINT. Things are a little different this year. We will need a 49er type meal because this is also the annual meeting of the executive committee. Instead of feeding 20, we will be feeding 60. We will get the KFC, drinks and rolls but we need your help with the other things. Instead of having the 49er meal on Oct. 23, we are asking the 49ers to help us with the meal on Monday October 26. You do not have to attend the meeting just bring your food at lunch time and stay for lunch. It will work if we have a servant’s heart!
- October 28 is our Bill Smith Jambalaya Supper and our November Wednesday night meal falls on Veterans Day and we are having a stew and Joe is going to have us a video of our veterans at the round table. After the Stew in November, there will be no more Wednesday night suppers until Spring.
- Happy Anniversary to my faithful and devoted wife who does for more for me than anyone could imagine. She even cut my hair yesterday eveing and did a great job. Happy Anniversary Wanda June Marbut Bailey.