Sunday, August 19, 2007

A Great Day!

My favorite occasion in the life of the church family is baptism day. It is such a joyful thing to see people sure of their faith and what Jesus has done for them, and desiring to make a public profession of that faith and a commitment to the local church body. Today's baptism was especially sweet because it was bearing the fruit of Dai's four years as youth counselor and our 10+ years of bringing her nephew Kevin to church every weekend and living the Christian life before him. I can't tell you how thrilled we are that he has chosen to take this step in following Jesus.






Besides the four young men from the youth group, the fifth person to be baptised is the mother of a man in our church. She is the one who removed the idols from her home in early June. God is at work! May He continue to show Himself powerful in our midst, and may we live lives that reflect His glory!

Sunday, August 05, 2007

"The Thoughts of God"

by Francis Ridley Havergal

They say there is a hollow, safe and still,
A point of coolness and repose
Within the centre of the flame, where life might dwell
Unharmed and unconsumed, as in a luminous shell,
Which the bright walls of fire enclosed
In breachless splendour, barrier that no foes
Could pass at will.
There is a point of rest
At the great centre of the cyclone's force
A silence at its secret source:
A child might slumber undistressed,
Without the ruffle of one fairy curl,
In that strange central calm amid the mighty whirl.
So in the centre of these thoughts of God,
Cyclones of power, consuming glory fire.
As we fall overawed
Upon our faces, and are lifted higher
By His great gentleness, and carried nigher
Than unredeemed angels, till we stand
Even in the hollow of His hand
Nay more - we lean upon His breast-
There, there we find a point of perfect rest
And glorious safety. There we see
His thoughts to us-ward, thoughts of peace
That stoop to tenderest love; that still increase
With increase of our need; that never change.
That never fail, or falter, or forget.
O pity infinite!
O royal mercy free!
O gentle climax of the depth and height
Of God's most precious thoughts, most wonderful, most strange!
For I am poor and needy, yet
The Lord Himself, Jehovah, thinketh upon me.