Monday Monday!

 What a wild week last week was!  There's still so much to process for so many people who are still without power, possibly without their homes, jobs, and hope.

This morning's Sunrise gives me faith that in the midst of all the turmoil and chaos, God is still working, actively creating "beauty for ashes, and the oil of joy for mourning"...

Isaiah 61:1-3 NKJV

The Good News of Salvation

61 “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me,

Because the Lord has anointed Me

To preach good tidings to the poor;

He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,

To proclaim liberty to the captives,

And the opening of the prison to those who are bound;

2 To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord,

And the day of vengeance of our God;

To comfort all who mourn,

3 To console those who mourn in Zion,

To give them beauty for ashes,

The oil of joy for mourning,

The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;

That they may be called trees of righteousness,

The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.”

I find these words comforting as I think about so many who are hurting and in need of some beauty for their ashes, and an anointing of oil of joy on their hearts and spirits to ease the mourning, and a "garment of praise" to cover them instead of that "spirit of heaviness" that may be trying to overwhelm them. This is my prayer this morning for those who are suffering because of the tragic losses they have had to endure.  May God comfort and keep them and carry them through to higher ground and peace of mind and soul. Amen.

Our choir was supposed to sing this song yesterday morning in church, and here is the pre-recording from our rehearsal earlier in the week. I apologize for the poor quality of the video, not sure what happened. But you can still listen to it and I hope you will especially listen to the words.  I have included them below for you.

Lyrics "Bow the Knee"

"There are moments on our journey following the Lord

Where God illumines every step we take

There are times when circumstances make perfect sense to us

As we try to understand each move, He makes

When the path grows dim and our questions have no answers, turn to Him

Bow the knee

Trust the heart of your Father when the answer goes beyond what you can see

Bow the knee

Lift your eyes toward heaven and believe the One who holds eternity

And when you don't understand the purpose of His plan

In the presence of the King, bow the knee

There are days when clouds surround us, and the rain begins to fall

The cold and lonely winds won't cease to blow

And there seems to be no reason for the suffering we feel

We are tempted to believe God does not know

When the storms arise, don't forget, we live by faith and not by sight

Bow the knee

Trust the heart of your Father when the answer goes beyond what you can see

Bow the knee

Lift your eyes toward heaven and believe the One who holds eternity

And when you don't understand the purpose of His plan

In the presence of the King

Bow the knee

Trust the heart of your Father when the answer goes beyond what you can see

Bow the knee

Lift your eyes toward heaven and believe the One who holds eternity

And when you don't understand the purpose of His plan

In the presence of the King

Bow the knee

Bow the knee

Bow the knee

Bow the knee"

Songwriters: Mike Harland / Christopher Machen

What a perfect song for this past week's events.  I said above that we were "supposed" to sing this in church yesterday, but things got changed.  Thankfully our church had not been hit with any power outage from the storm, but unfortunately some folks in the same community had been without power since Thursday night.  While we were in our Adult Sunday School class before church, the power company stopped by and informed us that they would have to shut down the electricity for about a half hour or more while they reconnected the power to the rest of the street. That would coincide pretty much with our worship service times, and so we would be without power in church, which meant no lights, no microphones, no sound system, no AC.  Since this particular song had to be sung to an accompaniment CD, we would not be able to sing it during this service.  We ended up singing a hymn from the hymnbook acapella, which is what we had to do for all of the congregational hymns as well, because our "piano/organ" is all electronic.  So we had a different kind of service yesterday in the semi-darkness (thankfully it was a sunny day and there was plenty of "God's Natural Light" shining in the windows), and we also had to do without AC for a while, which wasn't too bad since the AC had been on prior to shutting down for that little bit of time, so we didn't have to pull out our fans for long.  Thankfully the power came back on about midway through the Pastor's sermon.  I sat there thinking how terribly spoiled we are...there were many people in our state and up above us in the other states are doing without power, water, and may even have been flooded out of their churches and homes.  So we didn't dare to complain about our temporary inconvenience.  

Thankfully also the power was back on in time for our 5th Sunday Potluck dinner after church.  It was also a day to celebrate not only the fact that our church, community, and people had come through the storm virtually unscathed, but also we had planned to honor our Pastor and wife for their service. October is "Pastor Appreciation Month", and although it isn't quite October yet, we figured it was close enough.

Here's the Pastor giving the blessing before the meal...and before he was told the party was for him!

Here he is sans ecclesiastical robes, and totally surprised and blessed. 

I probably caught him with his mouth full here. That's his sweet wife Carol next to him. She is also our choir/worship leader. They are a wonderful couple and we are blessed to have them serving our church.

This is "Buck", who I may have shown you in a post a few weeks ago.  Yesterday was his 94th birthday! Quite a remarkable "young man".  

This couple below is very special. She has been battling cancer for the past year +, and is now doing very very well, praise God! It was stage 4 cancer when diagnosed, but God had other plans. It's a wonderful story of God's grace and healing.

You probably recognize these people. I may have caught them with their mouths full too...LOL.

Just a look at all the happy people. We are very thankful for our church family.

This lady is  "Blessed" to be raising her 5 grandchildren...and she does it with such love and joy. What a blessing they all are to us...

And yes, there was PLENTY of food!

"Praise God from Whom ALL blessings flow!

Praise Him all creatures here below,

Praise Him above ye heavenly hosts,

Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost."

Amen.

So that was the story of yesterday. Today I am having my usual day after a potluck supper blues...won't go into details, but you can figure it out.  Anyway, I probably won't make it to Bible Study this afternoon because of it, but still, I am so thankful for all that God has provided and done for us.  And we look forward to tomorrow, the first day of Ocotober, one of those beloved "ber" months.

So until then I will say good day...have a blessed day wherever you are,  And remember, no matter what you may be dealing with in the days ahead:

"Bow the knee

Trust the heart of your Father when the answer goes beyond what you can see

Bow the knee

Lift your eyes toward heaven and believe the One who holds eternity

And when you don't understand the purpose of His plan

In the presence of the King

Bow the knee"