Announcements
Photos of Life Together While Apart | Do you have a photo of worshiping from home, gathering over zoom, or another creative way of sharing life together while apart? If you’d like to share, please send them to Mary Grimm. Thank you to Cory Pikaart for the above photo of her family worshiping from home.
NEW Blacknall Classifieds | A forum/exchange to support one another at Blacknall with items for sale, loan, or free; housing or job postings; and community events or opportunities.
Friday Fasts | Fridays During Lunch
You are invited to continue fasting and praying on Fridays during lunch over the next few months. In this time of fasting we are continuing to ask God to reveal what he is doing in each one individually, what he is doing in the Church, in our nation, and in the world. It is a time of prayer for individual and corporate repentance, particularly around the issue of racism. 5 p.m. Zoom Debrief the last Friday of every month.
Prayer & Thanksgiving
Pray for Blacknall missionaries Noe and Bethany Kasali. “On Tuesday, July 28, Selah Jeanine Kasali was born! She and Bethany are doing well, and we’re grateful that we are all back home together as a family.” Noe and Bethany are Blacknall missionaries in Beni, DRC with Bethesda Counseling Center. They are temporarily displaced in Kenya. Prayer requests: (1) thanksgiving for the birth of daughter Selah Jeanine; (2) continual provision for their family; (3) the necessary grants for Bethesda, enabling the counselors to reach into hurting lives around Beni; (4) energy, innovation, and understanding for Noe to guide the counselees while being physically separated from the team; (5) the ability to navigate the COVID pandemic, especially the implications it has for their travel back to the States.
Pray for Carmen & Sean Garrigan (and Nathan and Lily) on the miscarriage of their daughter, Samantha Joy, at 15 weeks.
Pray for Melva & Randy Strait in the death of Melva’s mother, Melva Sobota, 92, on August 11.
FINANCE | GIVE HERE
Our fiscal year ended on June 30. Our total offerings were around $1,690,000 (100.2% of budget), and our expenses will finish around $1,570,000 (93% of budget). The difference of around $120,000 will be transferred to the Future Vision Fund.
We are thankful to God for providing for our needs. We rejoice in the generosity of our congregation in these uncertain times. Please pray for our leadership to make wise decisions in all aspects of our church life.
There are multiple ways to give to Blacknall:
Checks mailed to the church office.
Automatic bank drafts as a part of bill pay directed to Blacknall using your local bank.
Gifts of stock. Contact Rick Every or Carol Smith.
Online giving (including ACH, debit card, and credit card donations). Members can also schedule recurring online gifts when signed on to CCB. Details here.
About the Music
Songs are directional. I encourage you, before singing each week, take note of the basic grammar: who is singing (making the statement, let’s call it the “noun”), and to whom is it being sung (the object)? Today we have three basic musical foci, as our songs are either in the form of brief prayers (“Come, Lord Jesus, come”), or statements sung to one another (especially “Friends in Faith”), or a sort of affirmation of faith, like a sung creed, but spoken to the Lord (“My hope is built…”). The first and third of those seem the most obvious in worship, because we are singing to the Lord. Today, pay particular attention to the middle option, “Friends in Faith.” Give some thought to two instances in Scripture where that word is used. In Exodus, we are told that the Lord spoke to Moses “as a man speaks to a friend.” It was apparently such transformational interaction that Moses’ face glowed, as if the conversation imparted something of God’s radiance; not exactly water-cooler-friend dialogue! Then, in John, reflect on how Jesus elevates the concept when He calls the disciples His friends. The song allows, invites us to address one another at that level: we who are friends of God are to be Godly friends to one another. Look at the encouragement we offer one another as we sing – in effect, it is intercessory prayer. This week, as a name comes to mind, pause and lift that friend to our Friend-Lord seated on the Throne of Grace. And give thanks that others are doing the same for you. Blessings to each of you, my beloved friends!
Friends who strive to follow Jesus,
Walk the way that Jesus trod:
Spirit-filled, in human weakness,
Cast your cares upon our God.
We will arise and follow Jesus –
Lord of grace who calls us friend;
You are life and richest blessing,
Love divine, that knows no end!