Announcements
Listening in the Wilderness with Jesus: A Time of Prayer & Fasting for Repentance & Healing
Fridays in July | Details Here
The elders on Session and the pastors are inviting the congregation to join them as they enter into a fast with our Young Adults. Each Friday for the month of July you are invited to fast for lunch and to spend that time in prayer. In this time of fasting we are asking 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. It is asking God to answer the question, “What can we do?”
Prayer & Thanksgiving
International Missions Prayer July Missionary Prayer Guide | View Here
Please pray for our missionaries Hunter and Lauri Lambeth, and for the camps planned for coming months. Last year’s camps touched the lives of over 2000 young people through various camps in Israel and Palestine, through a refugee camp in Greece, and even a camp in Morocco. An estimated 181teens accepted Jesus. Prayer requests: (1) divine blessing on the mini-camps which will take the place of the larger camps this summer; (2) the YL leaders in Jordan that Yousef has been meeting with via ZOOM; (3) the opening up of Morocco in time for the YL North Africa Ministry to take place; (4) the 2 students who will begin YL leadership training this fall; (5) teens in the Holy Land to grow in their understanding of the gospel.
Pray for Christi & Steve Hinkle in the death of Christi’s dad.
Finance | Give Here
Stay tuned for final June 30, 2020 end of year budget numbers! Please contact Rich Frothingham with questions.
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
Once again this week, I regretfully recognized this fact: That which so easily dominates my vision is the here & now, stuff, time, and the constant temptation to inflate “minors” into “majors”. As a contrast, look at Philippians, in which it seems that Paul is seeing himself and everything around him from a more elevated platform – from God’s perspective (not fully, obviously, but at least a tad). In chains? This serves God’s higher purposes. Preaching from tawdry motives? As Mary Poppins would say, pish-posh: the gospel is proclaimed. Listen to God speak from Isaiah 55 – His perspective, His purposes, His salvation, all these are beyond us, “as high as the heavens are above the earth.” The Gospel of Christ is not a fire insurance policy for me – it is the redemption of the cosmos. As we sing, even frustratingly separated, we are proclaiming Him to one another (and that proclamation powerfully unites us), to powers and principalities, to the world around us. As we worship our great God, our small vision is enlarged. What fills your mind and heart today? Close your eyes, lift up your head, and give thanks. That which shackles you to smallness is no more; we are caught up in the grand redemptive work of our lavishly-loving God. Even in the ongoing physical separation, feel the community of faith in singing, “We are Yours…”
We are Yours, Eternal Father, off’ring body, mind and heart.
Take and use us to Your glory, form Yourself in every part.
Lord, Your love brings joy and gladness flowing forth within our soul –
May our very breath and being rise to You, their source and goal.