Life Together May 17, 2020

PRAYER & THANKSGIVING

  • We rejoice with Josh & Lou Gaghan on the birth of their daughter, Violet Elizabeth Gaghan, on May 12.

  • Pray for Cullen Rodgers-Gates, Congo Initiative. Please pray for Cullen as he is leaving his position as Executive Director of Congo Initiative-USA to become the new Director of Development and Membership with the National Association of Evangelicals. Please pray for:

    • Strength and energy to continue devoting himself fully to the work of CI over the next 6 weeks, especially in onboarding a new employee that just started. 

    • Grace and wisdom to finish well at CI—knowing how to bring proper closure to various projects/tasks and how to best support the staff and board leadership as they prepare for his departure. 

    • Perseverance for Mandy as she works hard to finish her dissertation (Th.D, Duke Divinity School) by the end of the summer

    • Energy and Christ-like love in his roles as husband and father--that he would be fully present to his family and serve them well in the midst of this major transition. 

  • Scott Hawkins & Dan Kronstad, International Students, Inc. at Duke. Please pray for:

    • International students with the added stresses of losing internships, not sure when they will be able to return home, loneliness being isolated because of the virus, eager for opportunities to be with friends and weariness of Zoom meetings.

    • Wisdom for knowing how to provide practical service and cultivate meaningful friendships when education is limited to online interactions.

    • Online Bible studies would be used by the Holy Spirit to connect people with one another and with the Lord.

    • Holy Spirit to guide and direct one on one connections in the midst of physical distancing.

LOVE & SERVE

ANNOUNCEMENTS

  • TODAY - Farewell Drive By for Joe & Johnena Brown. Joe, Johnena and family would like to say farewell to their Blacknall family before moving to Ohio. Drive by their home at 3100 Mellwood Dr., Durham, on Sunday, May 17 from 2-5 p.m. to wish them well! 

  • Know Your Neighbor Month - We encourage you to read the book The Art of Neighboring. To join us in this neighboring journey, read more here.

FINANCES

July 1 through April 30, 2020
Actual offerings:        $1,257,220
Offering need:            $1,363,307
Ahead/(behind):        ($106,087)

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

Today begins a several-week foray into and through the magnificence of 1 Corinthians 15. If chapter 13 is dubbed the “love chapter,” surely now we enter the “resurrection chapter.” I leave the exploration in the capable hands of our pastors. The music today speaks for itself, with beauty, poignancy, and power. But one of the songs caught me by surprise this week – the wonderful blessing of God, to overwhelm me with the music and message of a hymn I have played countless times over 50+ years. The last time I played “How Great Thou Art” was almost precisely one year ago, at my father’s funeral. The hymn was a favorite of his because it was treasured by my mother – how could a Swede think otherwise of the hymn she learned by its Swedish title, “O Store Gud”? (By the way, I have all of the original-language verses, if anyone is interested…) Looking at the lyrics, I was struck anew by a series of 4-letter words: Lord, sent, take, and home. We who reverence Christ are caught up in the Lord’s work, crafted before the foundation of the earth, exploding into first-fruits reality with the resurrection. Our home-going (home-taking, according to the hymn) is preceded by the blessings of the Spirit here and now. And as much as I love meaty texts, this refrain may be the most perfect ever written: “Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee, how great Thou art!” It is not to be parsed, but proclaimed. Singing alone is not as fulfilling or “fun” as singing in a packed room, but I hope that each of us will set aside such thoughts – let your heart sing from its fulness, how great Thou art. We are sharers in the blessings from Christ’s resurrection. I predict that the refrain will come to mind again at some point during the rest of day – pause and reprise. Give thanks.

When Christ shall come with shout of acclamation,
And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart!
Then I shall bow in humble adoration
And there proclaim, my God, how great Thou art!

Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee:
How great Thou art, how great Thou art!
Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee
How great Thou art, how great Thou art!