The Power of Praise and a Look Ahead

It was a great time of worship on Sunday! So many had a part in leading us into the throne room of God in order to offer Him our praise and glory. Thanks to everyone who made Sunday Special. Our choir and orchestra presented the number “I’ve Got Joy” with Claudia Wheeler singing the solo part. Margaret Banton blessed us with her saxophone, playing a great arrangement of “Come Christians Join To Sing”, and Dave King on the flute and Denise Randall on the piano closed our service with an arrangement of “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” Of course, if you weren’t here, you can experience it all by watching the service on our website.

Let me say one more thing. Lynn Bowman became ill at the end of the week, leaving us in need of a pianist. Mike called Richard Drexler on Saturday, and he graciously agreed to fill in the role. He is a great pianist. Not many pianists could do all he did on Sunday on such short notice. Thank you, Richard. We were blessed to have you with us.

NEXT STEPS

I had scheduled another of our Next Steps gatherings for this Saturday. Only four people signed up, and I felt that with all of the effort it takes to put on one of those, it would be better to wait until we could enroll others. So, I canceled the gathering for now. I apologize for the inconvenience; I am confident it was the right thing to do.

19 DAYS AND COUNTING!!

We are down to less than three weeks before we celebrate New Life’s 20th birthday on October 12. Our committee held its final planning session last week, and when we left the

room, I felt confident that everything was covered and it would be a fitting celebration of what God has been doing over these past 20 years. Now, the only thing we do not have under control is the weather. So, I want to ask you to pray that God will give us a beautiful day, 82 and Sunny would be just fine.

AFTERMATH OF THE MURDER OF CHARLIE KIRK

I knew that The Left would be pleased to be rid of a guy who so boldly stood for Christ and proclaimed the truth when Charlie Kirk was murdered on September 10. What surprised me is that so many have been unashamed to publicly rejoice in his death, some to the point of celebration.

I don’t follow professional football, but I was thrilled when Andy Reid, the head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs, stepped up and did the right thing this past week. He dismissed a player from the team who had been expressing his pleasure that Kirk had been taken care of and mocking his death. Reid said in a statement, “We play for pride. We play for Kansas City. If you think mockery defines this team, you won’t touch the field.”

One of the first to criticize Reid was the head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles, Nick Sirianni. He said, “Football has nothing to do with politics, and for someone as conservative as Kirk, even less so.” Of course, I guess that it isn’t politics when NFL players “take a knee” during the national anthem in protest of our country. And of course, it wasn’t politics when the NFL surrendered to Black Lives Matter and even played what they called the “Black National Anthem” along with the National Anthem before the start of games. Sirianni probably approved of that.

All of this just reinforces the fact that Satan is the god of this world, distributing his evil wherever and whenever possible. I believe every day Satan and his followers grow bolder. When I see all of this, I can’t help but remember the words in Isaiah 5:20, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.”