I just sat in on a planning meeting of the team that leads our ministry to youth. Great group who are zealous for Christ and to see Him adored and followed by middle and high school students. You WILL be hearing more from them in weeks to come.

Joey Roberts, Steven Eicholtz, Angela White, Tori Jacobs, Anthony D’Augustino

Tomorrow we will sing together
Come Thou Fount Of Every Blessing

Here’s a great 2 minute bio on the author, Robert Robinson

http://youtu.be/sg5m7f5iUAU

Yesterday Bob Ausband toured Narnia and wrote:

“It was my delight to look in on the Vacation Bible School at CCC on the final day of the event. It occurred to me that God was smiling too. There were about 100 children in their yellow shirts, and 30 to 40 adults in their red shirts. The theme was “Narnia”, and the leaders had just outdone themselves preparing the classrooms, the main corridor, and the outdoors, for the learning and the participation. (And need I mention the refreshments?)”

Looking toward Philippians 3 Sunday:

A couple of months ago, while preparing to teach on Philippians, I dug out a book written by a family friend. Knox Chamblin’s book “Paul & the Self: Apostolic Teaching for Personal Wholeness”

My sweet daughter (who certifiably rocked it as the Kindergarten leader at VBS this week) is not quite named after Dr. Chamblin’s mother Olivia, but almost.

Anyway, in his chapter entitled “The Conquest of Pride” Chamblin has these great quotes:
“Whatever confidence Paul may have felt on account of his past is demolished in an awful moment of disillusionment.”
&
“Paul’s recognition of his guilt doesn’t leave him engulfed in self-pity, nor does his renunciation of the past leave him frozen in inactivity. On the contrary, the grace that crushes his pride renews and redirects his zeal.”

Then, in celebrating the way that Christ has conquered our pride, Dr. Chamblin quotes Isaac Watts and Miss Flannery.

When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of Glory died;
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.

“Mr. Head stood appalled, judging himself with the thoroughness of God, while the action of mercy covered his pride like a flame and consumed it. He had never thought himself a great sinner before but he saw now that his true depravity had been hidden from him lest it cause him despair. He realized that he was forgiven for sins from the beginning of time, when he had conceived in his own heart the sin of Adam.”
–Flannery O’Connor