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03/06/2007: "Thanks be to God"

music: Mix I made for my wife
mood: humbled by Christ

This evening before we began our Tuesday Lenten service at one of my vicarage parishes, I decided to take a moment during the brief announcement time to update the congregation on some things. First, I informed them that I was a bout to finish adult confirmation on a lady who (along with her husband and their two children) will be joining our congregation with the full gifts of Christ for those who "rightly discern the body" (1 Corinthians 11:29). I also informed them that the new members would be having us (My Bishop) Baptise their youngest daughter.
Well, for those of you who know me, I can't pass up a teaching moment. For the next couple of minutes, I talked about the miracle and wonder of the gifts of Christ. How we were going to be witnesses to the miracle of Holy Baptism and how that Child would be marked by Christ. Along with that, we would once again take of the Holy Sacrament of the Lord's Supper and be the recipients of the forgiveness of sins promised therein. (I said "WE" even though I will be preaching at my Bishops congregation while he gives my two parishes communion) I told them that I would be racing from Rawlins back to that parish to take part in the celebration of the :
1) Confirmation
2) Welcoming 4 New members
3) Baptism
Just then I stopped... I couldn't say anything, so I started looking around at the congregation. Everybody had the most hopeful looks on their faces. I even saw two ladies weeping. Just then it dawned on me what I was seeing. This was a congregation that hasn't seen a Baptism in YEARS... they have not had a new member in years... for just a moment, I looked at people who were seeing HOPE for the first time in a long time. After years of basically coming to terms with the idea that they were just going to sit there and die, I saw their eyes change from defeat, to hope.
This Church is not dead until it is dead. Until then, by the Grace of God, I will continue preaching, teaching and OUTREACHING with the good news of Christ. I pray that anyone reading this would keep these people in your prayers.