What a Day May Bring Forth

One never knows what a day will bring forth. 

Sunday morning when I got up and came out to the kitchen, I discovered a message from Danny on our family chat--complete with pictures. 

He had rushed off before 6 to help fight another fire at the notorious Sunrise Apartments in Mission. This whole complex burned yesterday morning. 

Only two people were living in the whole complex, or at least that is all who were in the building when the fire chief evacuated them. We've heard the owners of the apartment complexes would just as soon the places burn because they aren't worth fixing up only to have bad renters who are into drugs, alcohol, and crime. 

Meanwhile at home, I discovered this scene outside our front window near the zinnia bed near our front deck. 

A good bit more peaceful than the chaotic scene Danny was involved in. 

At nine our time, I tuned in online to Beavertown God's Missionary Church where the Jeremy Reese family was one of the special singers today, singing "He Will Carry You."

Jeremy's dad, Bill, is supposed to be here in South Dakota this week at wakes and a funeral.

They did not know a "sister" (as the song says) in South Dakota was photographing them with her own face reflected behind them on the screen as she listened. 

There is no problem too big
God cannot solve it
There is no mountain too tall
God cannot move it

There is no storm too dark
God cannot calm it
There is no sorrow too deep
He cannot soothe it

Oh, if He carried the weight of the world upon His shoulders
I know my brother that He will carry you
Oh, if He carried the weight of the world upon His shoulders
I know my sister that He will carry you.

https://www.streetdirectory.com/lyricadvisor/song/clcfwe/he_will_carry_you/

A lot is happening this week, and we need to be carried by God!

That is why we humble ourselves each week to attend church and acknowledge God and our need of Him, for without Him, where would we be?

I heard Danny slip into the seat behind me about halfway through the morning service. He knew Pastor Ambrose wouldn't mind him showing up in the same clothes he'd fought fire in. Had he gone home to shower and change, service would have been over.

But I don't know that he was expecting Pastor to ask him to help serve Communion! I sneaked a peek at a lady across from me, and saw her smile as Danny strode up front, smoky pants and all! Pastor Ambrose, a former army vet and one of the humblest pastors I know, accepted bread from Danny's hand before prayer time. 

It is always a special time--communion Sunday. 

Ladies at the White River Care Center have been begging to go to church with us, and to have communion. So, armed with the leftover oyster cracker "bread" and grape juice, we took the elements with us to the care center and invited several who wanted to share in the service out to the front porch.

There the residents wheeled themselves or walked out and found seats on benches. Crystal, Hannah, and Jonathan and I sang, "What Can Wash Away My Sin?" and then Jonathan shared Scriptures before handing out the elements. Prayer was raised, and at the end, as our family began to sing the first of three verses of "He is Lord!" one of the ladies whom I had helped wheel outside melted into tears!

It was a precious time of beautiful music and melted hearts!

Reading this book last week about a minister whom Jonathan and I know and have met years ago was a help to me as we headed into a Sunday of ministry. Rowan Fay, a minister under the Pilgrim Holiness denomination, got "out of the box" and found many creative ways to share the gospel. We know that some of the people in this care center are more Catholic than anything, but if we waited until everything was perfect, we would never serve communion. 

This Sunday, God used communion to help someone connect with Him, I really believe that. 

Rather than worry whether someone might be receiving communion unworthily, we chose to look at it as a means of grace, which it most certainly is. Leaving themselves and God to be the judge about it, we simply presented the truth of the gospel and Christ's death and allowed whoever willed to take part in remembering that death.

And then we rejoiced together in His resurrection as we talked about that afterward and sang, "He is Lord!"

"Every knee shall bow, every tongue confess

That Jesus Christ is Lord!" we sang,

while a heart that had probably not received communion or connected with God in many months or years

wept silently.