Friday, March 27, 2020
Pastor John’s Message

Thanks Courtney Casto for Lesson with children.

“Sing to God, sing praise to His name,
extol Him who rides on the clouds–
His name is the Lord–
and rejoice before Him.
A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows,
God in His holy dwelling.
God sets the lonely in families,
He leads forward the prisoners with singing;
but the rebellious live in a sun scorched land.”  (Psalm 68:4-6)

Smile at this, and then think about it:

I was sitting in with my wife one Wednesday evening as she was teaching a five-year-old’s Bible class.  It came time to have some animal crackers, and she asked one of the little boys, Joey, to lead the prayer for the crackers.  Of course, it is always so precious to see children pray, and as Joey bowed his head along with the other children he began a most thorough sweet prayer: “Dear God, thank you for my mommy, my daddy, my brother, my sister. . . great grandfather. . . and thank you for my teacher.  And God, thank you for the animal crackers. . .”  Joey stopped right there in the middle of the prayer.  Everyone began to squirm and get restless.  We waited and waited and finally my wife asked Joey if there was anything wrong.  Joey slowly raised his head and in a very low whisper asked, “Are we going to have anything to drink?”  My wife said no, and immediately he bowed his head and said, “Amen.”

What a lesson in prayer this is for those adults who ritualistically roll through leading prayers, not really conscious of the need of those they are praying for.
–James Hewett