The Sweet Dropper

INFORM

Whence the name ‘Sweet Counsel’? It has a connection both to my blog “The Sweet Dropper” and to Psalm 55:14. The Psalm is a lament about betrayal at the hands of a friend. In v.14 the singer looks back at the friendship and remembers how “We used to take sweet counsel together; within God’s house we walked in the throng.” I’ve seized on that image of walking together in fellowship in God’s house by grabbing that name to describe what I want to do with these weekly updates.

PDS pastor appreciation: The students at Presbyterian Day School put on a fine “Pastor Appreciation Day” program this morning. The students invite their pastor to come, and PDS puts on a brunch in the Jackson Room, followed by a program in the sanctuary with music, skits, Scripture and poetry recitals, and, this year, a puppet show. It means so much to students when their pastor comes. I always receive encouraging words from the pastors as well. The ministry of PDS means a lot to them. They see the difference PDS is making in their Sunday School classes and in the spiritual well-being of the families who send their children to PDS.

Local boy hits the big time. Among the crowd here last week for Presbytery was a son of this congregation, Dr. Tom Elkin. Tom has joined the pastoral staff of FPC Jackson in February 2009, after retiring as a clinical psychologist and Adjunct Staff Minister at Independent Presbyterian in Memphis, TN. He earned a B.A. from Belhaven College in 1962 and B.D. from Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, GA in 1965. He earned his Ph.D. from Fuller Graduate School of Psychology in Pasadena, CA in 1972. Tom told me he looks forward to seeing us here in Attala County from time to time.

MEANDER

The term $1 trillion has been floating around lately. Consider this:

• If you spent a $1 million per day, ever day from the birth of Christ, in 2009 you’d only be about 3/4 of the way to a trillion.
• If you got $1 every second, it would take almost 32,000 years to get to a trillion.
• If you stacked a trillion dollar bills on top of each other, it would go 68,000 miles into space–1/3 of the way to the moon.
• If you took 100-dollar bills and put them side to side, it would circle the equator 38.9 times

ANTICIPATE
Morning Worship: I’m preaching Genesis 21, in which Isaac, the child of promise, is born. We’ll sing The Church’s One Foundation and Though I May Speak with Bravest Fire.
Evening Worship: I’ll bring the second message in The Unveiling: the Revelation of Jesus Christ. I’ll suggest some ground rules for reading Revelation. Among the hymns we’ll sing are O Worship the King and Be Still, My Soul.