The Sweet Dropper

REMIND

Mississippi Valley Presbytery meets Tuesday at First Presbyterian Church in Louisville. Please pray for us. Also, I continue to receive compliments and expressions of appreciation for the fine work you all did in hosting the February meeting of Presbytery. Your service is not forgotten.

Ladies’ Bible Study/Men’s Forum/Children’s Choir is this Wednesday, May 6, from 6-7 pm after Wednesday night supper.

National Day of Prayer: Public observance coordinated by the Kosciusko-Williamsville Ministerial Association at noon on the north lawn of the Attala County Courthouse.

Homeschool graduation: FPC will host the Attala Home Educators’ homsechool graduation ceremony on Saturday, May 9. Our own Victoria Paton will be among the graduates.

Cookout in honor of the Hollands: Join us at Kosciusko Country Club lake from 4 pm until. There will be games for the entire family, plus a hamburger cookout.

Mission Sunday: Wes Baker of Peru Mission will be here on Sunday, May 17.

REVIEW

Last word on Stewardship in Estate Planning: “What was the basic message of the seminar?” A couple of people who were unable to attend the April 23 seminar have asked me this. Here’s a summary: Bruce Owens and Jim Sutton of MTW encouraged us all to put our “house in order” [Isaiah 38:1]. That phrase has a spiritual dimension ["Am I united to Christ by faith?"], a relational element ["Am I reconciled to and living at peace with people around me?"] and a mechanical element ["Do my documents reflect prudent planning and godly wisdom?"].

Bruce and Jim shared five biblical principles related to stewardship and estate transfer: 1) God owns everything [Psalm 24:1]. 2) The priority of all estate planning is dependency, i.e., we must provide for those who depend on us [1 Timothy 5:8]; 3) The motivation for all estate transfer must be love, whether to family and/or to ministry [John 3:16; 1 Corinthians 13]; 4) People are always more important that dollars [Luke 15:11]; 5) It is required of a servant that he be found faithful [Matthew 25:14-30; 1 Corinthians 4:2]. From there they described a number of vehicles for distribution to family and to ministry, highlighting ways that estate taxes can be legally avoided and ministry gifts can be maximized.

One more thing: Bruce and Jim suggest preparing letters of instruction for household effects, personal effects, and church and funeral plans and preferences. On that last subject, let me remind you that the church office has a helpful Funeral Preparation Worksheet that you can fill out and return to us. On it you can notify us of plans and preferences for your funeral and burial. Filling out one of these worksheets will not make you die one day sooner than the Lord has already determined, and it will make the planning process so much easier for your family, including your church family. Ask Marsha for a worksheet.

Evening Worship: Communion service: Joe Holland will preach on the power of the resurrection from 1 Corinthians 15. This will be Joe’s final preaching series here at FPC.

REFLECT

Awful or Awesome? If you are really an Old School Presbyterian, you will remember Isaac Watts’ hymn as How Sweet and Awful Is the Place. That was the original–well, Watts most likely wrote it as aweful, which gives us insight into the early 18th century usage of the word. Aweful/awful meant, quite literally, full of awe. In our current English usage, awesome means what awful meant in Watts’ day. Awful has come to mean something different to us. I wish the editors of our 1990 Trinity Hymnal would have included an explanatory footnote for the switch from awful to awesome.

The same change has taken place with the word terrible. We have a hymn (#711) entitled God the All-Terrible! Why would God be called terrible? If you told me I had preached a terrible sermon, I would not think you were paying me a compliment. As late as the 19th century, terrible was commonly used to mean wonderful, awe-inspiring.