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standing on the promises of God


we had a great day yesterday, beginning with worship at our church, full of joy, sharing together in the Lord's Supper, and a reminder of how we ought to be investing in one another in love and service. then, our family headed up to bloomsburg in the afternoon for a farewell service for our district superintendent, the rev. dr. Tom Salsgiver.  it was a beautiful service with trumpet, powerful pipe organ, a wonderful choir anthem, and a joyful communion with a huge gathering of folks from the lewisburg district.  it was awesome for me to get to sit with my family and worship, and to pay tribute to the ministry of my friend and mentor.  he has been such a blessing to me and my whole family, supporting us as we moved back to pennsylvania from new jersey, taking a personal interest in me and my well-being in ministry, and expressing great confidence in my call and my gifts.  i respect and admire him, and yesterday it was meaningful to be with a great cloud of witnesses to honor him.
we ended the service by singing the hymn "standing on the promises of God," and it was fantastic! the organ was moving and resonant, and the harmonies were triumphant as the milinovich family - and the whole congregation - sang boisterously.  Caedmon and Jackson were singing the tenor part with me, and i looked over at little Quinton, and he was singing his heart out, too, but he was the only one singing out of a book.  the rest of us were singing off the screen.  Quinton can't read yet, of course, so he was just holding the book and pretending to read the words out of it, which was fine except for one thing: he wasn't holding a hymnal.  he was holding a bible.  i had a bit of a chuckle about it, until i realized it was perfect.  just absolutely - if accidentally - perfect.  we were singing about standing on God's promises, and Quinton was showing us where we find those promises.  it was just a simple and joyful reminder of a wonderful truth of our faith: that God has given us great promises in the scriptures, and we can stand on them with confidence and joy.
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