Blessings to you, beloved BBT family and friends.  Read on for your weekly chronicle.

Last Sunday you elected to make me the pastor of this church.  I can’t express in words what that means to me.  I’m hesitant to even try, knowing why it became necessary for us to have a new pastor.  I can never replace Pastor David.  I am honored to follow in his footsteps and I pray regularly for the wisdom to lead the church into this new season.  I will need your help, and I’m so grateful to all of you who stepped right up to offer it when asked.

Priscilla has always been an integral part of what we do, giving selflessly above and beyond what might be expected of a pastor’s wife.  We were pleased to offer her an official position at the church, which she accepted.  I hope we’ll all find a moment to let her know how much we love her and appreciate her determination to keep serving after such a devastating loss.

During the Sunday school period, she engaged us in a conversation about why people might be resistant to the call to make Jesus Lord of their lives.  I spoke from John 9 of another of Jesus’ miracles done with a greater purpose in mind.  If you are wondering where the podcast episodes are, they are still trapped on my digital recorder, which I left at the church running.  I hope that the resultant file is not so large that I cannot edit it to extract the lessons.

This week I am going to continue from the same chapter with the rest of the story.  After Jesus healed the man who was blind, the people hauled the man up before the Jewish leadership.  Under hostile questioning, he again offers powerful testimony about what Jesus did for him.  But they still refuse to believe and throw him out of their synagogue.  When Jesus hears of this He finds the man and powerfully summarizes what this all means.  In the interest of time we’ll begin in verse 24 and read to the end of the chapter, but Jesus isn’t done speaking.  Next week we’ll cover more of what He has to say in Chapter 10.

Priscilla and Kimie will be out for a much deserved vacation this Sunday, but I think we have all the transportation that Priscilla provides worked out.  They’ll be missed, but we are happy to give them some time for themselves.  Keep praying for them and the rest of the family.  I’m not sure yet what the Sunday school session will look like, but I hope you’ll come ready to share something that God has shown you.  Bring your questions too. We can talk about the answers, or we can resolve to look into them together at a later date.

I love you.  Keep on loving each other.  See you Sunday!

Larry