Hillsdale’s Sunday Memorial Day Weekend Service: “The Guidance, Protection, and Loving Care of My Shepherd”

by | May 23, 2020 | Church, Devotional, Faith, Hillsdale Baptist Church

You are invited to Hillsdale’s Sunday Memorial Day Weekend Service, this Sunday, May 24, 2020.

9:45 AM Service – Youth Pastor Justin Jarrett will speak in the Teen\Family Bible Study as he continues his series in the Book of James. This week’s study is titled, Taming Our Twisted Tongues from James 3:1-12. (Please note the entrance doors to the building will open at 9:40 AM and will be closed at 9:50 AM. Per guidelines, please go directly to the auditorium.)
10:30 AM Service – Our Memorial Day worship service will begin promptly and doors to our building will reopen at 10:15 AM and be closed at 10:45 AM. The service will open with a video tribute to those who paid the ultimate sacrifice in service to our nation and be followed by the pastoral staff singing the Navy Hymn, “Eternal Father, Strong to Save.”
Pastor Smith will be continuing his “Coronavirus Series” from Psalm 23. The focus this week is Psalm 23:4, “The Guidance, Protection, and Loving Care of My Shepherd.”
The following is an excerpt from this Sunday’s bulletin: “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” (Edmund Burke)

Anglo/Irish author, statesman and orator, Edmund Burke, is credited with many of my favorite political and philosophical quotes. Burke’s observation regarding the “triumph of evil” when “good men do nothing” is cited with various wordings; however, the essence of his quote is that:

When good men are silent and do nothing; evil men will triumph in the moral, spiritual and political arenas.

I fear that day has come upon us, our nation, and our world. The wicked champion egregious sins and depravity marches in the streets under banners that assert freedom at the sacrifice of lives, individual liberty and happiness.

British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain is credited with a “do nothing” peace agreement that he signed with Adolf Hitler in 1938. Chamberlain returned to England and announced that he had negotiated with Hitler an agreement that would give all Europe, “Peace with honour…Peace for our time.” One year later, Germany’s army invaded Poland and plunged Europe, and eventually the world into World War II and a conflict that would take the lives of 85 million people, including 6 million Jews.

This Memorial weekend we take time to honor those men and women who did not stand by in silence when our nation went to war. Soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines refused to be numbered among the “do nothing” crowd that was so quick to dismiss their honor, and criticize those who made a difference, often at the sacrifice of their youth and their lives.

Warning: While “We the People” choose to “do nothing,” America continues to decline morally, spiritually, and politically. When evil is emboldened, freedom erodes. In the words of the 19th century French philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville:

“America is great because she is good. If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.” 

With love and the heart of a shepherd,

Pastor Travis D. Smith

Senior Pastor

www.HeartofAShepherd.com

Copyright 2020 – Travis D. Smith