Truly a blessed day!

I made it back into the blogosphere for the second consecutive day. Yahoo! And to avoid any confusion, I meant that as an exclamation and not as a plug for the company "yahoo!".
Today was a very full day. Of course it had the same amount of hours, minutes, and seconds but they somehow found themselves very full. So what did the day consist of? Well let me tell you...
After the normal routine of waking up, getting dressed, attending to the kids, etc. it was time to get down to church. Our Sunday School begins at 10 am and our adult worship/celebration service is at noon. The kids were excited about their story (the Israelites ask for a king) and their singing and craft time. It is great to see the kids get involved in the class. Paying close attention and interacting through question and answer. And then listening to them sing praises unto the Lord. Please pray along with us that these children would continue to grow in their understanding of the Word of God and by so doing they would be those who worship Him in spirit and in truth. (John 4:24)
Today we had a special communion service with the adults who make up Grace Baptist Church of Curaco de Velez. We truly felt that we as a congregation experienced a special time of communion with the Lord as we placed our entire focus on the wondrous cross. Oh that we would all do this more often. After the message entitled "Why do we partake of the Lord's Supper?"(from 1st Corinthians 11:23-29 and John 19:17-30 and 2nd Corinthians 13:5) I encouraged the congregation to spend some time in self examination while Ruth sang the song "Ante el trono celestial" (Before the throne of God above). We sang the third stanza as a congregation and upon finishing I spoke more of the significance of Christ's death on our behalf and I started to pass out the elements. As I was passing out the elements I noticed that there were several professing believers who abstained from partaking of the elements. So after we had taken the bread and the cup I included in my closing comments that we must all stand before the judgement seat of Christ and so receive reward based on what we have done in the body. I commended those who had abstained from taking communion because I knew that they knew that something was not right between them and the Lord and that they were taking their faith seriously. But of course I didn't leave it there. I went on to encourage them with the words of 1st John 1:9 among others, reminding them that restoration is offered to us through the Lord Jesus Christ. He not only gave His life for ours that He might save us from Hell, but He gave His life for ours that we would no longer live for ourselves but that we would live our lives for Him. I do not share this step-by-step account to puff myself up as a super pastor. I write these words to give glory to God for His work in and through His church. It was so evident today that His Holy Spirit was moving in the hearts of the people of God that fellowship together at Grace Baptist Church of Curaco de Velez, Chile. To God to be the glory for what He is doing in and through His church!
The rest of the day was pleasant as we were able to enjoy a nice meal together as a family, go to the beach and then help out a brother with a special need. But all of these things paled in comparison to our midday mountiantop encounter with the Lord and His people. It truly was a blessed day!
May we not forget to count our blessings, with the greatest one being the reconciliation that we enjoy with the Father through our faith in His Son Jesus Christ.
Daniel (for all)