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Page B4
March 03.2004
R eligion
Vancouver Baptist
Celebrates Anniversary
V ancouver Avenue First
B a p tist C h u rc h , 3138 N.
Vancouver Ave., is celebrat­
ing its 59lh anniversary with
several special events.
All members old and new
are invited to join services on
Thursday, March 11 at 7 p.m.,
Friday, March 12 at 7 p.m., a
celebration that includes a
“potluck supper” on Saturday,
March 13 and a special Sun­
day, March 14 event at 3:30
p.m.
The church is one of Port­
land oldest African-A m eri­
can congregations. The late
civil rights leader, Dr. Rev.
Martin Luther King Jr., vis­
ited the congregation during
a visit to Portland during the
1960s.
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A1 Green Enters Gospel Hall of Fame
(AP) — A1 Green and Sandi Patty led a
diverse quartet of industry veterans inducted
into the Gospel Music Hall o f Fame.
"W e always want to honor the spectrum of
music that has the gospel in it,” said Gospel
Music Association President John Sty 11, “For
us, it’s not about the style, it’s about the
message, and it’s a way of showing that the
gospel can be packaged in any number of
w ays.”
A lso in d u cte d T h u rsd ay w ere V estal
Goodman, who died in December o f flu com ­
plications, and BM1 President Frances W.
Preston.
G reen said he w asn’t recognized by the
m u sic’s G ram m y Awards com m unity until
he made a gospel record.
“I made records and records and records
and didn’t win a one. I come to Nashville, cut
a gospel record, and they give me two,” he
said.
Patty, the all-time Dove Award leader among
female artists with 39, said she appreciates the
growth and diversity of gospel music.
“ I’m a mom of many teenagers, and I’m
thrilled there are groups out there like Third
Day and MercyMe that my kids absolutely
love, and they’re not only getting great music,
but they’re getting good stuff for their heart,
too,” she said.
AI Green is inducted into the Gospel Music Hall o f Fame. (AP photo)
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Meditate On Positive Things
by E thei . J. B ates
T he P ortland O bserver
Phil. 4;8, says “Finally brethren,
whatever things are true, whatever
things are noble, whatever things
are just, whatever things are pure,
whatever things are lovely, what­
ever things are of good report, if
there is any virtue and if there is
anything praiseworthy-meditate on
these things.
The significance of these words
can be appreciated only when we
picture the environment from which
they w ere p e n n e d — a
filthy first-century prison.
How could Paul write
about such p o sitiv e
things, in such a negative
place? Why didn’t he men­
tion the stench, the cold,
the bugs, the m istreat­
ment, the loneliness, and the poor
nourishment suffered in the prison
from which he was writing?
The answer to this question is
found in the verse itself. Paul didn't
want the church at Philippi— or
us— to focus on the negatives. In
this joyous book, he tells us to
center our thinking on positives
things of good report, virtuous,
and praiseworthy.
If we are constantly thinking
about our negative circumstances,
we never will have peace. Our
thought patterns are extremely im­
portant to our mental, physical and
spiritual health. We can literally
think ourselves into mental and
physical distress. Doctors attest to
the fact that a large percentage of
physical illness has a psychologi­
cal basis.
What are you meditating on?
What is your mind murmuring to
your heart? As we move into 2004
what “things” have you not left
behind? What injustice have you
not forgiven, and how does one get
Satan knows our weaknesses
and our strengths, just as God
does, and in this narrative Paul is
persistent in his warning to us.
He says, “D on’t copy the cus­
toms of this w orld” that are usu­
ally selfish and often corrupting.
W ise Christians decide that much
worldly behavior is off lim its for
them. O ur refusal to conform to
this world’svalues however, must
go even deeper than jus, behav­
ior and custom s, it must be firmly
planted in our mind: “Let God
_____ transform you into a new
Let God transform person by changing the
way you think.”
you into a new person
This Scripture really ,
helped
me recently, as I
by changing the way
was dealing with a per­
you think. -E th e l J. Bates
sonal issue. I knew in my
heart the right thing to do;
a joyful heart? Through joyful cir­ yet I struggled to transfer that
cumstances? No. Paul’s circum­ knowledge into action. It was a
stances were not joyful. There was spiritual warfare between that old
nothing joyful about being in sinful nature, and the new Christian
prison. But he said, “I have learned that the Holy Spirit is developing
to be content in whatever situation within me. When we spend time
I found myself. This contentment meditatingon God ' s precepts, man -
that Paul speaks about, comes only dates and principles, and invite the
as the result of a right relationship Holy Spirit to renew, reeducate, and
with God, and allowing his word to redirect our minds we will be truly
“renew" your mind. Paul wrote, transformed.
"And do no, be conformed to this
Ethel J. Bates is a minister for
world, but be transformed by the the Allen Temple AME Church in
renewing of your mind.”
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