Saturday, July 26, 2008

Being Light in a Dark Place

I am on my way home from Wichita. It has been a good week of preaching, even though I have ministered under a personal burden I am carrying. God is faithful. And I believe he used me to be a blessing to Pastor Floyd and the Mt. Gilead Church family. However, at the same time, at some point each night I became acutely aware of the fact that I was preaching to myself just as much as anyone else.

Correction: This was my sixth straight year preaching for Pastor Floyd at Gilead, not my fifth. Cool.

I really look forward to getting home to my wife and children in a few hours.

God willing, I will continue my study of the Sermon on the Mount this tomorrow. Last Lord's day, I preached from Matthew 5:13, in which Jesus declares, "You are the salt of the earth." I plan to preach the parallel metaphor tomorrow, recorded in Matthew 5:14-16, in which Jesus declares, "You are the light of the world." I plan to label the message, "Being Light in a Dark Place." But we'll see.

Tomorrow afternoon, I am scheduled to preach the one year anniversary for my friend Pastor Micheal Ealey and his new congregation, The Prevailing in Christ Church. Pastor Ealey first preached me when I was a young teenager. And I often preached for him when he served the Christ Second Baptist Church in Long Beach, where my father pastored before he went to Mt. Sinia.

It should be a long, busy weekend. But I look forward to it all.

Remember me in your prayers. Really. Please cover me in believing prayer as never before!