POWER!

This blog will be rather disjointed—a collation of reports from my various homiletical exertions this weekend.

9:00 pm on Saturday, February 18
Just got back from Kirkcaldy, a town just north of Edinburgh and a two-hour drive from Aberdeen, after preaching at a friend’s induction as pastor of a Baptist church (that's David and I in the picture). An enjoyable experience. Real friendly folks. Very appreciative of my efforts. Lots of food (with the exhilarating option of dousing all the desserts in “double cream”—a more calorific version of heavy cream; I took the option … and all the desserts).

1:00 pm on Sunday, February 19
Morning service at High Church Hilton (Church of Scotland) went very well. God was gracious!

First time I’m preaching in a service with a pipe-organ in employment. However, just as I embark upon my opening illustration, the organist drops a book or something on the manuals, setting off a disconcerting musical squawk! However, it came at a perfect point in the story, so I was able to weave that “noisome pestilence” right into it! The things preachers have to do!

5:00 pm on Sunday, February 19
Preached at a Chinese congregation. They sang in both English and Cantonese … at the same time! One gets a feel for what Pentecost must have sounded like (and what heaven might, too). And having a translator was a different experience; it does give you time to think on your feet, and tweak things even as you go along.

One more service to preach ….

9:00 pm on Sunday, February 19
The relaxed (no bow-tie!) evening service at High Church gave me a few more precious minutes to preach than I had in the morning (30 min. vs. 25 min.). People tended to hang around after this service over tea and biscuits (i.e., cookies); that was a delightful time to meet folks.

Well, I’m done … for now! A most enjoyable week for me (and hopefully for my hearers as well). Thanks to all those who held me up in prayer in response to last week’s aBeLOG. And, by God’s grace, I’m none the worse for these exertions of preaching—neither particularly fatigued nor strained. I’m well aware that were it not for the Holy Spirit’s strengthening, none of this would have been physically possible. Paul would agree about the indispensability of God’s empowerment …

For this purpose also I labor,
striving according to His power,
which mightily works within me.

Colossians 1:29

Preaching, as I taught in my seminar last week, is doxological in goal: to change lives for the glory of God. The preacher is just one cog in that complex process by which God is molding all of us by His Spirit into Christlikeness. The cog, therefore, functions contingently upon the sovereign designs and agency of God the Spirit. Ministry cogs that we all are in some form or another, we are (and we must be) utterly dependent upon the Third Person of the Trinity, if we are to achieve our doxological aims. Needless to say, the power of God is available to all believers—not just preachers. In every ministry activity we engage in, may we do so relying upon God, by whose power alone we can do all things. And may God be glorified by it all.

Now to Him who is able to do
far more abundantly
beyond all that we ask or think,
according to the power
that works within us,
to Him be the glory
in the church and in Christ Jesus
to all generations
forever and ever. Amen.

Ephesians 3:20–21