May 20, 2011

5-20-11 Friday, 11:17 am Pastor’s Office at Wesley, Thunderstorm just beginning

We have Bishop Schnase, Kendall Waller, Bob Farr, Brian Hammons here at Wesley today conducting a Pathway Partners event. Pastor Jerry has done a great job organizing the details and getting the invitations out to our folks. This evening we travel to Columbia to participate in an event at the conference office designed for churches who are receiving the grants for college aged ministries. I am reading The Slow Fade, whose author will be with us tomorrow.

So, I have closed my door and will pour myself into writing the message for Sunday, given that my normal prep time on Saturday will be spent in Columbia.

I Pet 2:2-5, 9
Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation – if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. Come to Him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight, and like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. …you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

I love this passage of scripture. For my message on Sunday I will be emphasizing the phrase “if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.” I will be highlighting John Wesley’s Aldersgate experience in which he truly did “taste and see” that God’s grace and forgiveness was real, and it changed him forever.

Guide me Holy Lord as I lead forward encouraging each person to taste and see that indeed You are good, and your mercies make a difference in how we can live and enjoy life.