Fairview B.C., Part 1

I must admit that the Lord redeemed this day from the the horrible day I had yesterday! I woke up at about 8:00am this morning. You must understand, coming out of college, I was immediately thrust into a Pastoral position in 2001 that allowed me the blessed privilege of preaching every week at a 7:30 am service, at a church (Pleasant Hill) that was about 30 minutes from where we lived. I did that for four years each and every Sunday; for the past 4 years, I have been preaching out 8:15 am service. Make a long story short, it is very strange for my wife and I to wake up at a time we are usually entering into public worship.

Today was an awesome day. I look back over the years and realize that we have been with the Fairview family for 9 years for this revival. For nine years I have been sharing with the Fairview family on the 3rd Sunday in August and following with 3 nights of revival. Each and every year I am blown away by the love they share and express toward myself and family. Additionally, I often say that I may have to quit - for it seems apparant that Pastor Reed and Fairview may not be firing me anytime soon. They say that it is better to be asked up than to be asked down - I KNOW there are very gifted and capable ministers who have the ability and gift to speak to youth and young persons around our nation and world. I love them so much and I won't be walking away - SO...we'll just see what the Lord does!!!

Today I was actually led to deal with Mark 6 once again and used the subject 'Handling Life's Storms'. It isn't one of what I would consider to be my 'STICKS'; however, it is what the Lord would have me to share; and I suppose He, in His all wise providence, led me to share from this story because I am dealing with my own personal storms and tests. My voice has been acting strange lately; but the Lord allowed me to make it through the message. I did lose my voice toward the end of the message; and I really have a tendency to lose my trend of thought when concentrating on my allergies and my voice. To see how God works is amazing. I had in my mind to preach something entirely different - period. BUT the Lord kept pressuring me 'You need to share from Mark 6.' I did just that; and midway through it just seemed as if I wasn't getting the kind of 'response' I thought the message provoked. OF course, I have learned over the past several months not to even pressure the hearers to get with me. I fought the urge and just...preached. I shared from the Word; dealt with the story; incidentally, my notes were out of order (one of my sons!!! All I can say); the Lord just took that message beyond myself; stories and illustrations just flowed and it was beyond me. The Spirit just moved; and it was clear that I was no longer the PREACHER (Atleast that is what I gather now; at the time, I just didn't think it went well).

At the end of the entire message, I sat down...kind of in disappointment that my voice wouldn't let me 'close' and 'pull it' the way I would have liked; and in stunned disbelief that the message, in my view, was in complete chaos, dissaray, and out of order. But I continued with the usual closing of my eyes and thanking the Lord for using me. Only then did I notice that about 15 people had come to the altar - and for about 20 or so minutes they shared from their own experiences of going through 'storms' along with many more who came and shared, 'That message was for ME". To top it off, Pastor Reed shared how two or three weeks earlier...he shared with the congregation on the subject of dealing with our storms.

My point it this: I am learning more and more...this is NOT about me, thought it includes me. The Lord will never cease to amaze me. NEVER!