Preaching

Why Mrs. Evans, my high school English and Literature teacher, recruited me for the debate team is beyond me.  Had a vote been taken I would have easily won the award for being the one least likely to succeed in earning a living as a public speaker.  As an introvert, I was always more comfortable with a book, or secluded in my bedroom with ham radio equipment.  But, there is an even greater mystery in my life.  Why God chose to call me as a preacher of the gospel makes no sense at all.  I have always figured He was scraping the bottom of the barrel the night He called me to preach.

 

As one called from the bottom of the barrel, I am deeply grateful for a life time of preaching.  I have been privileged to preach a sermon lifting up Christ at least once or twice every Sunday for most of my life.  I have enjoyed the preaching, all of it, the praying over it, the study and preparation, the being in the pulpit, and the every now and again the report of the Spirit's work through it in someone's life.  It is one of those life activities which has given meaning and purpose.  For whatever the reason, I am grateful God dared to take a chance on me and called me to preach.

No doubt this is part of why I underlined some words of Charles Spurgeon from "The Essential Works of Charles Spurgeon."  He was writing about his initial experience of coming to know Christ as Savior through the preaching of lay person in a Primitive Methodist Church.  "The books were good, but the man was better.  The revealed Word awakened me, but it was the preached Word that saved me, and I must ever attach peculiar value to the hearing of the Word, for by it I received the joy and peace in which my soul delights."   I pray my preaching has brought such to some of those who heard it.  And, even more, I pray that those who stand to preach today will be humbled and inspired by the God given moment being given to them.