Tag Archives: patience

How Long?

Read Psalm 94:1-15 and Matthew 24:3-8 to start.

Sometimes when I’m preparing to preach a sermon, I know exactly the passage I want to speak from and the particular story I will start with. That’s great when it happens, and while it’s still plenty of work and a number of hours to prepare a sermon, it feels like things flow well and it’s fairly straightforward. It can be easy to look at these occasions and say that the Holy Spirit lead me to speak on this topic and in this way. And that may well be the case, at times the Holy Spirit certainly leads down clear and straight paths that go easily. But not always.

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Not to Complain…

Read Psalm 38 to start.

Two Sundays ago, when I was asked to preach this morning, I had no particular sermon topic in mind. Sometimes I have ideas and notes well in advance that are waiting for the right time or for some inspiration before preparing a sermon. There have been times I’ve carried around an outline of a few points to use in a future sermon scribbled on the back of a bulletin tucked in the front of my Bible for months before I use them. Well, this time I didn’t have any of those. I had no idea what I was going to preach about today. But I trusted that God would give me something to say, and hopefully with enough time to prepare something coherent. Nothing came to mind immediately, though. I had a complete blank.

Then God showed me a sign.

Continue reading Not to Complain…