It's 11:30 at night, and four of five kids are asleep. It sounds strange to say "five kids", but as of last week that's our kid total.
Today was Monica's first day at church. I pray that, no matter how many Sundays she has in her life, she will want to be with God's people that day, worshiping her Savior.
Some people were surprised to see her and Robyn there, but Robyn has almost always made it to church the first Sunday after giving birth. The one time she didn't was when Maggie was born on a Saturday. Like I said before, she is a trooper!
On a scale of 1 to 10, I thought my morning sermon was about a 4. I preached on the parable of the laborers in the vineyard from Matthew 20. I wanted to impress upon the people a sense of the grace and goodness of God (represented in the parable by the master of the vineyard who paid the 11th-hour workers far more than they deserved). Feelings can be deceiving, of course, but I felt that though I was saying all the right things, the force of the truth itself wasn't hitting home. Of course I know God's Word is effectual despite the inadequacies of the messenger, but every preacher senses that some sermons "work" more than others.
For the evening service, I preached on Romans 6:5-14. I wish I had preached that in the morning, instead! It is a great passage, and I thought my message went well overall. I said this passage was Paul's "emancipation proclamation," by which he declared we who are in Christ are now free from the slavery of sin. All of Romans 6:1-14 is a great passage, and I hope to hear Sinclair Ferguson's sermon on this passage that is available online.
On the way to church in the evening, the clouds parted some and the sun shone on the mountains to the east of us. The snow on the upper half of the mountains was a brilliant white. Even after making the same drive to church for over two years now, I am often struck by the beauty of those mountains.
Dinner tonight was sockeye salmon baked in a butter-lime sauce. It went very nicely with a cold Alaskan Amber.
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2 comments:
Isn't that odd? I thought the morning's sermon was GREAT! Right to the point, and a good reminder that it isn't by our works, but by God's grace that we are chosen even if it's at the last hour.
Thank you, Pat! I did appreciate your comment after the service, too. I think we will be surprised to learn how God called many to himself at the 11th hour. His grace is greater than we imagine!
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