Tonight I preached for the first time since February 2006, and it’s only one of a few opportunities since I left Mobile to come to seminary in 2004. For someone who had gotten use to being heard on a regular basis, to preach tonight was an incredible blessing- one I didn’t take for granted. Maybe too few of us realize what a privilege it is to preach on a regular basis, especially since we’re so easily read and heard through our blogs. To preach at Edgewater, where I’ve been a member since I got to New Orleans, was especially meaningful. When I got here, our pastor literally wrote the book(s) on preaching. We have always had great men preaching the Word- men who are so much more qualified than I will likely ever be. We still do. So to have the chance to preach not just once, but three more times in the coming month, is something that I plan to make the most of. My prayer is that God will too.
And so far… He has.
After the service a friend came up to me and said that two Chinese girls were in attendance. They were open enough to say they weren’t Christians. They wanted to know what a Bible Study was like, so they came tonight. They mentioned how different it was and that they were raised believing evolution, and that what I said was new. One girl said she felt very close to becoming a Christian.
Not because of me. But because for the last few weeks, God hasn’t let me move past the magnitude of John 1:1-18. Tonight, we found our hope in the one true living God- the Word, full of grace and truth, who became flesh, lived a perfect life, was brutally massacred on the cross, and on the third day resurrected so that we could have the hope of salvation and worship Him appropriately.
This is what it’s about. There is nothing more.
by Joe Kennedy
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