God is so faithful and God is so good. Little did I know what was in store for me this week. Sometimes I believe God doesn’t reveal it so we don’t get scared. Here I sit at 10:30 on a Sunday night basking in what God has done. I thank God for helping me minister at the funeral this week. I do know this; I could never have done it on my own. This morning I mentioned that we are powerless on our own as Christians — It is only the power of the Holy Spirit working within us that we have any chance to live the life that God has called us to live. I wish I had a copy of the audio sermon, because it’s much better than the written one, but we had technical difficulties (yes, again) with the CD burner. Following the message, our community of faith gathered around the altar for communion. This is always a special time in the church. Usually I have the text from The Discipline with me, but this time I didn’t. God helped me through that and it was a special time.

This afternoon flew by as I prepared for tonight’s Celebration of Praise. We have one every one to two months. In year’s past we would have called it a Singspiration or a hymn sing. Tonight, we went high tech, using the laptop and projector for worship for the first time in an all ages service. Several of our students sang and did a great job — Sarah, Karri, Abby, and Anna you are to be commended for offering your sacrifice of worship tonight. Several adults did inspirational readings. My daughter Anna ran the computer and James joined us on the bongos as I led worship. It was really cool to hear the voices as the congregation sang psalms, hymns and spiritual songs without looking at a hymnal. We have a good singing congregation already and it just about blew me away to hear 19 people singing their hearts out.

We even pulled out “Mansion On The Hilltop.” We just put the words on the screen and sang. We don’t have that one in our hymnal. We even had a special guest, a retired pastor from about a half hour away. I asked if he would pronounce the Benediction and he did. He has one of those voices with authority. Because it was a special event, we transported students this evening as well and Pam and I helped with that. It has been a good day of ministry. I’m looking forward to relaxing and then going to bed. God bless each of you.