These lyrics from the song “Beneath the Cross of Jesus” have been a source of sweet meditation ever since I first heard that song on one of Soundforth’s recent CDs. How unworthy I am of God’s love in Christ, but how blessed is the privilege to hear His welcome voice calling me to come to Him for cleansing! I am most thankful for the cross of Christ during this time of year and always.
I’m also thankful that I’m at my South Carolina home (i.e., my mom’s place). It’s been wonderful to be in the warm, sunny south. I even enjoyed grits for the first time this past week. It’s actually the second time I had them, but I didn’t enjoy the first attempt, since I was anticipating cream of wheat. That was almost 20 years ago in the BJU Dining Common. I’ve cursed grits ever since. But when they came with my meal at Cracker Barrel, I decided to set aside my prejudices and give them another try. I’ll never curse grits again! They were actually quite good!
I praise the Lord for keeping me safe as I traveled throughout Pennsylvania during the fall. I actually left Grand Rapids, MI, on September 10. From then until this past Tuesday night (i.e., about 11 weeks), I had to live out of my suitcase, bouncing around from one house to another. I would usually change locations after about 3 days, though a few times I stayed in the same place for 7 days in a row. I’m so thankful for all the gracious hosts and churches that provided me places to stay, but it sure is nice to be in the same place now for more than 7 days in a row. Of course, I head to Haiti on Saturday, so it’s not much more than 7 days for this stay. But I’ll be in Greenville for the entire second half of December and the first full week of January, so that will be really nice.
I thank the Lord for keeping me safe as I traveled over 6,000 miles since September 10. I did have some problems with my tires slipping on the rain soaked roads one day a few weeks ago, but the Lord kept me safe as I traveled back across Pennsylvania for the 6th time and led me to a Christian mechanic who hooked me up with some nice tires.
Three of the 15 pastors, whose churches I visited during this past stint in PA, were quite favorable about supporting me and were going to bring it before the church for a vote very soon. Another pastor was quite positive and was encouraging the church to take me on. At least two other churches were greatly impacted by my ministry presentation and seemed to want to start supporting me. Please pray!
I praise the Lord that one supporter increased their monthly support and a new supporter committed to start supporting me. That brings my support level to 55%! Praise the Lord!
It was a blessing to attend Dr. John Dreisbach’s funeral service today. I pray that I will be faithful to the Lord all my days as that godly man was! What an example of faithfulness he has left for us!
Next week I will spend most of my time preparing for the Haitian Creole OT workshop. Please pray for me as I work through Psa 6-10 and Gen 6-10. I’ll be comparing the French backtranslation with the Hebrew text. I might even sneak a peak at the Creole once in a while, since it’s very similar to French. Pray also that I’ll be able to get some French sermons ready to preach.
Nice level of information here. There is so much data around about this subject that sometimes you cannot see the wood for the trees but you have pitched this at just the right level so that the lay person can understand – thank you!