Saturday Stuff

-Wow, this has been a real long week, but I am so glad that Sunday will be here in the morning, because I just cannot wait to mount the pulpit of the First Mount Zion Church on tomorrow to share with the people that I love my total convictions about Jesus Christ and His Word. I possess this feeling due to the fact that on this week, I was able to sit and hear a man who is one of the best that this world has ever seen, in the person of Rev. H.B. Charles Jr., of Los Angeles, CA. H.B. was here preaching for my good friend Pastor Barron O. Wilson and the Mount Calvary Baptist Church, Jersey City, NJ for their 57th Church Anniversary Revival, and H.B. totally hit the ball out of the park each and every night. I have been listening to H.B. preach for the last 12 years and I have heard him preach at least 25 sermons (conservatively speaking), however, his exposition on Job 1:20-22 which he titled, The Test of True Worship, was the best sermon I have ever heard. Thank you my friend for speaking directly to my heart on this week.

-Tomorrow I am concluding our series on the Lord's letters to the 7 Churches of Asia Minor entitled Strengthening the Foundations of the Church, with the seventh church, Laodicea. I am a little concerned about the exposition of this church, because the trip to this church is going to get a little rocky at our church, and I really want to do a good job on this so that the congregation will truly be able to see how a church is not supposed to conduct itself if it desires to be a church that is identified with Jesus Christ. Please pray for the message, the messenger and the members as we seek together what God has to say to us that will build up the foundation of our church.

-Starting next Sunday, which is Father's Day, I will begin a new series entitled God's Blueprint For A Prayer-Filled Life, an expositional journey through the model prayer found in Matthew 6:5-13. We will, through six messages that encompasses this prayer, seek to discover the manner and method that the Lord instructs us to attain a life that is filled with prayer. In accordance to our theme for 2008, Becoming A People of Excellence, God has led me to direct our church into taking a better posture of prayer. Jim Cymbala in his book Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire, tells the story of how the once decrepit and drug-infested Brooklyn Tabernacle Church, was completely turned around, once he changed the atmosphere of the church into one of prayer. And as our church is striving for excellence and currently engulfed in a relocation project, we need the Lord to turn our situation around before we relocate so that when the new location comes, we are not surprised by the blessings of God, and we will be ready for the increase. Please keep our church in your prayers.

-One last thing, I am really happy that H.B. Charles is back in California, because he was a jinx on Thursday night for my Lakers, so now that he is back home, we will be ready to win on tomorrow night. They had better be.