Preach It!

"We all want to serve God, but only in an advisory capacity"
"We all know what we want God to do. We are not so good at bringing our hopes and intentions in line with what God has in mind."

Our reading for Lent, as we are following Tom Wrights book "Lent For Everyone - Luke," is Luke 4. Several times we are told that Jesus was full of the Holy Spirit. Full of the Holy Spirit he spent 40 days fasting in the wilderness. BTW, he was not full of the Holy Spirit because he fasted. After the 49 days he began to preach - full of the Holy Spirit.

As he was teaching and preaching all the people were thoroughly impressed. They raved about his
preaching! His ratings were through the roof! As a human - wow, that feels good! However, Jesus was not there to feel good. He was there to communicate a message.

Jesus got to the point of his message. And that made some of the church folks really angry. "How dare he be here to impact the lives if those who are not in church?" They got so mad they wanted to get rid if him!

What a turn around!

As I sit here on my flight to Calgary for a Rocky Mountain College board meeting I reflect on my pastoral training. I am grateful for the profs I had that emphasized that we are not here to try to please people and preach what makes our congregations feel good about us. We are here to preach what we believe God is directing us to preach.

May I always be a disciple of Jesus and follow His lead - even when it comes to preaching.