Gifts; October 28, 2018

Posted on October 30, 2018 by jgarrott

Ephesians 3:2 Surely you have heard about the administration of God’s grace that was given to me for you.

This theme comes out again and again in the Bible: “given to me for you.” God’s gifts are seldom if ever given for just the immediate recipient. Paul was an enormously gifted individual, acting as God’s conduit for half of the New Testament, but the point is, he was a conduit, not the sole beneficiary. God Himself is Trinity, and so is in constant community, so to speak. He did not create us for isolation, but to be interrelated to one another and to Him. American culture has made something of a shrine to the individual, and the rest of the world has copied that to a great extent. The thing is, God does love us individually, and we are individually accountable to Him, but He designed us to be in community, to learn to serve Him through serving each other. That’s why He gifts each person, not so much for their own sake as for the sake of those they touch in various ways. If we look back over history, those we acknowledge as great are considered so because of how they impacted others. This should eliminate the pride factor, because whatever God has given you, or done through you, it is for the sake of others, and not to puff you up. We see that as a paradox, that God would love each of us individually and intensely, but at the same time gift us only in relation to others, but that’s just how God is. As Peter said, “Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.” (1 Peter 4:10)

This has always been an issue for me, because I have been called “gifted” all my life. Much if not most of that has been squandered for my own satisfaction, rather than being used and developed for the benefit of others. That is something I will certainly have to answer for to God. I am enormously grateful for the grace of my Lord Jesus Christ! I have discovered what a blessing it is to bless others, but I don’t feel I have been at all consistent in doing that with all that has been poured into me. I suppose you could call it a “mid-life crisis,” though at 70 it’s quite a bit late. Given my current good health and the general growth in life expectancy, I expect to be around another 20 years or so. Since I can’t change the past, my focus is to be on the task and the people at hand. I am to seek to allow God to touch and bless others through me, fulfilling His purposes for me, knowing that every one of those purposes involves other people. My focus must not be on myself, but first on my Lord and then on those with whom He brings me in contact, for their blessing and His glory.

Father, this is something You bring me back to again and again, because I’m so slow to learn it properly. Thank You for Your patience with me. I pray that in the service today I would be an open, effective conduit for all You want to pour through me, whatever that might be, so that everyone would be blessed and strengthened and drawn closer to You, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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Political Correctness; October 27, 2018

Posted on October 29, 2018 by jgarrott

Ephesians 2:12 Remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.

We are very blessed that political correctness doesn’t seem to have been invented in the 1st Century! At least, if it was, none of the Biblical writers paid any attention to it. It’s very important that they were able to “call a spade a spade,” and not consider words as “dog whistles” to special interest groups. The reason that’s so important is that to effect meaningful change, you have to acknowledge the present situation and not dress it up with pretty words. That’s why the first step of any “12 step program” is to acknowledge that you have a problem. Sadly, the pastor of the biggest church in America today consciously never uses the word, sin, because he doesn’t want people to “feel put down.” The Bible, in contrast, makes no bones about the fact that we are all sinners in need of repentance and the atoning work of the cross of Christ. What Paul says here, for example, would today be denounced as “racist.” Imagine, he’s telling Gentiles that they aren’t Jews! The thing is, he had to do that to make it clear that whereas at one time his readers had no connection to all the promises in the Old Testament, in Christ they have been brought into the family. Around 1980 a book came out titled, I’m OK You’re OK. It was great for self-esteem, but it was rotten for meaningful change, and it is still echoing through society. I suppose you could call it a pillar of the “political correctness” movement. Just recently a TV personality lost their job simply for giving an accurate description of how things were in their childhood. If facts offend us, we’ve got a BIG problem!

Being raised by a father who held absolute honesty as one of the pillars of his life, I’ve been somewhat inoculated against political correctness. However, that’s not at all to say that I am to be needlessly, carelessly, hurtful with my words. I’ve done far too much of that! Actually, Japanese society is very big on the “socially correct lie,” which could be another description of political correctness. I must always speak the truth in love, and never allow “truth” to be a cover for malice, jealousy, or the like. My words are to bring healing, but sometimes healing calls for a scalpel. I am to speak the very words of God, but not color them with my own failures.

Father, this is a major issue. I find myself at a loss for how to tell people they are sinners headed for hell, without chasing them away. That said, if they don’t know they are headed for hell, they won’t change direction. I have demonstrated very clearly that I don’t have the wisdom nor the skill to do it right on my own, but nothing is impossible for You. I offer myself totally to You, so that You may overcome all the linguistic and cultural barriers and get through to people’s souls and spirits, convicting them of their sins and drawing them to repentance and faith for their salvation. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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Faithfulness; October 26, 2018

Posted on October 29, 2018 by jgarrott

Ephesians 2:10 For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Ephesians is incredibly loaded with vital, deep truth. The first part of this verse is something that every human being needs to get worked into their awareness, their very soul. We sometimes use the term, “self-made man,” but Paul is stating that’s an impossibility. We cannot create ourselves! What we are when we are born is God’s gift to us, but what we become is our gift to Him. Many people rebel at that idea and claim to be atheists, but my very strong impression is that there are few if any people who are genuine atheists by conviction. Rather, people convince themselves there is no God because they don’t want to acknowledge a Creator. That’s why “atheists” get upset when people proclaim God to them: they don’t want their fantasy bubble disturbed. Interestingly, that’s precisely what they accuse devout Christians of! The same mechanism is at work in agnostics, those who acknowledge that there may be a Creator but say that all religions have an equal chance of being true, so why choose? They too don’t want to face the absolute standard of a righteous God who loved them enough to die for them. I have a lot of “Facebook friends” who fit in that category. However, this verse doesn’t let Christians off the hook, either. Paul makes it very clear that each of us was created for a purpose, to accomplish things in line with God’s will. Far too often we forget that, and try to plan our lives without ever consulting God as to what His plan might be. As the previous two verses so famously proclaim, this isn’t at all “salvation by works,” but it is a declaration of purpose; we aren’t put here for no reason. Many people struggle with a search for meaning in their lives, and even despair of finding any. This verse makes it clear that what we need to do is search first for our Creator, and let Him show us what our purpose, our meaning, is.

I have a solid foundation of faith, but even I struggle at times with a sense of purposelessness, of futility. That is perhaps a particular pitfall of ministry in Japan, where the rate of return for effort invested is so low. The devil wants me to give up, to stop trying, but I need to resist him by seeking, and doing, whatever good works the Lord has prepared for me today. They might not be, and probably won’t be, “great” and “earth-shaking,” but if they are things that God has prepared for me to do, then doing them is enough. I do not know, I cannot know, the eventual repercussions of each thing I do, and in God’s plan those repercussions might indeed change the world. However, my focus is to be on step-by-step faithfulness, doing the task at hand with the abilities He has given me, for His glory.

Father, thank You for this reminder. I needed it! You know the attacks I am under, and I know that You are more than able to overcome each one, and that in Christ, I can too. Help me indeed rest, relax, and rejoice in You, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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The Word of God; October 25, 2018

Posted on October 28, 2018 by jgarrott

Ephesians 1:17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.

With the magnificence of all that Paul writes about in Ephesians, it’s only appropriate that he asks the help of the Holy Spirit for his readers. It is a book that is more than worthy of being read over and over, savoring each thought and idea and letting it percolate through our awareness, changing the way we think and live. I could probably preach for a year from this book and not exhaust it. (I might exhaust my hearers, though!) This is simply an illustration of the richness of the Bible as a whole, because there are many places in it like this. It is ironic that we tend to focus on historical tales, like those of Noah and Jonah and Daniel, and skip over books like Ephesians that are so packed with life-changing truth. It’s not at all that the historical tales are unimportant, but rather that they are no more than the tip of the iceberg, so to speak. Any time we read the Bible we need to ask for the help of the Holy Spirit, just as Paul does here. We are no more able to grasp all of God than a dog is able to grasp quantum physics, but even a dog is able to grasp that his master loves and feeds and cares for him. We need to start there, on the foundation of God’s love, and let Him reveal to our hearts and minds all that He wants us to know about Himself. That is more than a lifetime’s work!

I was given a huge head start over most of the people in the world, being immersed in the Bible from before my birth, courtesy of parents who were totally dedicated to God, and reading through the Bible for myself for the first time by the time I was ten. I’ve been given a mind that delights in words, savoring them and playing with them, and I have had a firm habit of taking in the Word every morning for over 40 years now. Even so, as I continue to read the Bible morning by morning I am daily touched by God’s truth, not only being reminded of things I’ve known for years but even receiving fresh revelation. There is no exhausting the Bible! It is indeed the Word of God, and since God Himself is infinite, it stands to reason that His Word has limitless depth. One of the many things I’m looking forward to in heaven is “knowing as I am fully known.” (1 Corinthians 13:12) I delight to know things, and there is nothing more worth knowing than God. As a pastor, I seek to give others the same hunger for the things of God that I have, but it’s obvious that I can’t do it on my own. I need to pray for God to pour out His Spirit of wisdom and revelation, just as Paul does here, so that every member of this church may be transformed into the the disciple, the child of God that He wants us to be, for His glory.

Father, I do pray that. Just yesterday I was reading a description of what went on at the Azusa Street Revival almost a hundred years ago. I can’t even imagine what it would be like for You to do that right here in this day, but I desire it desperately. Help me desire it desperately enough for You to break me out of everything that has bound me, to be and do all that You desire, for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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God’s Blessings; October 24, 2018

Posted on October 26, 2018 by jgarrott

Ephesians 1:3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.

Paul was addicted to long sentences, which is extremely awkward for translators because Greek doesn’t use punctuation. Actually, my maternal grandfather was the same way (but with punctuation, since he wrote in English). One summer when my mother was in college she offered to transcribe his latest book, typing it before it would be sent to the publisher, and asked if she could divide some of his sentences for clarity. He trusted her enough to agree readily, and when it was published, one of the reviews said, “The most readable Carver yet!” Frankly, I have the same tendency, which is why I let my wife edit my devotions before they are posted as a blog. Not only does she catch typos, she also lets me know when I’ve written mud. God always knows what I mean, but if I’m sharing it with others, they need to be able to understand it too! This first chapter of Ephesians (which happened to be my grandfather’s favorite book in the Bible) is particularly notorious for long sentences, but thankfully this verse separates out fairly easily, and in a way it expresses the content of what is to follow. Here, the difficulty in understanding doesn’t come from the words used, or even the grammar, but rather from the magnitude of the truth expressed. We can’t grasp all that “every spiritual blessing” means, much less that those blessings are accomplished “in the heavenly realms!” Paul goes on from here to try to express some of those blessings, which is why the sentence gets so long and complicated. Our human minds really can’t wrap themselves around the magnitude of God’s love and grace toward us. He has to reveal that to our hearts, and only then do our minds have any hope of grasping it, though it is beyond words. Both Paul and Peter mentioned that what God does for us is beyond human words. (2 Corinthians 9:15, 1 Peter 1:8) One thing that helps is to remember that there’s always more. We may think we’ve been blessed incredibly, and we have, but there’s always more. That’s one reason this verse mentions heaven, because heaven is as infinite as God is, and the lack of limits is the very definition of infinity. The difficulty with all of this is that in our current, very finite condition, our gratitude and obedience don’t really keep up with all that God has done for us. As the chorus says, “All that I have, all that I am, all I will ever be, cannot repay this love-debt I owe. I surrender to Thee!”

I perhaps have a greater appreciation for God’s love and grace than many, but I am still struck with my own inability to respond fully. The point for me is to ask and allow the Holy Spirit to remind me, so that I won’t forget it in the press of this temporal life. As a pastor I seek to help others grasp more and more of the goodness of God, but there too I am dependent on the Holy Spirit. I am to keep speaking the truth in love at all times, and allow God to use His words through me to accomplish His will in the hearts and lives of those who receive those words.

Father, words indeed fail me to thank You enough for all that You have done for me in Christ. May every part of my being be a living sacrifice to You, (Romans 12:1) for Your pleasure and glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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Mocking God; October 23, 2018

Posted on October 25, 2018 by jgarrott

Galatians 6:7-8 Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.

This is imminently logical and reasonable, yet so many people refuse to acknowledge it. This is the principle that makes grace so absolutely necessary for each one of us. We all like to please our flesh, and have a tendency to ignore the Holy Spirit. You could say that the whole process of spiritual growth is that of learning to please the Spirit rather than our flesh. (The NIV tries to get away from the idea that everything physical is bad – which can lead to real problems – by translating “flesh” as “sinful nature,” but that can make the whole issue seem more theoretical and harder to understand.) Focusing entirely on the flesh is called hedonism, and many people actually lust after a hedonistic lifestyle. How foolish! Paul writes in just about every one of his letters about the dangers of focusing on the material, rather than focusing on the things of God and using the material things to that end. Jesus Himself talked about how we have physical needs, but the way to have those needs fully met is to focus on the things of God. (Matthew 16:33) Society today is filled with horrible object lessons of those who totally ignore God, and it is sad indeed. For some, the destruction they reap is more obvious and/or immediate than for others, but it is no less certain even when it doesn’t happen in this life. As Paul says, it is a logical impossibility that we could get away with mocking God, and yet so many try.
A: I am not exempt from this principle any more than anyone else is. I too have had to learn to “put to death the misdeeds of the body.” (Romans 8:13) I am sharply aware that apart from the grace of God in Christ Jesus, none of us has any hope. Original Buddhism was totally focused on “putting to death the misdeeds of the body,” but it tried, and tries, to do it by human effort alone. That’s like a surgeon trying to perform surgery on himself while submerged in a septic tank. The only answer is the cross of Christ. “If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.” (1 John 1:7) One way to describe my task as a pastor is teaching people to walk in the light. As Jesus said famously, people don’t like the light because it makes it clear where they are living to please their flesh. (John 3:20) I am not to be deterred, but keep speaking the truth in love, so that the lies of the devil may be exposed and the truth set people free.

Father, thank You for this reminder. Help me be fully consistent in sowing to the Spirit, and increasingly effective in helping others do likewise, for their salvation and Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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Freedom; October 22, 2018

Posted on October 25, 2018 by jgarrott

Galatians 5:13 You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love.

The section from this verse through the end of the chapter is so enormously practical! Paul could be called a theologian, but he certainly never lived in an ivory tower. Throughout his ministry he was “down in the trenches” with those he served, living out what he wrote in this verse. Life in Christ is a paradox in so many ways, when we consider it from a human perspective. Jesus talked about the first being last and the last, first, and said that hanging onto your life will cause you to lose it. (Matthew 16:25) He also said that the truth would set us free, (John 8:32) and Paul stated that “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” (2 Corinthians 3:17) The major thrust of the whole letter to the Galatians is that we can’t be saved by rules and regulations. The problem with all of that is that we tend to equate freedom with selfish license, doing whatever we like with no thought of the impact on others. In this section, summarized in a way by this verse, Paul is saying that is self-defeating and self-destructive. We are indeed free in Christ, but that is freedom from sin, not freedom to sin. The devil tells us that fleshly indulgence is the epitome of freedom, but he doesn’t tell us about the hangovers, STIs and shattered lives. God’s rules are never to bind us, but rather to keep us out of the traps and pitfalls the devil sets for us, using our flesh.

I’ve had to learn this too. Everyone has different areas of weakness. By God’s grace I don’t have any wild parties in my past, but God certainly knew what He was doing when He had me get married at 20, because I shudder to think of how I would have gone had He not done so. Over the years He has taught me the joy of the last part of this verse. Serving others in love isn’t automatic, because I’m as naturally self-centered as anyone else. However, the benefits are immense. There is no greater freedom than the freedom to serve God through serving others. I’ve found that sentence doesn’t make any sense to the “natural man,” but it is part of the paradox of life in Christ. As a pastor I try to teach that truth to others, but I have found it has to be imparted by the Holy Spirit, because merely human logic can’t do the job. That’s why I need to keep myself available to Him, so as to be free to do what is best for me and for those around me, for the glory of God.

Father, thank You for the many opportunities You give me to serve You through serving others. May I rejoice in those opportunities, allowing Your Spirit to flow through me in grace and power, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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Diversity and Unity; October 21, 2018

Posted on October 22, 2018 by jgarrott

Galatians 3:28-29 There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

This is perhaps the ultimate statement on Christian unity from the human perspective. Jesus prayed for our unity just before His crucifixion, (John 17:20-23) but that was from the Divine perspective and takes the help of the Holy Spirit to understand it. Actually, this needs the help of the Holy Spirit to really understand it as well, but the words used are a little closer to home from our perspective. The three different pairs that Paul uses are very clear. “Neither Jew nor Greek” means that nationality and race are no longer barriers. They exist, but they are no longer barriers. We have had instances recently of people claiming to be an ethnicity they were not, but that is a different issue entirely. “Slave nor free” refers to social standing, or place in society. We tend to place a lot of weight on that but in Christ it is meaningless. This isn’t “equality by edict,” but rather saying that such differences don’t matter. Then we get to “male nor female.” That’s the real mind-blower. It has only been very recently that some people have tried to claim that gender was merely a social construct, and this isn’t saying that at all. What it is saying is that men and women are of absolutely equal worth before God. Some of Paul’s other writing seems to contradict that, but those are places where he is talking about differences in function, not value. What Paul is saying here is that all differences between people fade to complete insignificance in the light of the gracious promises of God. God’s creation is one of incredible diversity. It has been said as a joke, but it is nonetheless true: “You are unique, just like everyone else.” It’s like snowflakes: God created diversity when He didn’t have to. However, all those differences don’t make us of different value, and they shouldn’t hinder our unity.

I quote verse 28 every time I do premarital counseling, because Japanese society has traditionally been male-dominated. It is sad and even amazing how much trouble some men have in accepting their wives as equal partners. (1 Peter 2:7) Likewise, it is sad to see how many women disrespect their husbands. I was blessed to have parents who respected and honored each other, and who also did not focus on differences between themselves and other people. Growing up as a Caucasian in Japan, I was sometimes acutely aware of differences, but at the same time I learned how unimportant external differences really were. I am still imperfect in that area, as I think we all are, but I have the foundation in place. As a pastor, I have to teach people to value each other. That is one of the most beautiful, attractive features of a healthy church: there are differences in function, but not in value. That is why people who feel devalued by society are so attracted to the Gospel, and why people who feel they are superior tend to be dismissive of it. I am to proclaim the truth in love, telling each person that they are uniquely valuable to God, but that doesn’t make them more valuable than anyone else.

Father, this is sometimes hard to get through to people. As always, I need Your wisdom, words, and anointing to get it right. I pray that I would be fully submitted and obedient to You at all times, so that Your truth through me would indeed set people free, (John 8:32) for their salvation and Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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Identity; October 20, 2018

Posted on October 21, 2018 by jgarrott

Galatians 3:7 Understand, then, that those who believe are children of Abraham.

This was an earth-shaking statement back in the 1st Century, and it still is to Jews today. Their whole identity, then and now, was/is wrapped up in physical lineage from Abraham, and here Paul is saying clearly that anyone can “join the club” by faith. In Romans 11 and elsewhere Paul talks about the meaning of genetic/physical Israel under the New Covenant. It’s not that the Jews are discarded, and it is significant on many levels that the Jewish state was reborn in 1948, but Jews too need to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, descended from Abraham and David. For the vast majority of people in the world, this verse is marvelous news and instantly makes the Old Testament relevant. If we are Abraham’s descendants by faith, then all the promises from Genesis through Malachi apply to us, as well as to genetic Jews. Many people have an identity/self-image problem. This verse should take care of that! We tend to forget that Jesus, and indeed the entire Early Church, up until Cornelius (Acts 10 and 11) was entirely Jewish. Antisemitism is entirely illogical, as well as demonic. Gentile believers should be eternally grateful for the privilege of being “grafted in” to the Abrahamic root-stock. (Romans 11:17-21)

Identity has long been an issue for me, growing up as a “Third Culture Kid” of American parents in Japan. It has been painful to me not to be accepted as Japanese because I am Caucasian, but at the same time I have had adjustment problems with trying to live in the US. This verse is indeed a comfort to me, and I have long clung to the statement that “Our citizenship is in heaven.” (Philippians 3:20) I find that Japanese need this verse too, because they have just about as strong a racial identity as Jews do, and the majority see Christianity as a “foreign” religion. That’s ironic, since Buddhism was also “imported,” but it’s the case nonetheless. I have found that the people who are most likely to receive the Gospel with joy are those who have been excluded from society for one reason or another. I have personally had some of my best success at evangelism at a mental hospital. When people are secure in who and what they are, they see no reason to change. I am not to fail to share the Gospel with the secure, but neither am I to be surprised when they are less than receptive. The thing is, only Christians are secure when it comes to death, so I need to speak to that very basic insecurity and invite people into the assurance that can be had in Christ alone.

Father, thank You for this Word. Help me take it and run with it, (Habakkuk 2:2) so that many may repent and believe, for their salvation and Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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Life in Christ; October 19, 2018

Posted on October 21, 2018 by jgarrott

Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

This is an extremely important verse that is the absolute key to living as God intends His children to do. Since we are in the world but not of it, (John 17:14-16) how are we to live? This verse tells us: by faith. And that’s not some nebulous, abstract faith, either. It is concrete, practical faith in the Son of God who loved us enough to give Himself for us. Our flesh is really stubborn, which is why Paul uses the extreme expression of saying he is crucified and dead. Dead people are immune to temptation! Actually, this is exactly the same image Jesus used for those who would follow Him. “Then he said to them all: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.” (Luke 9:23-24) We get so caught up with trying to preserve our lives that we lose them completely, when the Biblical pattern is to believe in the One who threw His life away for us, letting go of our lives so that we may lay hold of His. The image of the monkey trap jar comes to mind. I’m told that if you leave a treat that monkeys really like in a jar with a mouth just large enough for the monkey to get his hand in, but too small to pull his hand back out if he is grasping the treat, you can trap monkeys very easily. (Of course, the jar has to be tethered in some way to keep the monkey from running off with it.) We are like that with the pleasures of this life. God has indescribable riches prepared for us, but we tend to refuse to let go of the trinkets of this life in order to receive the treasures He has for us. Paul discovered that accepting the cross of Christ as his own freed him to live the life of Christ even in this world. That doesn’t happen instantaneously. Paul very famously wrote, “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead, I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenwards in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:12-14) That’s what life in Christ looks like.

This of course applies to me as much as it does to anyone. I can “hang onto the trinkets” with the best of them! As I tell others, it takes empty hands to receive. I must not fall into the trap of telling truth to others and then failing to live by it myself. After over 60 years as a Christian, I am all too aware of my ability to deceive myself! (James 1:22) That’s why I identify with Paul’s awareness of his own imperfection. As a pastor, I must not project the image that I think I’m perfect. Rather, I am to walk alongside the believers as together we allow the Holy Spirit to perfect us.

Father, You’ve given me another message when I haven’t shared the last one you gave me! Help me know clearly what You want me to say, this Sunday and each time You allow me to speak, so that Your Word may indeed go forth by Your Spirit to accomplish that for which You send it, (Isaiah 55:10-11) for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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