Well isn't that special!

Thanks so much to those of you who've been praying for me. I am blessed! God has provided in a huge way, and has answered prayer.

The financial deficit I mentioned in an earlier post has been met by a gracious and wonderful child of God. I am not in the red to Church Army any more! Thank You, Lord! And thank you - and you know who you are - from the bottom of my heart!

God has also been at work changing and equipping me. He's making me able to do the work that I've been called to do, and He's also filling me with the strength and the confidence that I need to assume the role I've been assigned. Thank You, Lord!

Anybody remember this precious face? I preached a sermon on pride, one of the seven deadly sins, last Sunday at Immanuel, our street church. I used Church Lady to illustrate and characterize spiritual pride. If you're as old as I am you'll remember Church Lady, Dana Carvey's caricature from Saturday Night Live. Of course, God used my sermon preparation to teach me through His Word and through my circumstances and experiences of the past couple of weeks. He made me aware of the prideful thoughts, feelings and ways that still exist in me. They were hard to spot because they were disguised as humility: feelings of inadequacy. Not so pretty. But, I know from working the Twelve Steps of A. A. that when God shows me a character defect (Step 6), it means that He wants to remove it from me (Step 7). But the key is to humble myself before Him, and ask Him to do it for me. I can't change my ways on my own. That's why Jesus had to die on the Cross, so I would have the resurrection power of the Holy Spirit to help me.

Step 6: Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
Step 7: Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

Lord, I humbly ask you to remove these shortcomings that have to do with pride, in Jesus' Name.

Oh, and I pray that the Lord will keep the people of His Church from becoming proud and haughty and hypocritical like Church Lady! The reason some of us found her so funny in the 80's is because, sadly, there is some truth to Dana Carvey's portrayal.

Blessings, and thank you for your prayers!