A
few pretty interesting occurrences fell into place at Seaside yesterday. The most exciting of course, involved a young
twenty-one year old man named Drake. Drake is the guy who started coming when
he found out it would be OK for him to bring his work to church. See. Drake is a dog-sitter, and the only way
he could come would be to bring the pups along.
They always behave quite nicely, carving out a corner of the room near
one of the back doors. During communion
time Drake approached me and said he had been thinking about it for a very long
time, and he was ready to be baptized.
Seems his Grandma died about a month ago, and, in his words, “She was
heavy into the Christianity thing. And
she talked to me about Jesus. I’m
ready.” I went over salvation with him, and
he had a really strong grasp of it.
Along with Grandma’s influence he had also been to church as a youngster
and even a school back in St. Louis that “had the words ‘Christian Academy’ in
its name.” The Seasiders were all very
excited to welcome him into the family, and now we have a baptism scheduled for
next Sunday.
Another
encouraging moment for me came just before dinner on the grounds. A guy who lives in Nashville and has
connections in Conroe but just loves the beach, and who has been to Seaside a
total of maybe three times (one of which
was a sunrise service on the beach), told me he was really sad to have to
leave what he felt in his heart was already his home, his church. He then paused for a moment and asked me honestly
how I had felt beginning worship today.
Well, I couldn’t lie. I started the
day having a difficult time getting going after our weekend of being sick in
bed in Waco. By the time we talked after
worship I was exhausted. I told him
so. He let out a long sigh, sat back in
his chair, and said, “I want you to know that even though you were in a
depressed state physically, God still used you spiritually. That teaching today was for me. I’m not sure why everybody else was here.” We then prayed together. I’m not sure he understands how encouraging
things like that are to a pastor.
On
a lighter note, I managed to pull off a prank before church. One of the guys who was on the trip with us
this past weekend was Mr. Bob. Bob is a
fine Christian layman who has done prison ministry and can introduce himself
and Jesus to just about anyone. Now,
remember, he was on the trip, making him more than aware of my little encounter
with that nasty stomach bug. Around 9:35
(services start at 10) I sent him
this text: “Hey, Bob. Think you can
handle the sermon today?” My phone rang mere
seconds later. It was Mr. Bob. His first words were not “Are you OK? Are you sick again?” Instead the words that met my ears were, “Are
you serious? Do you really need me to do that?”
I waited a count of two or three seconds before answering, “No. I’m fine and I’m already at the church. I was just wondering if you thought you
could.” Let me put the aftermath this
way: I think need to verify the cardiac health of the prank-ee before I try
something like that again.
Psalms
99:5 says, “Exalt the Lord our God and
worship at his holy mountain, for the Lord our God is holy.”
Father,
thank you for Drake and Bobby and of course, Mr. Bob. Bless them all in their walks with you. Amen.
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