Most people who read my ramblings seem to enjoy them. I’m glad for that but they’re not why I write them. I don't write for a large audience, I write for an audience of one. The ONE! God Himself. For most of my life I have felt invisible. I am the baby of the family. I was a Pastor's wife who believes that being a Pastor's wife simpy means that you are married to a Pastor, not that you are called to be in public ministry because your husband is, so I didn't get involved in most things at church where I would have had a voice. Even when I did have a voice, I don't think many people paid attention anyway. Writing became for me, a place to have a voice. When I write, it feels as if someone is listening. I soon found out that God was listening too and I soon began to write for an audience of one-HIM! I could just pray, but then there is no record of what we discussed. I don't know about you but if God says something to me, I'm gonna write it down because I want to remember it forever! If I write prayers, I want to be able to go back and record all the answers and how they came. It helps me stay grateful and hopeful.
Someone asked me why I do Sunday Takeaways-there's a critic in every crowd, LOL. I do them because they help me put legs on the sermons I hear. Maybe I should call them Sermon Legs instead. They help me practically apply what I hear so that I can grow. They help me make sense of things that are happening or have happened. They help me bring the spiritual and the practical together in a most healthy way. Most people don't realize how many hours of study, prayer and sermon preparation it takes to deliver a half-hour sermon. They don't realize the weight of responsibility that a human feels when delivering a heavenly message. I do because it was my husband's life for many years so when I sit down in church (or now snuggled under the covers in my jammies) on Sunday morning, I've already prepared my heart to hear from heaven through a human.
Your Pastor is a servant with a message from the King. Perhaps the King is inviting you to a wedding feast or warning you of a coming disaster or telling you of a coming visitation so that you're ready. Your Pastor is just a messenger, but don't miss the King’s message because the messenger is not the King. Sermons are not your Sunday morning entertainment, they're not a box you check off on your goody-two-shoe list. They are Words of Life, heavenly direction, and a message to you from God that comes through the one He has appointed to be your shepherd in life. They are more important than maybe most realize. I heard someone testifying once and they said "Let's face it. Most of us won't remember what was preached by the time we sit down to lunch." I wanted to ask them why they were in church at all, but I refrained. Why reward stupidity?
So, first of all, be sure you show up-physically and mentally prepared. Don't just sit there and evaluate the delivery, or muse over the fact that the Pastor wore that same sweater vest last week, or that he stumbled over some words, or that the sermon just wasn't what you were wanting or needing to hear. I can guarantee you that it was. Listen and then put legs to the sermon. Listen to it twice. Look up all the scripture references. Meditate on what sticks out to you, pray about it, and then do it! And if you don't like Sunday Takeaways, if they just irritate you for some reason, I just have two words for you...Keep Scrolling!
Someone asked me why I do Sunday Takeaways-there's a critic in every crowd, LOL. I do them because they help me put legs on the sermons I hear. Maybe I should call them Sermon Legs instead. They help me practically apply what I hear so that I can grow. They help me make sense of things that are happening or have happened. They help me bring the spiritual and the practical together in a most healthy way. Most people don't realize how many hours of study, prayer and sermon preparation it takes to deliver a half-hour sermon. They don't realize the weight of responsibility that a human feels when delivering a heavenly message. I do because it was my husband's life for many years so when I sit down in church (or now snuggled under the covers in my jammies) on Sunday morning, I've already prepared my heart to hear from heaven through a human.
Your Pastor is a servant with a message from the King. Perhaps the King is inviting you to a wedding feast or warning you of a coming disaster or telling you of a coming visitation so that you're ready. Your Pastor is just a messenger, but don't miss the King’s message because the messenger is not the King. Sermons are not your Sunday morning entertainment, they're not a box you check off on your goody-two-shoe list. They are Words of Life, heavenly direction, and a message to you from God that comes through the one He has appointed to be your shepherd in life. They are more important than maybe most realize. I heard someone testifying once and they said "Let's face it. Most of us won't remember what was preached by the time we sit down to lunch." I wanted to ask them why they were in church at all, but I refrained. Why reward stupidity?
So, first of all, be sure you show up-physically and mentally prepared. Don't just sit there and evaluate the delivery, or muse over the fact that the Pastor wore that same sweater vest last week, or that he stumbled over some words, or that the sermon just wasn't what you were wanting or needing to hear. I can guarantee you that it was. Listen and then put legs to the sermon. Listen to it twice. Look up all the scripture references. Meditate on what sticks out to you, pray about it, and then do it! And if you don't like Sunday Takeaways, if they just irritate you for some reason, I just have two words for you...Keep Scrolling!
RSS Feed
