August 13, 2007

Fellowship in the Woods

Each year, our church goes camping for a weekend. And when I say "our church," I pretty much mean just about the entire church. With a weekly attendance usually a bit shy of 200, this past weekend we had over 120 people camping, plus another 40+ visiting for a day. It is a great time of fellowship for all. Our family got our pop-up camper to the beautiful Cowan's Gap State Park in between thunderstorms; that's good! Setting up in the rain, let alone a thunderstorm, is always an undesirable task. And the rest of the weekend was warm and dry, perfect for swimming, volleyball, early morning runs, Saturday night's singing and Sunday morning's worship. I had the Sunday morning service. I love teaching and preaching outside like that, surrounded by families in lawn chairs, etc., as we open the Word together. Our challenge was God's message to Samuel that God does not look on the outward stature of a man, but God looks upon the heart. And what does it look like when a man has a heart that beats after God's own heart, as David did. I have a hard time preaching such messages when I know that I stand there wishing that my own heart beat more after God's. Anyway, I was out of the office on Friday, but Walter Chantry's new book, "David: Man of Prayer, Man of War," arrived. It's here, and it looks GREAT! Pastor Chantry even stopped in late Friday afternoon and left me a signed copy on my desk (thanks, Walt). While I can't offer you all signed copies, I can certainly encourage you to get this latest book from Banner of Truth! More to come. Steve.

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