Meet My New Friend
Last Sunday night three of my dearest pastor friends—Buddy Gray, Ron Ethridge, John Thweatt—and I befriended a new companion in the ministry. His name is Ray Pritchard, and you can read more about him on his daily blog at http://www.keepbelieving.com/. When you click there you will note on Ray’s Tuesday entry he mentions my blog. Ray is a gracious man.
Ray is a man God is using in a mighty way. The three of us have been interested in Ray’s ministry for several years. I read his blog and peak at his sermons almost on a daily basis. When we heard he was coming to Birmingham for a scheduled event, we asked if we would arrive a day early so we could spend some time in true biblical fellowship with him. Thankfully, Ray agreed.
We met with Ray last Sunday evening for about five hours. We spent part of the evening sharing a meal at a local restaurant in Hoover. Then, the other part of the evening was spent at my mother’s house, as we devoured the chocolate pie she made for us.
There is so much I learned from my encounter with Ray. He reminded me of some tried and true principles I should never forsake, and he taught me many new insights about life and ministry I will always cherish.
Ray told us his life story. His journey inspired me. His insights challenged me. And, his authenticity encouraged me. Here it is Wednesday, three days later, and I am still savoring much of what he said.
Perhaps the one kernel of truth that touched me the deepest centered on the Sovereignty of God. In almost every subject we addressed, Ray returned to the Sovereign nature of God. From his personal testimony to his accounts of past pastorates to his present day ministry, Ray kept reminding us of God’s sovereign ways.
That is a good reminder for all of us. We should remember daily that God is Sovereign. To say God is Sovereign is to say He is in control of everything. Nothing happens without passing through the permissible hands of Almighty God. To say God is Sovereign is to say nothing ever surprises Him. To say God is Sovereign is to say He is God and I am not.
One of the clearest testimonies to God’s Sovereign way is found in Jeremiah’s prophecy, where God’s Word recounts:
Ray is a man God is using in a mighty way. The three of us have been interested in Ray’s ministry for several years. I read his blog and peak at his sermons almost on a daily basis. When we heard he was coming to Birmingham for a scheduled event, we asked if we would arrive a day early so we could spend some time in true biblical fellowship with him. Thankfully, Ray agreed.
We met with Ray last Sunday evening for about five hours. We spent part of the evening sharing a meal at a local restaurant in Hoover. Then, the other part of the evening was spent at my mother’s house, as we devoured the chocolate pie she made for us.
There is so much I learned from my encounter with Ray. He reminded me of some tried and true principles I should never forsake, and he taught me many new insights about life and ministry I will always cherish.
Ray told us his life story. His journey inspired me. His insights challenged me. And, his authenticity encouraged me. Here it is Wednesday, three days later, and I am still savoring much of what he said.
Perhaps the one kernel of truth that touched me the deepest centered on the Sovereignty of God. In almost every subject we addressed, Ray returned to the Sovereign nature of God. From his personal testimony to his accounts of past pastorates to his present day ministry, Ray kept reminding us of God’s sovereign ways.
That is a good reminder for all of us. We should remember daily that God is Sovereign. To say God is Sovereign is to say He is in control of everything. Nothing happens without passing through the permissible hands of Almighty God. To say God is Sovereign is to say nothing ever surprises Him. To say God is Sovereign is to say He is God and I am not.
One of the clearest testimonies to God’s Sovereign way is found in Jeremiah’s prophecy, where God’s Word recounts:
This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: "Go down to the potter's house, and there I will give you my message." So I went down to the potter's house, and I saw him working at the wheel. But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him. Then the word of the LORD came to me: "O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does?" declares the LORD. "Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned. And if at another time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be built up and planted, and if it does evil in my sight and does not obey me, then I will reconsider the good I had intended to do for it.
Jeremiah 18:1-10
Isaiah 29:16 reinforces God’s Sovereignty the following way:
You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay! Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, "He did not make me"? Can the pot say of the potter, "He knows nothing"?
Isaiah 29:16
The Bible is replete with examples of God’s Sovereign control:
God directs the course of nature:
He says to the snow, 'Fall on the earth,' and to the rain shower, 'Be a
mighty downpour.' …The breath of God produces ice, and the broad waters become frozen. He loads the clouds with moisture; he scatters his lightning through them.
Job 37:6, 10 & 11
God has providential control of human affairs:
He makes nations great, and destroys them; he enlarges nations, and disperses them.
Job 12:23
God influences rulers in decisions:
The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD; he directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases.
Proverbs 21:1
God brings about various events in our lives:
I know, O LORD, that a man's life is not his own; it is not for man to
direct his steps.
Jeremiah 10:23
Success and failure comes from God:
No one from the east or the west or from the desert can exalt a man.
But it is God who judges: He brings one down, he exalts another.
Psalm 75:6-7
Our talents and abilities are from the Lord:
For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?
1 Corinthians 4:7
God plans our days before we are born:
…your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me
were written in your book before one of them came to be.
Psalm 139:16
On and on and on I could go with example after example after example of the Sovereignty of God. After befriending Ray Pritchard last Sunday night I am remind of this one categorical reality—GOD IS SOVEREIGN!
2 comments:
Few things are more important than the fellowship between Christians. It is one of the more tangible ways God strengthens and encourages us. Ryan, you are an encourager that I have been blessed to know for 28 years and Crosspoint is blessed for you to be their pastor. May our sovereign God use you and Crosspoint in ways you all cannot yet imagine!
One of the most difficult things in my life is giving everything to GOD and letting him lead me, instead I want to choose what he gets and try to take care of the rest for my self, only to be reminded that I should have let him handel it from the start.
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