Please Pray For Me

By the time you read today’s blog, I will be in Burley, Idaho, preaching for the Idaho/Utah Pastors’ Conference. I flew out here last night, and arrived in Twin Falls, Idaho, sometime around 10:00 PM.

My friend, Scott Hanberry, invited me to this event. Some of you will remember Scott from last summer when he preached during WOW the second Wednesday in June. Scott is the president of the Idaho/Utah Pastors’ Conference. I consider this one of the highest privileges of my ministry. For a preacher to preach to preachers is an awesome invitation.

If the Lord is willing, I plan to preach tonight from 1 Corinthians 1:18-2:5. Tomorrow night I will preach either from 2 Timothy 4:1-5 or 1 Peter 5:1-11. Both passages are specifically targeted for preachers.

A preacher who knew a lot about preaching once gave this admonition to pastors. W. A. Criswell once said:

When a man goes to church he often hears a preacher in the pulpit rehash everything that he has read in the editorials, the newspapers, and the magazines. On the TV commentaries he hears that same stuff over again, yawns, and goes out and plays golf on Sunday. When a man comes to church, actually what he is saying to you is this, 'Preacher, I know what the TV commentator has to say; I hear him every day. I know what the editorial writer has to say; I read it every day. I know what the magazines have to say; I read them every week. Preacher, what I want to know is, does God have anything to say? If God has anything to say, tell us what it is.’

Pow! That’s on the money, isn’t it?

If the Lord places my name on your mind this week, please pray for me. You can pray for me in at least four ways:

1. Pray I get out of the way. You know me; I can get in God’s way. Pray I humble myself before the Lord every day I am with these preachers.
2. Pray the Lord uses me to minister. I want to be an encouragement to these pastors. Many of them are bi-vocational. All of them are involved in some type of frontier work in this part of the country. I want them to leave encouraged and challenged by the Word of God.
3. Pray for the Lord to have His way. If I will get out of His way and stay out of His way, the Lord will have His way. Pray I remain sensitive to the leadership of the Holy Spirit, and that I do only as He instructs me to do.
4. Pray I proclaim and explain the Word of God clearly. Pray I remain faithful to the text, and that what I say makes sense. I want the pastors to understand what I am saying so much that when they leave they want to study the Word of God more thoroughly themselves.

Thank you for allowing me this privilege to preach the Word of God to a church full of men of God. Whenever I go somewhere to preach I take CrossPoint with me in heart. Please pray for me to represent you, and more importantly, our Savior in an honorable manner.