“I will prolong my words...” (LXX Prov 1:24)

Last Sunday I received double portion of blessings, as I preached twice in church, once in the Sunday morning service and again at night at the 25th anniversary thanksgiving service. It was as if the Lord reaffirming the calling in my life to preach the Gospel and His Word. In the morning service, I shared how the Lord called me into His service as an 18-year, a second year University student. I said, “you can say anything about me, I will forgive you” but one thing is this “I am convinced of God’s calling in my life to be His servant”. God is in control as I received my letter of appointment at the end of the denomination’s AGM last Saturday, 30th Nov exactly a year after I resigned as lecturer of the College in Namaus, Ranau.
It may appear that my year-long sabbatical is coming to an end, though I have yet to sign the letter of offer but it is just days before everything is finalised. Further, it was good to see 30 of my closest friends came and celebrated with me the 25th anniversary in full time ministry on Sunday night. Together with 9 of my former students and a few children, there were 40plus people in attendance. Only a couple of people invited did not turn up. I did not issue any reminder and the invitation went out almost 2 months ago. In my mind if they remembered they would come, if not it was not meant to be. I guess it was a test that when one has nothing, one knows who one’s true friends are. I resisted the temptation to say much about my 25th anniversary during my preaching in the morning with just a passing remark that I might sing a song later that night. It was more a hint or reminder to those who have been invited to come. At the end I did not sing. In the morning I preached a fairly long message of 65 minutes, though I had to skip 5 or 6 slides. I managed to cover just 10 slides over the course of the sermon on 1 John 2:7-17. Why did I preach so long? It is because it is written in LXX Proverbs 1:24 that, “Since I would call but you did not heed and I would prolong words but you were not paying attention”. I wonder how many paid attention in church last Sunday.