Teacher's Day & Decision-Time

I have given it two months. But I only wrote one page during an hour I had on Monday morning. My schedule as pastor is beyond my control as much as I like to control what I do. Only yesterday I was asked to take over the preaching next Friday at our end of the month combined cell group meeting. This morning I preached in a Teachers' Day and Children's Ministry at the District level. The theme was "The Day draws Near" (Hari Semakin Singkat). It went better than I thought. I felt no inhibition as I spoke and I managed to deliver the message in the strength of the Lord. We ended with lunch and how often a point I made in passing became the topic of discussion. I told my audience that I joined SIB as an adult as I came to know the Lord in NZ as a 17-year old.
One of the leaders asked me how I came to know the Lord. It was through a vision of the Lord at midnight. I told them after 21 years in ministry why the appearance of the Lord was important in my life and ministry because it involved following the Lord in faith. I started with RM700.00 per month in 1994 and twice I had obeyed the Lord's leading without a thought for financial security. It was not something natural or easy to do as I have a family to take care and the last thing you want to happen is to see your loved ones suffer want because of me being in the ministry. The Lord is faithful as I entrust my life into his hands. The leaders also asked me about my time in Singapore and I shared how the Lord blessed me with open doors of ministry.

Every time I had to preach it would mean a day or two of my time is taken up to prepare for the sermon. In the past month I have not moved beyond the 4th beatitude in the Sermon of the Mount. Tomorrow I shall be preaching on "Blessed are the merciful...". I hope to finish the 9 beatitudes next week and move through chapters 5-7 of the most important section of Jesus' teaching in the New Testament. When one is averaging 2 or 3 different sermons a week and many other church ministry beside, it is difficult to focus on anything else let alone time to write a commentary. Just now I gave a briefing to our song leaders about our new order of worship. Tomorrow after the 2nd service I will be chairing the council meeting with elders and deacons. There is much to discuss and I think it will not end until 5pm.