Newsletter July 9, 2008
From the Senior Pastor. . .
Linda’s Uncle Tom Cross once told me, “If you don’t tell the people what you’re doing, they won’t know what you’re doing.” With that thought in mind, I want to tell you why you won’t see me around much during the next two months.
Beginning tomorrow, July 10, the Session has granted me a three-week academic leave. My objective is to finish, once and for all, a book I’ve been writing and rewriting (and rewriting) on I Corinthians 13, entitled “A More Excellent Way.”
Many of you are aware of this project. Some of you aren’t. In the early 90’s I preached for many (many) weeks a series of sermons based upon Paul’s description of love. In I Corinthians 12 and 14 Paul talks about spiritual gifts. All believers are gifted by God at one time or another with a supernatural ability to accomplish God’s particular purposes for them and others. God gives us these gifts to glorify Himself, to minister to one another, and to make Himself known to others. We don’t all have the same gifts, which is why we need one another. The church performs its God-given task through its various members exercising their gifts. For the Body to function as God intends, each part must do its work – a work for which God supernaturally equips, empowers and enables His people.
But to each and every one of His people God gives the grace of love. We do not all have the same gifts, but we are all the recipients of God’s grace. And by the grace that saves, we are given the grace to love in a manner reflecting God’s love for us. When we love Him and one another as He has loved us, we enter into that “more excellent way” that God uses to turn this world right side up.
So, please pray for me as I attempt, again, to complete the task of editing (for the last time) the fourteen chapters of this book. Of what use it will be for the church is in God’s hands.
I will worship with you on the 13th and 27th. Pray for Pastor Mullinax, because on his shoulders will rest most of the pastoral duties of the church during these three weeks, including the weekly preaching and teaching of God’s Word.
I’ll be back in the saddle the first two Sundays of August. But then the following three, I will accompany Dr. Dan Steere as we teach for one week in Nigeria and then for a second week in Ghana. It will be my privilege to assist him, teaching and training some of the church leaders in these two countries in the truths of covenant theology and their applications to the lives of the churches and people.
It is absolutely critical that we understand who we are and Whose we are. How great our confidence becomes when we know that He is our God, and we are His people. How profound the challenge becomes when we understand that He has chosen us to serve as His royal priesthood, as citizens of His holy nation, declaring His praises through all we do and say.
Again, during the last two and a half weeks of August, all the pastoral duties of the church will be Pastor Mullinax’s. I’m grateful for the confidence I have in his God-given gifts. Working in tandem with Mark and Jeremy, I know God will use him to serve you well.
Pray for all of us. Pray for Dr. Steere as he shepherds me through the meeting of this great challenge, privilege and opportunity. Remember Linda and Susan in your prayers. And I will promise to pray often for all of you.
So that’s what I’ll be doing. These are the challenges that lay before me. May God be pleased to use this time for His glory.
Pastor Caines