If you weren’t able to be with us Sunday evening, I’d encourage you to get a copy of Dr. Steere’s sermon. He preached Psalm 27. He didn’t simply preach Psalm 27. He preached Psalm 27.
It was a powerful exposition of David’s glorious praise of the One Who is his Light and Salvation. As is always true of such preaching, Dan’s sermon was clearly applicable to anyone who has known what it is to be fearful because of circumstances that seem to be more than they can bear.
Dan was preaching to me. He wasn’t preaching at me. But he was preaching to me.
I want all who prayed for us during our time in Nigeria and Ghana – and especially those of you who prayed particularly for me – to know that your prayers were answered through the patient, kind, gentle ministry of this dear brother to one who was nearly overwhelmed by circumstances.
Sunday evening, September 14, we will worship at Trinity PC in Cleveland. My son, Philip, will be installed as pastor of our daughter congregation. Philip is a son of this congregation. It was here and at East Ridge PC that he was nurtured and raised up in the faith, not only by Linda and me, but by many of you as well. His wife, Sarah, is Tom and Freda Lowe’s daughter. She also was mentored and discipled by both her parents and you.
Sunday evening, September 21, Dan and I will report on our trip to Africa. I have mixed feelings about sharing with you the details of our journey.
We had the privilege and opportunity to encourage and instruct several key leaders of various churches and denominations. They represented approximately the same number of people worshiping on a Sunday morning in the PCA churches of the Tennessee Valley and North Georgia Presbyteries combined.
Dan is a wonderful teacher. I was free to respond to what he was teaching by preaching sermons that picked up on one of the themes of his instruction, walking my "congregation" through the Scripture, beginning in Genesis and ending in Revelation. Those of you who know me well, can imagine how much I delighted in this task.
For example, the Lord allowed me to preach about the significance of John the Baptist proclaiming Jesus the "Lamb of God," beginning in Genesis 3 and ending in Revelation with the "Lamb looking as if It had been slain" seated upon the throne of God. On another occasion I was allowed to show them the unfolding of the biblical theme of God leading His people back to Eden – using our narthex window to illustrate my points.
These are things I am eager to share with you. But I tremble at having to tell you about
how fearful and depressed I became on more than one occasion. And yet, I am eager for you to know how Dan ministered to me, prayed with me and for me, and by God’s grace, allowed me to meet faithfully the task to which He had called us.
I will tell you more about our trip to Africa in the future. However, this week I felt like I needed to focus on some other things.
I love you all. It is good to be home. It is wonderful to return to Linda and my family. And it was a great delight to worship with you Sunday morning, knowing that many of you had prayed for us, holding us up before the One Who is indeed our Light and our Salvation.
Pastor Caines