Preaching Daily - May 18

 

Today's Word for Pastors...

As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the LORD is flawless. He is a shield for all who take refuge in him.
Psalms 18:30

Today's Preaching Insight...

Churchwide Biblical Literacy

The Bible can transform our lives. It also can transform your church. The past year was phenomenal for our congregation. David Petro, our Minister of Education, gave us a novel idea: He suggested we "read the Bible."

Seriously, his idea was that we—the entire congregation—covenant together to read the Bible through during the year. We had a commitment service the first Sunday in November, and every member committed to read the Bible through in a year beginning on Jan. 1.

In our staff discussions, we took David's idea to task. The one thing we knew for sure was that if we read the Word of God, it would change our lives. We wanted to saturate ourselves with God's Word, believing it would help us understand better the Bible and God's covenant with us. After weeks of discussion, we decided to use Alan B. Stringfellow's Through the Bible in a Year as a general guide and study outline for our reading plan.

The Bible is divided into two "covenants" of God with man, so we decided to call it "The Covenant." Our goal was to learn how God developed the Old Covenant and brought His plan to completion in the New Covenant in Christ Jesus.

(To read the entire article "Letting the Bible Transform Your Church" by Jerry Sosebee at Preaching.com, click here)

Today's Extra...

This Week's Laugh

Not A Cat Fan!

A man absolutely hated his wife's cat and decided to get rid of him one day by driving him 20 blocks from his home and leaving him at the park. As he was getting home, the cat was walking up the driveway.

The next day he decided to drive the cat 40 blocks away. He put the beast out and headed home.

Driving back up his driveway, there was the cat!

He kept taking the cat further and further and the cat would always beat him home. At last he decided to drive a few miles away, turn right, then left, past the bridge, then right again and another right until he reached what he thought was a safe distance from his home and left the cat there.

Hours later the man calls home to his wife: "Susan, is the cat there?"

"Yes", the wife answers, "why do you ask?"

Frustrated, the man answered, "Put that no good thing on the phone, I'm lost and need directions!

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