Providence and Preaching; July 22

Sometimes you get asked to preach when you don't really expect it. That was the case last night, when I was asked to have a sermon ready to go for the following evening. Since I've used up every sermon in my very short repetoire, it was somewhat of a time crunch. However, the Lord is so faithful! Check this out: the power was out (as is often the case),
and daylight was fading fast. I had barely begun thinking about the
Scripture passage (Phill 2:17-18), and I was really wondering how I
would be able to get it done, because it's so hard working by
candlelight. The light was getting to the point that I could not see
at all, and so I said, "Lord, it would be helpful and it would seem
like a good thing if you could just turn the power back on so I could
work on this more." Just then I heard Darlene saying from the main
house that dinner was ready. I had been thinking that it would be a
good night to fast because, due to tensions on the team, I felt that
the word which I was preaching could be really helpful (of course the
preaching of the word always is, but it seemed particularly important
last night). So all of the sudden it struck me that I needed to lay
things before the Lord. I said, "Lord if you turn the power on before
I go down and eat, then I will fast and work on this sermon here in
the room." I stood up, and tried flipping the light switch. Nothing.
So, thinking that was that I walked down to the main house. They
were just sitting down to pray when I arrived, and as I folded my
hands (with the platter of steak sitting right in front of me), one of
the guys in the kitchen said, "The power is on."
I mean, come on!! That's crazy. I knew that the Lord was directing
me to go back to work! It would have been disobedience not to. That
power must have come on within one minute of me praying. So I excused
myself, and went to work on it, and the Lord really blessed my time of
preparation. It became clear that the Lord wanted me to talk about
the demands of love and how we are to rejoice when we are being
"poured out." It is amazing how much easier it is to write a sermon
when you know you are being directed and enabled by God! I also had
an incredible conversation with Tyler (into the wee hours of the
night), and even though I was tired today, it was such a worshipful
day! Not to mention we were worshipping (in the morning) at the
church in Entebbe where we have been evangelising all week. There
were five people there who we had witnessed to! It was so neat to see
the church recieve them, and welcome them, and love them! I'm telling
you, the church here in Uganda has got some stuff right!! Of course,
it is God's phenomenal grace. At least 2 of those five were formerly
muslim, which is just encouraging. I couldn't help but tear up as we
sang (maybe it was from being tired too...), but some days, the
presence and providence of God just hits home hard.