God Showed Up

August 2, 2011

The fourth weekend of each July, the church I pastor holds an annual meeting.  A Primitive Baptist annual meeting is a series of worship services held Friday through Sunday typically preached by a guest minister.  Other denominations hold similar meetings and call them revivals.  Last week we held our annual meeting, and I would like to share a few particulars concerning Saturday night’s service.

 The day was hot and humid, 100 degrees.  We had dinner in our dining hall, promptly at 6:00.  We cleaned our dishes and put away the food, promptly at 6:50.  We entered the meeting house and began singing, promptly at 7:00.  But at 7:10, we lost power.  That evening, the demand on the power company by the community was too great and we lost electricity.

 Knowing that temperatures would rapidly increase and light would fade; we ended the song service, omitted introductory comments, said a short prayer, and asked the preacher to begin.  Soon, the deacons began opening windows and passing out fans (paper plates).  The preacher preached and was sweating buckets.  But then, a miracle happened.  God showed up.  From a natural standpoint, a lot of things went wrong; but God showed up – and with only ten minutes of singing.

 Ask any of our members as to the meeting’s highlight and 99% will tell you about Saturday night’s message.  What’s the lesson?  Compare how much time we spend preparing for natural things with the time we spend begging for God’s presence.  We know what’s important, but we fret most over that with very litter importance.  Amen?

 Later in the evening, back at my house, the guest preacher said that for moment he wasn’t too sure how the meeting would go.  I told him that I never doubted, that I was confident it would be a great service.  He asked, “What made you so sure?”  I told him, “The best sermons never get recorded.”  Miracles can be that way (Matt 11:5).

Article Written by Elder Dolph Painter, Moriah Primitive Baptist Church

pastordolph@aol.com

This site created by Steve McCannon. This page last updated 08/07/2011