Wednesday, January 03, 2007

You Just Never Know!

Hello All,

As you have seen here over the last few days, it has been announced that we are leaving Jerez. As such, I did not want to cover new ground in Genesis for our Wednesday Night study, but instead have chosen to pick out two messages from the past. Doing this will free me from doing a fresh new study, essentially freeing up time to further assist Carlos in the computer room and praparing things for our next move. Unfortunately a low back strain has slowed me up these last few days as well, so concentrating on a new topic would have been a "stretch" anyway! (Sorry, pun intended!) But it is always an ackward thing. How does one make such a choice effectively? I could never be a full time guest speaker. There are so many variables to consider.

As the struggle continued in my mind, I felt a strong and clear leading toward I John 1:8 & 9. I reviewed my 3 year old notes from the PackingHouse College Group days, made some revisions, put in new illustrations, and copied off the translator copy for Carlos.

Now, in all that time, I am doubting continually that I have chosen the right text. And then to make matters worse, every sermon I read, from Spurgeon's to J.C. Ryle's, is a million times better on the subject. Still, I felt compelled and assured that this is the message I was supposed to give.

And then the night started and it was the same people who come every week, who are godly and all walking with the Lord. I am thinking that this is going to be a remedial course for them, but someone must need it. Then as we are in the middle of "We Fall Down," "Postrados" in Spanish, three girls walk in who are visiting a family from our congregation. They are from Latin America and are here for a time.

It was then that I sensed that this message must be for them! To be honest, I don't know the end of this story. I may be totally wrong, as the message could just as well been for me! But I know that I had to give it and that it had to be tonight, for this audience. I wish I could tell you that those girls got saved and they led 40 other significant women to the Lord, who bore the next "insert favorite anecdotal spiritual hero here!" But it is likely that I will never know the impact of this decision, that I believe is filled with destiny.

I hope that each of you have the same sense of destiny. I hope that the words and exhortations and the songs and the poetry that the Lord entrusts to you to share, will be shared by you when He calls on you to do so. I admit that I hope to see the fruit of why I shared what I shared tonight. That is always encouraging. But if I don't, I assure you that I sleep better tonight for having shared it!

Blessings To The Friends Of Spain,
Frank Sanchez

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