Scripture
Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.
~James 5:16, NIV
Quote
An honest confession is good for the soul but hard on your reputation.
~Thomas Dewar
The LORD knows, I love to preach and the older I get, the more I seem to love preaching the gospel. Josh called me Wednesday night after worship and apologized for not taping the message. I told him no apology was needed and that I was very glad he did not record the message. I love my Wednesday night crowd but for the past two weeks, I have said more than I needed to say. There is such a thing as being too honest and I am very afraid that a little pride has slipped in the back door. This is the most difficult thing about preaching–keeping the flesh at bay. I even prayed before I began, “LORD, help me not say more than is necessary.” Then somehow pride slipped through a crack.
There is no such thing as too much humility but there is an obvious problem when there is too little. I do have weaknesses but I shouldn’t brag about them. I lack patience with people. I do not respond in a Christ-like loving way to those who crave attention; those who come across as being extremely needy. Nor do I respect irresponsible people. I hate it when people begin making excuses. I am not fun of carpers, complainers, or bellyachers who think only of themselves. I like to preach, visit and minister but I do not like to pacify the disgruntled or put out brush fires. What are the odds of finding a place where everyone is happy and there is no complaining, no brush fires, etc. It is a bit unrealistic wouldn’t you say!
Moses, Jeremiah, Isaiah and all the rest had to deal with unhappy people and they had to put out brush fires, especially Moses who pastored a church that had two million members. So what I need is more humility and a lot less pride. I certainly need more patience with needy and irresponsible people. If my patience was gun powder, I wouldn’t have enough to blow my nose. So let us pray for a more humble Jack in the future. We need more Jesus and less Jack, amen! Don’t text me an AMEN! I know you agree.
I have a brand new system here at 1120 Iron Man and Eastern Gate Headquarters. I am using a small lap top {Acer} but I purchased a new monitor yesterday because my old one does not have HMI hook up capability. This one is a 32 inch Samsung curved monitor. It is nice.
We got almost no rain here on Wednesday night but we got a good one on the DBC pumpkin patch in Lawrence County. We have mud on the pumpkins, PTL. The LORD is really watching out over the pumpkins.