Monday, August 30, 2004

8:38 PM One final note: Check out Kevin McCullough’s weblog for excellent, on-location coverage of the Republican Convention in New York City. Kevin posted a number of pictures of various important people he’s talked to so far, including Ben Stein, George P. Bush (nephew), Tony Snow of Fox News, former NYC mayor Ed Koch, and most importantly, our own Cisco Cotto of WLS-890 AM. I thought I saw him in church yesterday with Anna. If so, he hopped a quick flight to New York on Sunday afternoon. 8:29 PM In my sermon yesterday on 1 Peter 1:10-12, while trying to explain how the Old Testament prophets didn’t fully understand what they wrote or how their prophecies would be fulfilled, I compared the prophets to archers, and their prophecies to “arrows of truth.” The prophets shot “arrows of truth” that flew high into the sky and then disappeared. The prophets knew only that those arrows would land somewhere in the distant future. I pointed out that many generations later, those “arrows of truth” landed on the Lord Jesus Christ. Evidently one child took me very literally, as evidenced by this email from her mother:

Our 7 yr. old attended the last service and I think that the message impacted her also. After service I asked her about the sermon and she told me that it was great. She said “Mommy, did you see what those prophets do? They pointed their arrows at Jesus and then they killed Him”.I thought that it was a great line and I wanted to share it with you.

8:14 PM Just found out about a fine new outreach called Prayer Across America, a movement asking Christians to pray in all 50 state capitals over the next year, one state capital per week. They will start in Springfield, Illinois, on September 11, and then move on to Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, and so on until all 50 states are covered. The final prayer meeting will take place in Washington, DC, on September 11, 2005. This is a wonderful idea “for such a time as this,” and I hope it leads to a new awakening in our nation. God gave the vision to Phil Epperson, who for many years served as pastor of the Stone Church in Palos Heights, Illinois. (Hat tip to Betty Nelson for the link.) 8:04 PM Today’s entry in the Crosswalk weblog is called “Arrows of Truth” and Yesterday’s Sermon. 10:36 AM A correspondent asks if I have any sermons that address the topic of covetousness. Here’s one. 10:33 AM Counting down the days … 9 days until the Concert of Prayer for “God Speaks Today” 13 days until the “God Speaks Today” series begins. 24 days until “First Watch” begins. 10:30 AM Monday morning shout-out to Dr. David Zersen of Austin, Texas, the men of Dryer 2 at Moody Bible Institute who came to our house last night for a cookout, Ryan, Nicole and Hunter Harms in Littleton, CO, Mary Harris, and Jim and Lin Francois.