Lord's Day

Yesterday was quite a day. I was due to go to Cambridge Presbyterian Church to preach in the evening. This was part of my licensure. The presbytery had commissioned the elders of CPC to act for them in examining me.

We went down for the whole day. We got there about 10am after a 2hr journey. We missed Chad van Dixhorn's morning lecture on the WCF. You can get the series here. In the morning service O. Palmer Robertson preached - he of The Christ of the Covenants. His sermon was excellent, on how to be a follower. Much is said these days about leadership. Everyone thinks they should be a leader. But the Bible has much to say about "followership", especially in relation to ordained leaders. It lasted 65 minutes, though it did not seem that long. Dr. Robertson is used to teaching at African Bible College. He must have been thinking african time - 65 minutes is short!

In the afternoon afternoon with the Hamiltons. Susan and I went with him to a service in a residential home for the elderly. 

Evening service. The church building we were meeting in was packed out. There must have been 100+ people there. An interesting thing I learned about CPC: when Ian Hamilton came to that church in 1999 there were ~25 members and ~40 attending.  God has blessed the faithful ministry there.

I preached on John 12:23-26 - on the glorification of the Son of Man. It felt messy and disjointed as I preached. But I know that it is difficult for me to accurately tell. I regularly suffer from preacher's blues after preaching, and I got it big time last night. Over the years as I have thought about this phenomenon I am now convinced it is a form of inverted pride which must be subdued by God's grace. I have to preach to myself once more the gospel and repent of the sin.

The work of Christ on the cross is indeed a glorious act, leading to a great harvest! It is when the cross is in view that we see the greatness of our God. It was not the tragic ending of a life with great potential. It was not simply acted out so that the example of Christ exerts a moral influence on us. It was the supreme act of salvation for us displaying the nature of his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice goodness and truth.