REVIVAL!

Today started a second, short gospel meeting this year, where I attend worship, what most call a revival. I like both terms: the gospel, the good news of Christ, is preached, and the visiting preacher, hopefully, can revive some of us who at times get in a bit of a rut - not that the regular preacher preaches religious error, but sometimes everyone needs a slightly different voice from the pulpit.

About 2 months ago, Kevin Clark, a local lawyer, preached for us on a Thursday night - Sunday night. We met 3 evenings, many of us ate supper together at a local restaurant before Saturday evening worship, he preached during Sunday morning class time and at the regular time, then a 3:00 singing (we have only congregational vocal music - you can look up the definition "a capella"), and 4:00 preaching.

By having services at 3 & 4 this afternoon, folks from other churches could attend. The singing was so good I wish I could have just sat and listened! But the Bible tells us all to sing, not some of us, and even though the air conditioner at the building was running on less than 50% and it was hot, no one passed out or got up and left. Hopefully the AC units will be fixed tomorrow. The rain helped some this morning, but the sun was out by 3 p.m.!

Our visitor this time is Ralph Walker, a faculty member at Florida College in Temple Terrace (Tampa), Florida, as well as one of the preachers for the Henderson Boulevard church of Christ there. (Both the college and the church have web sites, if you are interested. You can also do a search for Ralph Walker, and find him on several sites.) His theme for the 6 services (three times today, then Monday through Wednesday nights) is prayer. While I knew Kevin, I had never met Ralph. When I lived in Tampa years ago, I attended Henderson Boulevard some, but Ralph was not there at the time.

So far, so good! And "Walker" is appropriate! He's rarely in the pulpit - mostly pacing some in the audience, and using only small index cards which he rarely glances at.

We also will have a Wednesday morning service, though the topic is not prayer, but entitled "Where are we going to eat?" Steve, our regular preacher, and I were laughing at that because usually after that service (most of the year, there is a 10:30-11:30 a.m. Wednesday class), someone asks, "Where are we going to eat?" I have an "inside spy" and already know what his sermon will be about!

He did throw in a saying today which I'd never heard, but I like it, and will now pepper some of my conversations with it. It is "Learn to live with your critics. Dogs don't bark at parked cars." I found a little about part of that saying on line. Ralph used it to refer to the fact that people who are doing something good are sometimes "barked at" by critics. He was preaching about Daniel, specifically Daniel 6. I'll let you look it up and see who the "barking dogs" were!