Morning Moments

"This is the way, walk ye in it"

The photos I have posted are of a conference Phil Waldrup puts together every year in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. I had not planned to attend, but received a phone call from a friend 3 days before the conference asking me to take the place of someone who had cancelled.

I know now why God worked it out for me to be the one to go. In the first place I got to spend time with a couple I pastored almost 20 years ago. The first day, Phil Waldrup came up to me and called me by name and reminded me that he had filled the pulpit for me almost 30 years ago. I would have never known him. He was seventeen at the time.

In the course of the conference David Jeremiah mentioned being in San Diago for 28 years and suddenly the Lord reminded me that when he left Fort Wayne, the pastor seach committee from the church in Fort Wayne, made a couple of trips to where I was in Florida at the time, pursuing me to become their pastor. Obviously I did not go because I had only been where I was a couple of years.

Charles Billingsly was sceduled to sing, but could not attend due to a physical problem. The Webb family came and would you believe they (husband and wife) were with Day of Discovery some years ago. That brought me to remember attending Bay Front Center in St Petersburg, Florida more years ago than I care to remember, for a Day of Discovery TV taping.

After the taping, I approached Richard DeHaan and asked if he would come preach for me in a little church I student pastored. There were only about 30 members at the time, but he graciously agreed to come. These days you have to promise the moon, and no one comes to a small church. EXECPT THOSE OF US WITH Hearland International Ministries, of course:).

In any event, I ordinarily would never have attended the conference, but God led, I did, and to be with those guys, plus Kurt Kaiser, Ray Moore (amazing pianist), Will Graham, David Jeremiah, Mark Lowery, and all the rest was just what the Lord wanted for me.

God is so good to lead us and once in awhile really surprise us:) There is no life like the life of faith!

PRAYER: Lord, you never cease to amaze me. Please continue to guide my way and pour yourself out through me, so that others may drink of the water of life. Your way is perfect.