The God of all Comfort

Greetings Everyone,

It has been over a year since I have posted a blog entry. This past year has been a season of severe tests, trials and ministry challenges that have taken me through the full range of emotions from extreme depression to overflowing joy. I can honestly say now without a doubt that trials not only come to strengthen you, but they also come to strip you!  Sometimes there are some things in our lives that God wants to move in order to make us more like Him, and sometimes He uses chaos and calamity to achieve those ends.  I am now living the words of the famous song by Marvin Sapp, "I'm stronger, I'm wiser, I'm better, so much better!!!  Thank you Lord for bringing me through!!

This past Lord's Day proved to be a great day of corporate worship at BBC.  Our day started at 8am at our Early Morning Prayer Service.  I  really love this service.  The saints that participate in this service play an integral part in setting the tone for the entire day.  I am always encouraged to hear the people of God praying for the well being of their pastor.  the service was very warm as the people of God offered up their petitions.

Morning Worship was well attended in spite of the snow that started falling that morning.  We were blessed our Music Ministry. There have been some changes to our Music Ministry that has really help to lift the overall quality of the music ans well as the choir.  I may be biased, but we have one of the best choirs on earth and it is a joy to hear them sing!  They make the preaching moment easier to approach.  I was excited and ready to preach and the people were ready to hear a word from the Lord.  I am experimenting with something new for me, and that is teaching on Wednesday and preaching on Sunday from the same book.  I preached from 2 Corinthians 1:3-9.  The message was entitled, "The God of all Comfort".  Here's the outline:

1.  God comforts us because it is His Divine Character (3).

2.  God comforts us so that we may be Devoted to our Commission (4-7).

3.  God comforts us so that we may Develop Confidence in Him (8-9).

God truly blessed the preaching moment!  I am truly amazed at how God orchestrates corporate worship to send out a single message.  Throughout the day at BBC, from Early Morning Prayer through 11am worship the focus had been on people being comforted! Praise God for people being sensitive to the voice and move of God!

Later on, I would need some of that same comfort.  I am a die hard Chicago Bears fan! The only thing that was worse than watching them lose to the Green Bay Packers was watching the win the Super Bowl!  As a football fan, it was a very good game.

Well it was good communicating with you on today and I look forward to blogging again real soon!  I promise it wont be another year before you hear from me again!  I want to thank all of my readers and those from "The Blogging Bunch" for encouraging me to continue in this avenue of ministry and for praying me through my season of storms!  God Bless You!!!