Preached at Kick-off Event for 40 Days for Life in Washington, DC

Picture - Me outside the Planned Parenthood clinic in Washington, DC.

Last night I had the opportunity to preach the gospel at the kick-off rally at Farragut Square for an event that happens every fall and spring called "40 Days for Life". It's a prayer vigil where people gather together to pray for 40 days outside of abortion providers, namely Planned Parenthood. This is a peaceful effort that seeks to respect the doctors and families affected, and it seeks to obey the law.

Again, I don't have a recording of my sermon, but I do have a manuscript. If you're interested just shoot me an email. One of my aims was to express that even though we have disagreements about what the gospel is and what makes a person a Christian we do share a conviction from the Bible that abortion is wrong. While we don't have unity in the gospel we do have a common interest to see the end of abortion. Then I tried to make the gospel clear, and encourage people to repent and believe and to pray gospel-centered prayers, and to counsel with the gospel.

Poppa Don's Funeral in Bettendorf, IA

By God's grace Lindsey and I were able to pack up the car and N. for a trip back to Iowa for Lindsey's grandpa's funeral. N. did really well, and then we hit Indianapolis. She cried for about the last 3 or so hours of the trip. It was hard not to pull over and just find a hotel, but we pushed on and by God's grace we made it. The trip back was much better, but we stopped and stayed in a strange hotel in Wheeling, OH. Ask me about it sometime if you're curious.

Poppa had alzheimer's and his health had been deteriorating over the last four years or so. It was a sorrowful and a yet joyful privilege to be able to put together the funeral service and to be able to preach the gospel too. We don't have a recording of my sermon, but if you're interested I do have a manuscript of it. If you would like you can read Poppa's obituary at the Quad City Times website here.

The funeral was on August 6, 2010. Nonnie's pastor, Craig Rolinger from Oak Ridge Bible Chapel in Milan, IL, preached an encouraging message from 1 Thessalonians 4 (and a few other passages) at the McGinnis-Chambers Funeral Home in Bettendorf. Then I preached a message from John 9:35-41 about how "Jesus Christ the Perfect Eye-Doctor" (Poppa was an ophthamologist) at the grave-side service at Davenport Memorial Park.

Picture - This is a picture of us with Lindsey's mother's side of the family after the funeral.

Grace Baptist Church of Arlington, VA

I've been delinquent in getting some of these things out here, but I have had a number of opportunities to preach in the last three months. This and the next two posts will be about these opportunities.

The first two opportunities I had to preach were at Grace Baptist Church of Arlington, VA. It was a blessing to be with this church. Here are the sermons I preached:

Turning to God in Trials (Psalm 4) - June 27th, 2010

Protection and Justice Belong to God (Psalm 5) - July 4th, 2010

Picture 1 - This is of the building where they meet.

Picture 2 - This is a picture of me with two of their elders, non-staff pastor Eric Pelletier on the left and staff pastor Mike Law, Jr. on the right.

Reformation Day Concert ~ Capitol Hill Baptist Church Mountain Band

It's been a while since I've blogged, I know. God has been teaching me so much that it has been best to abstain from blogging until I'm less busy with all that He has given me to do right now. That brings me to something God has me doing right now, the CHBC Mountain Band!

Are you going to be in Washington, DC on Sunday October 31, 2010 at 4:00PM? You should come to the concert/sing-along we are having at Capitol Hill Baptist Church! We are going to be meditating on heaven through a number of songs, and we'll have food as well. A number of us play a wide variety of instruments and we wanted to bring a bunch of folks together to play in order to encourage the saints of CHBC. You might ask, "Well, I'm not a member of CHBC." Well friend, you're still invited to come check it out. Then stay afterward to pray with our church and hear God's Word preached!

The group is made up of a number of members from my church (I hope I didn't forget anyone):

Voices from High to Low:
Diane Davis - Voice
Allison Jones - Voice
Alexis Andrews - Voice
John Mackinney - Voice
John Hardin - Voice/Guitar
Bill Cook - Voice
Homere Whyte - Voice

Instrumentalists:
Rebecca Ulrich - Piccolo
Paige Cunningham - Fiddle
Susan Russo - Fiddle
Matt Merker - Harmonica(s)/Piano/Mountain Dulcimer/Mandolin
Jennifer Jackson - Piano
Connie Dever - Hammered Dulcimer/Mandolin
Greg Brown - Banjo
Noah Braymen - Guitar(s)/Banjo
Nile Wartts - Percussion/Washboard/Whistler
Jameson Cunningham - Percussion
Kevin Goggin - Bass Fiddle

Lord willing we'll also have a few surprises as well! Trust me, you don't want to miss this.