Thursday Night Summary

Last night continued in the same great way. First up we had Bro. Bill Abbott, evangelist, preaching about Men on Fire from Daniel Chapter 3. He talked about the three men thrown in the fiery furnace, and how they were different because they were in the crowd, standing, when everyone else was bowing to the image. Then they were daring because they were brought in front of the king. He gave them another chance and they still refused to bow. They were also dedicated because they told the king that, while God could rescue them from the fiery furnace, even if He didn't, they would still not bow. The final point was amazing as Bro. Abbott pointed out that the men were not delivered until they were actually in the fire. He closed with a great illustration of a man putting a potato, an egg and a coffee-filled pouch into boiling water. The potato was hard, but when it went through the fire, it became soft. The egg was fragile, but going through the fire toughened it and gave it strength. And when the coffee went into the water, it affected its environment and turned all the water into coffee. It's really just a question of what the fire will do to you.

The second sermon was by Bro. Allison, and as usual he knocked it out of the park. He preached from Exodus chapter 32 about the golden calf. His question last night, "Which kind of a leader do you want--Moses or Aaron?" He pointed out from the first few verses it showed that the people wanted to give and they wanted to worship. But they were also prone to wander and forget their past promises to do right. V.22 showed that Aaron understood the people. V.23 showed he was willing to listen to their new ideas. V.24 showed he was willing to make the people happy and he was willing to serve publicly. V.25 said he kept them worshipping Jehovah (Note, this was not THE Jehovah. Calling the calf Jehovah did not make it the one true God.) It also showed he was willing to allow shame in the people (they were naked) without rebuke. He had a ministry of "love" and it was enjoyable, but he nearly destroyed the Israelites with his ministry. (God wanted to destroy them because of their disobedience.)

On the other hand we have Moses--instead of spending time with the people, he spent forty days with God. He was always giving commandments, he had a temper and he was severe. (He commanded the people to pick up their swords and kill the ones who were doing wrong.) Although 3000 people died because of his command, he wasn't as severe as God, who in V. 10 said He would destroy all the people.

Pastor ended with the face that a Preacher who is running with God is going to hate sin. He's going to rebuke it and preach against it. He also said that the way to avoid feeling guilty when a preacher preaches is to get right. The main difference between Moses and Aaron? Aaron spent forty days with the people. Moses spent forty days with God.

We also had Reggie Payte here all this week and his singing was really a blessing! In addition, last night we had Larry Harrison, the book cole porter. Lots of good sales going on in the fellowship hall after the service!

We left the church about 10:00 last night. All of my boys were dragging so I put them to bed and told them to sleep in the next morning. To my surprise, they slept until 10:00 a.m. Nicky woke up with 102.5 fever and throwing up. Guess the flu is trying to make a repeat appearance at our house.

Tonight's the final night of the conference. Bro. Abbott will be preaching again and then Bro. John Reynolds will be closing out the conference. I'll share with you on Monday what we learn tonight. Have a great weekend!