Hello Friends! It’s time for the Sunday Night Check-In. Welcome newcomers - feel free to say howdy in the comments! I hope your week ahead is filled with great things. We are promised cooler temps in North Louisiana, i.e. we are exchanging the 90s for the 80s. I’ll take it. We have been slowly meandering toward that 500 subscriber mark and we sit tonight at 499. If no one unwisely unsubscribes, perhaps this week we will meet that mark. Next week marks 2 years on Substack, and it would be fun to announce a 500 subscriber amount along with a few give-a-ways to celebrate!
In last week’s poll we asked about when you purchase Christmas decor. There was a tie with 16 of you voting (we have 499 subscribers and only 16 voted? Ima have to pray about that). The tie was between buying Christmas decor in November or not buying any at all, just using what we have. A healthy 25% of you suggested December. No one thought we ought to buy Christmas decor in October. I’m proud of you.
This week’s poll is brought to you by the fine folks at the lawfirm Dewey, Cheatem, and Howe. It has to do with pumpkins and their many uses. Aside from eating them, tell me about your October Jack-O-Lanterns. Maybe more than 16 readers will take a moment to vote!
Yesterday was the 28th Prayer Workshop at the Calhoun Church of Christ. Over the years the workshop has brought in the best known speakers, mostly from Churches of Christ. This year they were all locals. Myself, Mike Kellett, Ken Stegall, and Keith Roberts. Terry Davis did a magnificent job in leading us in singing throughout the time. Keith is the Workshop mastermind and the Calhoun church is the welcoming and hospitable host. It is always so encouraging! Two things I’ve always noted about the workshop: (1) The messages remind me to be more dedicated to praying with specificity and consistency and (2) The attendance is 1/4 of what it should be. I spoke twice. I’ll share those messages in the next few mid-week meditations, so watch for the first one around Wednesday. I don’t think we can emphasize prayer too much. Keith gave all the speakers a paper copy of R. A. Torrey’s The Power of Prayer and the Prayer of Power. Looking forward to digging in to that. I encourage everyone to read Keith’s marvelous book, Why God Waits for You To Pray.
Our spiritual immaturity never shows up more than in our lack of praying, be it alone or in a church prayer meeting. Let 20% of the chior members fail to turn up for rehearsal and the chior master is offended. Let 20% of the church members turn up for a prayer meeting, and the pastor is elated. - Leonard Ravenhill
At Forsythe Church of Christ this morning I continued my study of Romans by looking at part of chapter 7 and all of chapter 8. There is much too much to cover in one sermon, but I did my best to emphasize the encouragements from that text. The theme was UNCONDEMNED. Notes and audio are HERE. This afternoon we spent a few hours with our GriefShare group.
PHOTOGRAPHY
I hope to return to Black Bayou tomorrow morning. In the mean time, most all of my pictures have been in the back yard.
It appears that millions were able to see the Northern Lights this past week. I couldn’t see them in the city, but it appeared to me that there were some pink and green tints lightly visible on the moon’s surface.
READING
This week I finished the Dudley Delff’s book Balm in Gilead. I intend to return to this book in the future. Very rich. I also finished a book by
called Only His Words, which I bought back in January. It’s a simple concept. It is made up of only the words of Jesus from the King James Version of the Bible. I am familiar enough with the Gospels that context was mostly obvious to me, but the words rang through a little differently just seeing the words of Jesus. I enjoyed it and got a lot out of it. Check out Alexander’s excellent newsletter, Lighthouse, HERE. I also finished The Canal Murders by J. R. Ellis. It is the tenth volume of his Yorkshire Murder Mysteries featuring DCI Oldroyd. I have enjoyed this series.This week’s Wisdom of Armand Gamache comes from The Madness of Crowds.
Other Stacks to Check Out!
Life is Hard is a reflection from Les Ferguson, Jr. about loss and joy and getting from one to the other.
Buttermilk is the subject of Beth Yarbrough’s tribute and I am 100% in agreement!
Sunday and Weary is Joelle Brinkley getting real about what church is about.
Chris Martin gives us a smile with The Funnies.
ICYMI I offered a free chapter of my book JESUS LIKES YOU last week. If you want to catch that, go HERE.
At The Holy Lens we are praying through some passages in Jeremiah this week. By the end of the week we will be in 1 John. Join us HERE!
Some of the AI generated encouragements I shared this week. My favorite is the one with the moon and the Psalm 105:4 reference.
There may be a few of you who haven’t purchased my books, so I’ll leave a link below. The next book is still on track to come out around the end of October, beginning of November. Merry Christmas to a Broken Heart should be available before long.
I know you may be disappointed, but we are coming to the end of this week’s check-in. I don’t know what all God has in store for us this week, but we should remain open as we can and give Him every opportunity to bless us as he would like. Work hard, rest well, and stay connected. The world needs you.
Thank you!
Thanks again for coming and sharing with us at the annual Calhoun Church of Christ Prayer workshop !! Each year we grow and gain new perspectives from not only the speakers but the other attendees as well. Our congregation is blessed to be able to host this event each year!!