The church I pastor has been making its way through the Everyday Gospel Devotional by Paul David Tripp this year. Each day has specific Scripture reading and a devotion relevant to that Scripture. The uniqueness of this devotional is that it is the whole Bible. Beginning with Genesis 1-3 on January 1st, it will conclude on December 31 with Revelation 20-22. To encourage the people who were willing to pay $10 for this book to continue reading (and not give up), I have been preaching on the previous week’s reading every Sunday. This week, for example, began with Habakkuk 1 and ends on Saturday with Matthew 4. So this coming Sunday my sermon will cover that Scripture. Since I like to limit myself to 20-30 minutes, it has been quite a challenge to do so and has required some unique approaches. I can honestly say it has been the ride of my life. I preached out of Old Testament books that I had never preached from. I have had to capsulize some things, highlighting only the important verse or verses in a section of the Scripture. BUT. IT. HAS. BEEN. WORTH. IT. I would not trade this mind and heart maturing process for anything in the world. I studied and hammered away, sometimes feeling I was in over my head. But God was equal to the task in answering my prayers. And here is something that may shock you or put a smile on your face: I did not use AI for any of it. If someone asks what AI is I will say, “It is a city that defeated Joshua after the walls of Jericho fell and they were confident in themselves and not God.”  I personally think it is a crime and a slam against the Holy Spirit to rely on artificial intelligence to prepare to preach God’s Word to God’s people. It smacks of laziness on the part of the pastor/preacher to use AI to prepare their sermons and to even write prayers. I feel so strongly about this I am even shying away from music when I find out it is AI generated. (Okay, off my soapbox) 🙂 

Long story short, today’s reading ends our time in the Old Testament. Tomorrow begins our foray for the rest of the year in the New Testament beginning with Matthew 1. The unfolding mystery of the Old Testament becomes the revealed story of the New. (Can you see me jumping and leaping over here?) 

{Note: One of, if not my longest and most faithful readers, is Martha Orlando (no relation to Tony). She posted Monday about her husband’s, Danny, upcoming surgery. That surgery is today. It does involve his heart but I will let Martha tell you directly what exactly it is. You can read her post here. I would like to ask you to pray for Danny and Martha as he goes through this procedure today. I will say thanks ahead of time}

As for Keaton (posted yesterday)? The doctor is saying the surgery was successful. Thank you Lord.