In The Corn

Well, that's not entirely accurate... the fields are bare. Doesn't look like anyone is growing wheat this year.

Jessie, Nadia, and I are in Illinois, visiting Jessie's people. It is, for me, also a kind of study period, a rare time when I am away from things and can concentrate. I kind of have a few irons in the fire.

I have been fanboying pretty hard on a preacher who was active from 1900-43. G. Campbell Morgan. He is considered by many one of the greatest preachers. The English Methodists rejected him as a preacher, to their detriment.

I am looking through Psalms. Last year I was searching for where Psalms say God answers prayer. This time, looking for the reasons Psalms says we are blessed.

And then the main effort has been working on 2025's sermons. I will be preaching through Hebrews. It has impacted a lot this year. I switched up my Bible reading; May and June was just cycling through Hebrews and the Sermon the Mount.

Hebrews, as it is in my head is about:

Encouragement for discouraged or backslidden believers;

Worship;

The supremacy of Christ;

And because of that, it is an anchor for the soul.

First Sunday of the New Year will be the Covenant Renewal Service. It is a service John Wesley derived from a book by a Puritan pastor, Joseph Alleine. I had long been dissatisfied with the modern Methodist version. It is way short and the covenant prayer is bland without the context of the whole liturgy, if one may call it that. I went looking for the whole thing, to the best of my knowledge we do it the way it was first done in 1755. So we have a pretty large bulletin. It is about human unrighteousness, the holiness and grace of God, and the power of a renewed life I hope it will be a blessing.