Conference - Night Three

"You Yourself have recorded my wanderings.  Put my tears in Your bottle.  Are they not in Your records?"

Psalm 56:8

We were blessed on the final evening of the 4th Annual Conference by the Senior Pastor from Central Baptist Church in Bryan... or College Station, depending on what part of the building you're in.  And this pastor had a message for us all tonight.  A message that I wish I could have recorded to just play for you here.

Pastor Chris Osborne spoke to us tonight about the theme of David's discipleship.  His following of God is what allowed for the deepest truths to come to the surface.  David, the "man after God's own heart," was simply an amazing example of early discipleship.  In the field, as the sheep were present, if a predator came, David protected the flock.  When Goliath came, David slew him with a single stone.  David was a natural protector, and he was good at it.

But in this Psalm, David is fighting a war between faith and fear, and the truth doesn't come out until the 8th verse, cited above.  And David has a deep knowledge of how he loves God... but it si the deeper still knowledge that David has of how God loves David that brought forth the reduction and elimination of fear in this Psalm.  After all, if God were to keep your tears and hurts on record and in a bottle, knowing that you would be rewarded for each of them in God's time, would you be frightened of anything ever again that man can do to you?

But the key thing that Pastor Osborne brought up was how we get that deeper still knowledge... it comes through PRAYER!  (I bet that was just as much a shock to you as it was to me, right?)  But it is not the time we spend in any of the stations of adoration, confession, thanksgiving or supplication.  It is the time we spend aside from those moments, the time we spend listening for God.  And when those moments come that we are still enough, quiet enough and focused enough to fully let go enough, we can then finally have the opportunity to hear God in our prayer time.  But we actually have to shut up and listen... that's the tough part.

Pray tonight, blessed friend.  Pray hard and then pray harder.  And focus on how your prayer life should be and how it needs to grow.  And then, after your prayer is done tonight, plan on it tomorrow... and the next day... and the next day... and forever from then on.

God bless you all!!!