Back to the Harvest

I am currently sitting in the Louisville Airport after having an amazingly blessed time of fellowship at Together for the Gospel with my close friends, and hearing some incredible preaching and exhortation. The weight of the message John Piper preached last night left me challenged and encouraged, it had a sobering effect on the whole congregation. After he was done, there was dead silence, and that was broken by Bob Kaufman who began to lead us in singing -- we slowly rose and the voices that sang had a weight of their own - 3000 Pastors singing after a message like that is something to hear.

One of the objects of this conference was to bring people/Pastors together who may be out there on their own and have no support system, or as Al Mohler put it a "Band of Brothers". Mark Dever said they were the bait to draw everyone together, not a bad plan. I can somewhat understand why this is necessary - after living in California most of my life, I have always been surrounded by a Band of Brothers, they would correct me, encourage me, pray for me, counsel me, and teach me. I will always be grateful for the friends that God has put in my life. Now that I am living in Iowa I am still leaning on them, I have not been successful in finding another like-minded Christian as of yet. I have been blessed to meet a Pastor in Kansas, who is quickly becoming a great friend, I am currently praying that he will be called to Pastor the church I am currently attending, they are looking for a Pastor at the moment.

My heart truly goes out to the reformed, by himself-out numbered- sold out for the truth-of the gospel Pastor that is out there on his own without any nearby support network of brothers to sharpen iron with. I pray that this conference will have had the desired effect that Mark Dever envisioned and bring other Pastors together for edification and sanctification.

I will miss seeing my Band of Brothers on a daily/weekly basis, but praise God for the technology that keeps us together!

I can't wait for Together for the Gospel 2008!