A Response to If My People ~~~

I really should ask other members of the quartet to write an occasional blog. After I sent the one out yesterday about the church service in Vero Beach last Sunday, Beverly wrote a nice note back to me and said I could use it if I wanted. So . . . I want.

Here is what she wrote:

"In response to Steve’s mentioning in his blog that we attended the church service last Sunday morning where he was preaching, I just want to say it is a pleasure to be able to join in the personal happenings and share in the lives of each member of the quartet outside the realms of the quartet. We spend many hours on the bus together and share the gospel in song during concerts, and have become family in many ways, but we never truly know what the lives of the others consist of past the steps of the bus that transports us down the road to the next concert. We laugh together and share verbally what has happened in our lives in the past week and sometimes even shed tears because of bad times. But we really haven’t shared totally until we step outside the boundaries of the umbrella of our ministry and walk next to our quartet members in their daily lives, and that’s what we have had the honor to do.

Steve, as in concert and on the bus during trips to different churches, literally overflows with excitement when talking, and singing, about the Lord and what God has done for us and what He would love to do in our lives. What we as members of the Trust ministry share are only an ‘itsy bitty bit’ of happiness compared to what giving our life to God can bring each moment. It’s awesome to know that God is standing by just waiting for each of us to surrender ourselves to Him in total abandonment from our everyday responsibility and invite Him into our lives so that unlike sharing bits and pieces of our time with family and friends, we may share with Him one-hundred percent of the time forever and ever.

Thanks Steve for sharing an itsy bitty bit of your life with us last Sunday Morning."

 

Beverly, thank you for taking the time to write such a nice response. I do appreciate it.

 

If My People . . .

Often after being introduced in a concert as being an ordained minister, people ask if I currently pastor a church. My routine answer is, "No, my main ministry focus is through Trust Quartet. I have pastored three churches and when I'm not singing with Trust on Sunday morning, I'm either leading worship at my home church or filling a pulpit for another pastor friend who may be in need."

Such was the case this past Sunday. My pastor is also my brother-in-law, and his children live in the Memphis area. Last Sunday, a family occasion took him and his wife to visit there, so I had arranged to preach at my local church.

I had invited the Trust family to come be with us, since they had never heard me preach. After all, Buzz may not want to tell anyone else that I'm an ordained pastor after he heard me! I was so honored and humbled when Buzz and Beverly, John and Pat all came to Vero to our church!

God met with our people and challenged us to consider the Biblical steps to revival. God, in His sovereignty, knows that we will sin. He knows that in our humanity we would need to know His willingness to extend grace and forgive us. Just after Solomon had led the Jews in building the Temple, he prayed a prayer of consecration over the structure. God miraculously answered that prayer by raining down fire from Heaven to consume the sacrifices offered by the Jews.

It is in that context that God says, "If My people, who are called by My name will humble themselves and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, THEN I will hear from Heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land." Please understand that when God said these words to King Solomon, the Jews were in a right relationship with Him.

Our society is riddled with problems. Since five minutes of TV, radio, or newspaper will confirm that, I won't spend the time going into detail here, but we can point to the Fall of man in Eden as the origin of the problems we face still today. The choices made by mankind have not improved greatly since then. I would submit that if our problems point to Eden, then our solution must point to Calvary! The Christ of Calvary paid the ultimate price to assure us of a right relationship with the God of the Universe.

Have you been to Calvary lately?