As we made plans for a fun weekend with Doug and Holly Boggie in Oklahoma, we had to work around 9 - 10 AM Saturday morning. This is the hour that Holly spends at her church in the prayer room each week. Members of the congregation have the opportunity to commit to one or more hours of prayer for the needs of their brothers and sisters. The goal is to have constant prayer coverage.

The Sunday morning service began with songs of praise. We did sing one traditional hymn, Blessed Assurance, by Fanny Crosby. Though blinded in infancy, Miss Crosby is known for her love of the Lord. The music minister shared that Miss Crosby said that if God were to offer to give her the ability to see, she would refuse it because she wanted the first face that she saw to be that of her blessed savior. Oh, that we might share in that longing to see Jesus!

As the pastor prepared to receive the offering he said, "If you need food or clothes, feel free to take from the offering.." We had read about churches that made that offer, but we’d never before been present to hear it for ourselves.

The service was very modern. There were even screens showing an elaborate Power Point presentation supplementing the proceedings.

As we left Dave said, "The high point wasn’t the orchestra or the chorus… or the Power Point presentation, but Pastor Maxwell’s sermon." We were blessed to hear him preach. Pastor Maxwell has serious health problems (please pray for him) and didn’t expect to be in church on the day of our visit.

Following are some tidbits that we gleaned from the sermon entitled, "If I Believe, Why Do I Doubt?"

• Honest Doubters vs. Dishonest Doubters

• The reason that dishonest doubters can’t find God is the same reason that a thief can’t find a policeman.

• Some examples of honest doubters:
• John the Baptist had honest doubts after he was imprisoned.
• Jesus helped John overcome the doubts. [Luke 7:20-22]
• Jesus commended John saying, "Among those born of women there is no one greater than John. [Luke 7:26-28].
• Doubting Thomas [John 20:25-28].
• Jesus’ response was to show Thomas the truth.
• Thomas’ response was, "My Lord and my God."
• I do believe; help me with my unbelief. [Mark 9:19-24].

• Doubt can be thought of as a spiritual virus.

It’s like an immunization so you can build up antibodies;

• We need to realize that
• Not all our questions will be answered.
• We shouldn’t be concerned about what we don’t know, but be concerned about what we do know and don’t do anything about.

The pastor made a very interesting point about John 3:16: Unless you put the "perish" in there, that love doesn’t mean two hoots and a holler.

And finally and MOST IMPORTANT, remember, "I may not understand it all but I don’t need to understand it, all I need to know is Him, the Lord Jesus Christ."