PREACH: verb  (SPEAK IN CHURCH) 1. to proclaim or make known the gospel, the good tidings. 2. to encourage others in the understanding and the practice of the way of love. 3. to tell the story of Jesus, and to encourage a body of believers to live as children of the light

Yesterday, looking for a particular photo from my archives, I ran across this image of Rebekah fine-tuning a sermon. The occasion was the memorial service for her Aunt Ellen, a couple of years ago, at an old Presbyterian church in the North Georgia hills.

I selected the photograph for this morning because you really don’t want to miss her message today. If you’re out-of-town, or simply don’t live in this area, then I promise to post a link the moment it comes up at the Wake Forest Presbyterian Church website. Preaching is all about proclaiming the Good News, and encouraging others to live in the light.

For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light! For this light within you produces only what is good and right and true. – Ephesians 5:8-9

It’s my opinion that too many Christians have allowed the issues that we can’t agree on to distract the church from its essential task of proclaiming the Gospel. The Good News is the whole point; it’s why Jesus came; and it’s most certainly why we packed up our home and moved all this way to North Carolina.

The writer of the Ephesians passage said we should live as people/children of light; the writer of 1 Peter encouraged believers to – in consequence – “be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.” In other words:

First, live in such a way that the hope that has taken residence in our beings speaks/shines with enough clarity to beg the question. Then, when the world says, “What’s up with that?” then we need to be prepared to share the story of how Jesus brings us so much light.

That’s why we’re here. That’s what Rebekah will be preaching about this morning. It’s the Gospel; it’s the Good News; it’s the heart of who we are.

– DEREK