What You Don't Know About Me

            Some of you reading this know me well and others not so well.   Some of you have known me for years, and others only in recent years.  No matter how long our relationship, I suspect  that there are some things you don’t know about me.  For example, some of you probably do not know that I am left-handed or that at one time I was the youngest United Methodist pastor appointed to a church in North Carolina (20 years old).    Others of you probably do not know that I am a long time New York Yankees fan or that I was the first member of my family to graduate from college. 

There is something else that few of you don’t know about me and it is this:  I still get nervous before I preach every Sunday.   Even though I have been a pastor now for over 45 years, I still get nervous.    The reason is not that I am by nature shy or bashful, or because I am not used to speaking before a crowd.   After 45 years speaking before crowds of a few people or a few hundred people, that does not bother me.   There is one reason I get nervous each Sunday and it is this:   I realize that when I stand in that pulpit I am speaking not for Randy Wall, but for God.   What an awesome, grave responsibility to stand before a few people or many people and have the audacity to say “thus saith the Lord.”

In II Corinthians 5:20, we find a passage of scripture that says:

²⁰ We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.

An ambassador is a person who represents someone else in a country different than their own whether you are talking about an ambassador of the United States or an ambassador of Christ.    When I step into the pulpit, I am reminded every Sunday that I stand there to speak a message greater than my words.   I am there to share a message from the one who is the “King of Kings, Lord and Lords.”.

You may not stand in a pulpit every Sunday, but if you are a follower and disciple of Christ Jesus, you also are “Christ’s ambassadors”.   In word and deed, you represent the Lord.   Be mindful of that, my friends.   And if that makes you a little nervous also, that is okay.   Have a joy-filled week.-    Pastor Randy Wall

Prayer:   God,  thank you for the amazing fact that you choose to use a frail human like me to be your instrument.   Transform me, O God, to be a faithful herald of the good tidings of Christ Jesus;  through Christ our Lord.   Amen.