Preaching

So one of the downfalls perks of being a missionary is that you will be called upon to preach. Regardless of if you have any training or appropriate skills or even have anything legit to share. People just assume that if you are a missionary you should be able to do this thing. And I go both ways on it. I guess, from their perspective, if I have the audacity to call myself a missionary I should be able to preach what I believe. But I grew up knowing that preaching is not something to be taken lightly. Those who do it have significant training, hours to prepare and a special call from God to shepherd.  And I'm not even sure what I think about women preaching.

But all of this aside, on Saturday afternoon I was asked to preach.  I was sorely tempted to say No, but I've told my feelings about this to the person who called so I kind of figured if he was asking, he didn't have a lot of other options. It was for the small village church I attend outside of Soroti so there is a level of spiritual maturity that prevents me from using the ultra basic lessons I have prepared for Sundays in Karamoja.  What made it harder was that I was out in the village following up on some patients and didn't get home until rather late on Saturday night. And didn't really know even what to teach about. 

So, early Sunday morning I finally flipped my journal open and decided to just share what God had been teaching me about- Priorities. 

 If you chase two chickens you will lose them both. 

 Luke 17:20-35 Once, on being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is in your midst." Then he said to his disciples, “The time is coming when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it. People will tell you, ‘There he is!’ or ‘Here he is!’ Do not go running off after them. For the Son of Man in his day will be like the lightning, which flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other. But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.

 “Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all. “It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all.

“It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed. On that day no one who is on the housetop, with possessions inside, should go down to get them. Likewise, no one in the field should go back for anything. Remember Lot’s wife! Whoever tries to keep their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life will preserve it.

I don’t want it to ever be said of me that I was busy eating, drinking, buying and building and then my end came. My priority needs to be the kingdom of God! I know that I get busy and distracted with the little stuff, but I’ve begun praying every day that I would seek first the Kingdom of God. That I would allow God to make my priorities His priorities. 

In true Ugandan fashion, and after translation and some visual aids, the sermon was much longer than this. But you get the gist of it.