A MISSIONARY OR A MISSION FIELD?

My thoughts on the Missions Conference so far....

The fellowship, energy and spirit have been very positive.

Giving ourselves to prayer as the primary strategy to
experience God's power has born fruit. Praise God.

Pastor Ed nailed it tonight on the issue of suffering. I am praying for greater
grace to embrace a war-time mentality.

It's 10:08 and I am meeting with Francois Turcotte and Doug Wilbur in the A.M.

Your thoughts?????

Traveling with Jonah

Snow day! Perfect for quiet contemplation ~

The coming series that will be preached at Durkeetown is going to be from the book of Jonah. No, we will not view the Veggie Tales version - sorry fans of the BIG IDEA.

We will, however, try to understand the story by considering the following questions:

* In what ways are we like Jonah? (1-4)
* What were the idols Jonah had to forsake? (2:8)
* How deep is the mercy of God? (2-4)
* Why will the men of Ninevah rise up in judgment? (Matthew 12:41)

In preparation for this series I wrote this note to myself ~

If I am going to agitate people towards a winsome, passionate and contagious faith in Jesus Christ, I must not "preach AT them" or be impatient WITH them.
Instead I should model and encourage Durkeetowners toward the gospel.
I will endeavor, by God's grace, to be more like Barnabas was with Saul, the church at Antioch (Acts 11:21-26) and John-Mark (Acts 15:39)
than Saul-Paul was with John-Mark and Barnabas (Acts 15:36-38).

The ultimate goal is the gospel coming into our lives to transform us,
deepen us and enrich us so that we are not
bigoted, racist, self-righteous idolaters like Jonah was.
Receiving the gospel should be our "great-fish-deep-sea experience with God.
Only as this happens will we see His salvation as
superior to all idols - even the idol of American Christian religion.

My hope then in preaching Jesus in the book of Jonah is to:

* Agitate us so that we believe God still has compassion on people who are far from Him
* Embrace our gospel responsibility to go forth and proclaim the gospel. To disciple people in the gospel. To make visible the King and his Kingdom among us.
* Live reconciled as one people because we are all now with Jesus who has reconciled both them and us to God.

As the gospel finds its way in our lives we will experience what the King of Ninevah hoped for - "God may turn and relent and withdraw His burning anger so that we will not perish. (Jonah 3:9)

The Preacher wrote that there is an appointed time for everything - Ecclesiastes 3:1. That must mean that there is a time for Ken Prater to blog. At least that is what a couple of people have indicated....

Let me try and make something clear - I failed English composition, grammar, sentence structure, etc. etc. - so if you are part of the English Majors Society - you may not want to read the blog. On the other hand, if you, like me regret not paying attention to the instruction on diagramming sentences - you can read and appreciate my humble effort. Obviously I am also glad there was an appointed time for someone to develop a system by which I could correct spelling without the use of a dictionary.

Now just a word about the purpose of the blog. My dear friend and colleague Pastor Mike Neigh has encouraged me to find a way to make the sermons I preach more interactive. We talked about a variety of ways for that to happen and blogging seemed to be one of many good options. So the main purpose of this blog is for people to interact with me about the sermons I preach at the Durkeetown Baptist Church.

A warning... if in the month of October the Chicago Cubs are in the World Series (please no comments about hell freezing over) the blog will then be dedicated to the aforementioned Cubs. If they were to win the World Series the blog will end because I would have probably died and gone to the eternal fellowship in glory.

For those who attend Durkeetown you will have the benefit of listening to the sermons live. For those who are unable to attend we hope to be able to link this blog to the DBC website and give you an opportunity to listen and then interact.

The blog will be built around three or four questions per week that serve as application to the sermon. I will also include a look ahead to the coming weeks sermons. Please invite non-Durkeetowners to interact, especially those who are looking for answers about purpose and meaning in life. I welcome anyone who is seriously trying to find Jesus - but I will not use this forum as a place for people to engage in endless argumentation. I also have no time for people with logs coming out of their eyes while they try to remove the speck from my eye.

I am anticipating that this medium will serve to further my life's mission statement which is "to agitate people toward a winsome, passionate and contagious faith in Jesus Christ."

For my part I join the Apostle Paul in his quest when he wrote: "I will not presume to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me, resulting in the obedience of the Gentiles by word and deed, in the power of signs and wonders, in the power of the Spirit; so that from Jerusalem and round about as far as Illyricum I have fully preached the gospel of Christ. And thus I aspire to preach the gospel, not where already named, so that I would not build on another man's foundation; but as it is written, "THEY WHO HAD NO NEWS OF HIM SHALL SEE, AND THEY WHO HAVE NOT HEARD SHALL UNDERSTAND." (Romans 15:18-21)