THE CHEESECAKE WON
It has been a good few days here in southern California, but I'm looking forward to heading back to New York later today. It's always good to get home and after hearing all this teaching about church and preaching, I'm ready to get back into the thick of things.
It has been several weeks since I preached and I'm gung-ho to pick up the rest of our Shine series, starting on Sunday.
Yesterday's seminar was full of outstanding stuff about making preaching relevant. I loved the point Rick Warren made when he said if you preach for life change, some will complain. They want more word studies, more Biblical background and history - they don't want to hear about integrity or managing their finances in a way that glorifies God. People love irrelevant preaching because it doesn't demand that they alter a single thing.
At Grace we don't teach Biblical theory - you can buy books on that and learn it for yourself - we teach truths that apply to daily life and will help us take steps to be the people God wants us to be and that we want to be too.
At the end of the afternoon session yesterday we hooked up with some other LI pastors and headed out to eat at a restaurant I have never visited before - The Cheesecake Factory. Among the several vices that took me to a mammoth 335lb early last year was the fact that I love cheesecake. So not wanting to transgress, I went online yesterday and checked out their menu in advance, deciding that one of their salads would be the best way to go.
I did eat the salad. But while we were waiting to be seated, I had checked out the showcase with a million varieties of cheesecake and all through dinner the lemon raspberry one kept whispering in my ear. Long story short - the cheesecake won!
It was outrageous. This morning I still feel uncomfortably full and I'm a little disappointed I ate it, but man it was good. I guess I'll be repenting all day today - pass me an apple please!
It has been several weeks since I preached and I'm gung-ho to pick up the rest of our Shine series, starting on Sunday.
Yesterday's seminar was full of outstanding stuff about making preaching relevant. I loved the point Rick Warren made when he said if you preach for life change, some will complain. They want more word studies, more Biblical background and history - they don't want to hear about integrity or managing their finances in a way that glorifies God. People love irrelevant preaching because it doesn't demand that they alter a single thing.
At Grace we don't teach Biblical theory - you can buy books on that and learn it for yourself - we teach truths that apply to daily life and will help us take steps to be the people God wants us to be and that we want to be too.
At the end of the afternoon session yesterday we hooked up with some other LI pastors and headed out to eat at a restaurant I have never visited before - The Cheesecake Factory. Among the several vices that took me to a mammoth 335lb early last year was the fact that I love cheesecake. So not wanting to transgress, I went online yesterday and checked out their menu in advance, deciding that one of their salads would be the best way to go.
I did eat the salad. But while we were waiting to be seated, I had checked out the showcase with a million varieties of cheesecake and all through dinner the lemon raspberry one kept whispering in my ear. Long story short - the cheesecake won!
It was outrageous. This morning I still feel uncomfortably full and I'm a little disappointed I ate it, but man it was good. I guess I'll be repenting all day today - pass me an apple please!
posted by Roger Blackmore | 9:57 AM
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