.: word of God :.

This morning, in my "Preaching and Worship" class, we worked through 1 Corinthians 14 - a passage linked with the concept of spiritual gifts within the Body of Christ. Our teacher, Darrell Johnson, created an atmosphere for us to respond in worship through both singing, as well as provided a place for people to speak the "Word of the Lord" to the rest of the class. Coming from a Baptist background, some of this was fresh and new. But some of it caused my defenses to subtly rise and I wrestled through some of my presuppositions as I listened to Darrell speak. But when the time arrived, I was one of the handful of people that responded by coming up to the microphone and saying what the Lord had laid upon our hearts as something that we might offer to other people. I will not go into the details about my own comments - just that I bared my heart about my own current feelings and situation, trusting that the Spirit would use my words as He deemed appropriate.



But what spoke to me on an even deeper level (though my own words felt very exposing, yet potentially life-giving) was when Darrell ended the class with a benediction that brought together the general theme of those who had spoken (he dared to speak the Word of God in the form of a benediction). These are the words that offered me life this morning;



"I drew you to Regent College. You may have thought that you chose to come here, and you did to some degree. But I drew you here. And I drew you here so that you would come further into my heart and my mind. Be at peace. I will accomplish my purposes for drawing you to Regent. Go now in assurance that I am at work in your heart and your mind, and I will enable you to do what I have called you to do. Amen."