I am coming off a long and busy week right into another one. Last Wednesday through Friday, I preached at the St. Paul Baptist Church in Sacramento, where Dr. Ephraim Williams is the pastor. The congregation was warm, prayerful and encouraging. And it was a blessing to spend time with Pastor Williams, who has so much pastoral wisdom to share. Saturday morning, I flew home, changed clothes, and headed to Mt. Sinai to lead a funeral service for a dear and longtime member of the church. Afterward, I was pretty wiped out. I took a really long nap, and then hung out with Crystal and the kids.

Sunday morning, I took questions in my Sunday School class. As always, they were very good questions. Most of them were about handling anger and our responsibility to help other people in times of need. In our worship service, I continued my series on the Ten Commandments. I preached the seventh commandment, recorded in Exodus 20:14: “You shall not commit adultery.” We also had an afternoon service to attend. We joined the Mary Magdalene Baptist Church in celebrating the eighth anniversary of its pastor, Melvin King. I also brought the message in that service.

Yesterday, Crystal took me to the airport about 6 AM. I was scheduled to be on an early flight to San Francisco. But when I tried to check in, I discovered that my flight had been cancelled. I was then booked on a later flight. This gave me a wonderful opportunity to sit in LAX for several extra hours. It was absolutely exhausting. When I arrived in San Francisco, I went straight to the church to preach. I am the noonday speaker. So I had to get there and preach in my jeans and sneakers, to make sure I didn’t miss the meeting. After service, I went to my room and took some cold medicine and went to sleep. The last time I was here, I got really sick. This time, I am armed with my medicine, overcoat, and everything else I need to prevent getting sick again. Please pray for me.

The evening speaker for the week is Pastor Marvin Wiley, who leads the Rock of Ages Baptist Church in Maywood, Illinois. Pastor Wiley is a good preacher. When Crystal and I get home in time from midweek service on Wednesday nights, we watch Pastor Wiley on the Word Network. But as good as his TV broadcasts are, they don’t do his preaching any justice. Last night, Pastor Wiley preached the house down. Having gone through his own flight mishaps, he was tired. But it sure didn’t show up his preaching. He help nothing back. And the Lord really used him to challenge and encourage the saints. It was a good start to the meeting. Please pray for the remainder of this meeting. I have four more messages to preach before I head home Friday morning. Pray that God will give me strength to preach his word. And pray for Pastor Wiley. Also, pray for the pastoral leaders of this citywide effort. And pray that this community of churches will be better and stronger after this week of meeting together.