More on Confidence

This morning's sermon was from Acts 18, and new for me, to see that Apollos from the end of the chapter hailed from AFRICA.  This was very encouraging to the preacher and others . . the idea that God took this man, who had partial knowledge of the Gospel but was bold and willing to preach, and used him to build the church.  The point was that we should expect God to use us even with the little we have to offer--reminded me of the theme of late of strength in weakness, and opened the horizon, that this is not just a phrase for struggling missionaries but perhaps a parable of Africa, an encouragement towards confidence in God's power to use this continent to bless the whole world.

Parenthetically, the service started with a call to repentance, based on the collective experience of a middle-of-the-night earthquake.  We were all awakened at 3:39 am by a 5.0 quake--that's strong enough to shake the bed for sure, and rumbly and long enough to send most people running outside.  And sobering enough to remind the congregation of eternity!