Birthday Month Celebration Day 13: Celebrating My Pastor :)

October Girl

The Dating Year @the BSU at APSU

"I married an October girl

but met her in December's cold, 

I remember well

that winter of our meeting

you could not say that it was swell

that frosty first time greeting...

I married that October girl

we married in the spring (actually December)

and as I wait to see

what summer's breeze may bring

I know that October's girl

will shine her light within

as I soar up so very high

upon October's wind. "

    -David Taylor

One of the strangest things in the world happened to me when God called Mike to be a pastor.   I had been in church all of my life and had always put my pastors upon a bit of a pedestal.   To me they seemed more holy, more perfect, had the christian life all figured out and were there to instruct the rest of us sloppy Christians how to get our act together!   Then God called Mike to be a Pastor.   When he first started preaching I was proud, but I felt like I hadn't really been to church.   I knew this man so well....too well.   I knew how he joked and what he struggled with.  I knew that sometimes he had been "my partner in crime." 

But then, a strange thing began to happen.   One Sunday I was listening to this man preach in church, and he spoke with such wisdom and power and conviction.    He seemed like a different person than the one that I had gotten up with that morning, the person who I knew struggled with pre-preaching nerves so much that it made him want to throw up some mornings.   I sensed that the Holy Spirit was really the one speaking through him.   God showed me this man in a new way, and that day he became my pastor.   

Mike teaching a men's Bible Study at
 Estrella Evangelical Free Church
Litchfield Park, AZ

I have learned more about God's word and His kingdom from this man than any other pastor...and that is saying a lot because I had a GREAT pastor growing up.  (Dr. John David Laida  who has been preaching for 77 years, including every Sunday since his "retirement" from First Baptist Church, Clarksville in 1988.) Mike's gift is making the WHOLE Bible come together for people in a way that helps us to get this big picture of God's plan.  He has such a passion for the message of the Kingdom.  It is pervasive in his teaching. He isn't an ivory tower kind of preacher.  He is a guy who wants to lead by example.  He will get in the trenches with you and work and serve.   

Today at Eastview Baptist Church

I have loved and respected Mike as a man for 30 years.   I have loved and respected Pastor Mike for the last 21 years.   Today, I celebrated my birthday by going to hear a great man preach :).   After all...I hear that in addition to it being MY BIRTHDAY MONTH it is also Pastor Appreciation Month!  I appreciate you Honey!    

"But Seek First His Kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto you as well."  Matthew 6:33