By Dr. John E. Morgan

Pastor–Collinsville Baptist Church

I will never preach all my sermons.

I must write.

I recently found those words in one of my old Bibles.  I was working on a sermon, and I wanted to look back and see if I had previously had any special thoughts on the passage in James 1.

Turns out I had.  I know that a lot of you do daily Bible readings.  Thank you for your example.  I also read my Bible pretty much every day.  Have been doing that for many years.

Somewhere along the way, I began writing in my Bible.  My mother didn’t let me do much of that as I grew up.  Now I write and underline and highlight a lot.  And in the margins I write down any ideas that come to me. Things that God shows me.

I hope you know what I mean.  You are reading a passage you have read several times before.  But this time you see something brand new in the passage.  Something you never realized was there.   Because it is God’s living Word.

If you leafed through a Bible I have read, you will see lots and lots of colors and writing and notes. I mean to come back later and use those insights.  Sometimes I even have an outline with points numbered.  All ready to be used in a sermon. Only I usually don’t go back.  All those wonderful insights usually stay right where I wrote them in the Bible on a shelf.

But this time I did look back in a Bible that had used about ten years ago.  James 1 – be ye doers of the Word, not just hearers.  And I had made a three point sermon outline on the text.  Only I had never preached it.

Then I noticed a note at the bottom of the page that I had written to myself. Here is what I had written:  I will never preach all my sermons. I must write.

And I remembered the day I wrote that.  I had realized I had a good outline that I would probably never use.  Because there just aren’t enough Sundays to get all my sermons preached.  I needed to find a place to write so that I can share more of what God was telling me.

Do you have dreams in your life that you are sure God has put there?  But they never seem to come to fruition?  Ten years after I wrote those words, I did not have any new places to use my writing.  Was I being too lazy?  Maybe.  Was it just not yet God’s time for me to write?  Yes.  But I thought maybe I would never have other opportunities.

God had other plans.  A new newspaper in DeKalb County, The Southern Torch was beginning.  The publisher wanted to know if I could help with a column on Faith.  I suggested a couple of other people who I felt would do better than me.  The publisher asked me to go on and write an article for the first paper, so I did.

That was exactly a year ago today.  This is my fifty-second article.  I have loved doing this.  It is sometimes hard, but it is always rewarding.  Thank you for reading.  And I will forever be thankful to the publisher for trusting me and giving me this opportunity.

Most of all I am thankful to God.  Who found a place for me to write.  In His time.

God has a dream for you.  Write it down.  Remind God that He gave it to you.  Maybe He will give you an opportunity to fulfill that dream.  In His time.

And Happy First Anniversary to The Southern Torch.  May you continue to shine the light of truth on DeKalb County.