This week on Things Unseen, we've been thinking about places that matter to us sacred spaces,

not because one space is more holy than another, but because there are places that God seems

to make special in our lives and special

in our memories by the blessings he gives us there, or the lessons he teaches us, or the

ways in which he deals with us.

I began on Monday thinking about the significance of the pulpit from which I first heard

a sermon that brought me to faith in Christ

from John chapter 8 verse 12, and from which I later had the privilege of preaching frequently

when I became the church's minister. So I thought it would be a good and fitting way to end the

week with another pulpit, 3,800 miles away as the crow flies. The sacred space and

place for me of the pulpit in First Presbyterian Church in Columbia, South Carolina. In common with

the pulpit in Scotland, the one I mentioned on Monday, it's white. But unlike the Scottish one, this pulpit is an enormous

marble block. Sometimes men in the congregation who had served in the FBI or other agencies

would express to me their concern about my security, if anything untoward, were to happen in a service.

And I'd enjoy pointing out that with this solid marble protection, I was probably in the safest

place in the whole building.

But of course, there are other kinds of attacks that can be directed against the person

in the pulpit.

As I look back on preaching God's word and seeking to feed and serve God's people from

that particular pulpit, I think of it as a priceless privilege God gave me, not just because

of the preaching, and indeed not primarily because of the preaching, but because of the privilege of loving the people

of God and sensing the love and affection of God's people in return.

...