Father, I pray that if any, in the hearing of my voice right now, has not yet been born again,

that the miracle would happen through the ministry of the word.

And I pray for all of us, pastors,

that we would see the providence of God more clearly that we would love you more dearly because of it,

that the ballast in the bottom of the boats of our people would be made strong and deep

so that they're not tipped over in the waves of suffering.

And may our churches be made rock solid strong in the confidence of your absolute sovereignty. Oh God come and make it taste sweet. I ask

this in Jesus' name. Amen. A few things in my 50 years in the ministry more or less have been more gratifying to me than

to see the all pervasivepervasive, all-governing sovereignty of God, which we're going to talk about as

Providence move from being a stumbling block that it is to so many people to being a

soul stabilizing insanity removing power as our people walk through hellish circumstances to see that move in a church from being

absolutely perplexing and maddening to being life and hope to watch Providence move from there to

there has been over my years gloriously gratifying.

For example, a quote from one of our missionaries

40 years ago from China.

In December of 1987, my father died unexpectedly at age of 63.

I was plunged into a journey of several months, struggling to understand what had happened. I was at Bethlehem, our church, but

new to the teaching and apparently missing many of the distinctives. Fast forward to

1992. We had been in China for a year and returned home to have our first child.

As you remember, as you remember. and return home to have our first child.

As you remember, as you remember,

she lived one day and died in our arms.

...