Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin. (James 4:13-17, ESV)
Dear HLPC family,
This passage of Scripture came to my mind last week as I decided to cancel my trip to Villahermosa, Mexico. As you know, I was scheduled to teach a class on “The History of the Reformation” to pastors there on behalf of Seminario Reformado Latinoamericano (SRL). I was to have left on Saturday, August 31st and returned Saturday, September 6th. The Lord had other plans for me.
I’m still dealing with a bad head cold that I started coming down with on Wednesday of last week. By Thursday I had informed my hosts in Mexico as well as SRL that I needed to cancel. By God’s grace, I was able to get a full refund on the plane ticket and cancel hotel reservations without penalty.
In God’s providence, we had Marlin Harris arranged to preach for us. He did an excellent job as I was able to watch the livestream Sunday morning.
Our times are always in God’s hands. It was not the Lord’s will for me to go to Mexico this time and He knows what is best. I thank God for arranging things so that I could focus on recovery over the weekend.
If the Lord wills, I’ll be back in the pulpit this coming Lord’s Day!
Your Pastor,
Paul