Interesting Sabbath Day

I rolled out early this morning but as it turns out, not early enough.  Once I was up and showered I came down and began to practice the hymns I was to play at the Yountville SDA Church.  But I failed to keep an eye on the clock and when I checked it was already late to get on the road.  The trip was about 1 and 1/2 hours.  In my mind I had to arrive by 9:30 so I hit the road, was told by GPS that I needed to use a different route so I could arrive at 9:18.

So when I arrived and walked in I heard song service already happening and someone was doing a pretty good job of playing the piano.  So I sheepishly walked up to the front and sat down, Dolly smiled as she was leading the music.  Once she was through she sat down and asked what happened.  I told her in my mind I needed to arrive at 9:30, I had blown it.

I did end up playing for the worship hour and that went well.  The service was very interesting but in a way so sad.  The speaker, who was a guest today, preached a sermon about getting ready for the Lords return but unfortunately it was that old and very tired theology about "being ready", being perfect like Jesus was, Jesus was our example and He was perfect so we must be perfect as well before the Lord can come again.  Frankly I was amazed that anyone still was hanging on to this work your way into heaven gospel, where is the good news in that, since entrance into heaven requires perfect obedience from womb to tomb none of us will make it, that is unless we allow the good works, the perfect works of Jesus to cover us, that is the only way in, not what we do because it is always a mixed bag of best attempts and our own selfish desires, there is nothing we can do or say that will ever earn our entrance into Heaven, NOTHING.

It was sad to hear such debunked reasoning being preached with such fervor.  Sorry folks, that is a version of old time Adventism that we need to move on from.  Jesus is not waiting for a group of us to become perfect so He can come a second time.  He is patiently waiting for the Gospel, the good news about what He has done to reach the whole world and then He can come. 

It really was all I could do to sit still as tired old bromides were marched out over and over.  He was obviously a very dedicated guy and his wife did a great job of special music singing two songs but no one left with any hope at all, it was the type of sermon where you feel beat up afterwards, that you gotta try harder and you might just slip through the gates of heaven if you happened to look good that day.  I think of the clarity of John and Karen Cress when they weekly preached the real Gospel and warmed of spiritual malpractice by those who preach works and perfectionism.  Well it is alive and we heard it today.

Unfortunately the speaker read the entire sermon, I'm not even sure he wrote it and that would be even sadder if true.  When you preach tell me what you personally know about Jesus and His love, His forgiveness, His compassion.  Then I'll listen as its your personal testimony, it has life and power.
OK, off the soap box for now.
We had a lovely lunch at Olive Garden today, Dolly, Ken and I enjoyed soup, salad and for me some very good eggplant parm.  That rascal Ken grabbed the check and I could not wrestle it away from him, that dude is strong!  He is recovering from the broken hip so well and moves about very well now.

After lunch we drove to Benicia where Dolly knows just the right place to take a nice walk.  So we drove through the downtown district, found parking next to the water and walked and walked.  There were dozens of sail boats on the wide expanse of water and we heard a train in the distance on a track just above the water line but on the western side near Crockett.  It was a lovely day with wind and lots of sunshine.

So I send love to all,

Tim