Could you describe a time in which
the Lord disciplined you,
and you look back on that time
with utter thankfulness
for the fruit it yielded in your life?
Kevin: I mean, over the years,
as a Christian and a pastor,
there's been many times
where the Lord's disciplining you.
Whether it's for something you're doing wrong
or whether it's just to help you trust Him more and grow,
when you stand back later,
you look back and you can see
how the Lord's grown you.
The example that most comes to mind
is the first church I pastored.
I went in.
There weren't believers apart from maybe a handful,
but I preached a sermon:
"You Must Be Born Again."
All hell broke loose.
They're saying, "We don't have that talk in here."
They just wanted me out the door.
I was quickly out there,
but it was a major crisis and so forth.
They meant it for evil - those who were doing it.
I'm not excusing them.
But I had so much pride in me at the time
and the Lord really just grounded me
to a powder in the whole experience.
But afterwards, I was just so thankful for it.
And you start to realize as well,
things where you'd been overly harsh
with certain people,
or expecting too much
and things like that as well afterwards,
through seeing your own weaknesses too
in those situations.