Golf Junkie Preacher

How much better does it get? One Sunday recently, I got up at 4:30 am to pray and prepare for my message later that morning. At 6:00 am the British Open telecast began, and the old geezer Tom Watson was positioned to make golfing history. I tell you, from 6 to 9 am I was glued to the TV, and I had to force myself to get into the car and head to the church for our Worship Gathering. I hate to admit it, but that morning I was like a lot of you about heading to "work" - there was something else on my mind.

There I was, riding down the road, Becky beside me, still thinking about Tom Watson maybe making golf history. Still thinking about something other than what was about to happen at Argyle.

A song came on the radio, and it's hard to put into words what happened. Chris Tomlin was singing a new arrangement of an old hymn- I Stand Amazed. As I listened to that song, my heart melted. Tom Watson and the British Open were no longer on my mind. The words of that old hymn led me to the foot of the cross, and right there in our car I experienced real worship.

The bible has a lot to say about idols. On that Sunday morning God used a contemporary artist singing an old song to kick over a few of this preacher's idols, to move his mind from the earthly to the eternal.

"I stand in the presence of Jesus the Nazerine,
and wonder how he could love me,
a sinner, condemned, unclean."

Ken Dyal