Behold - Pastor's Pen for 13th Sept. 2026

During the recent Abide conference, which some of us attended, introductions were made to the keynote speakers, which would be expected. What was notable several times, was the level to which the person introducing the speaker layered praise and acclaim on the speaker, to the point that the speaker was embarrassed and felt that the introducer was talking about someone else, providing a caveat that they would struggle to live up to the superlatives in the introduction. Sometimes we need to simply point things out, leaving the content of the address to do its own work.

Twice recently I've pointed out to people that they have dropped something as they've been walking along, once while riding my bike and another time pulling out of the church carpark in the Toyota. A few words and a bit bit of finger pointing was all that was needed, to direct the eyes of the person to what was needful.

As a preacher I hope that's what I achieve too, words to the effect of; look what God is doing, behold! John the Baptist shows us how it works; "The next day he saw Jesus coming towards him and declared, ‘Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!'" He saw the signs of what God was doing and simply invited others to notice it. We too can point out what God is doing. What people do with that good news is up to them and the prompting of the Holy Spirit.