3 Essentials You Need to Pack for Polishing the Pulpit
Getting ready to travel to PTP.
Lord willing, I’m looking forward to being at Polishing the Pulpit in Sevierville, Tennessee, for the next week or so. Some of you who read this might be making the same trip.
While packing for the trip, I thought about some essentials for a trip like this.
Don’t forget to “pack” these things!
Bring plenty of patience.
It’s a blessing to be at PTP with so many fellow Christians! However, the crowds and the noise can test anyone’s patience.
You might have a long way to walk and a short time to get there - and for some reason, that crowd doesn’t seem to be moving!
Or maybe you’ve been looking forward to hearing a particular sermon, but a child in your session is not as excited about hearing the sermon as you are.
Or maybe you want to hurry and grab lunch to make it back in time for the next session, but the line of cars feels like it’s moving backward instead of forward.
You get the idea. PTP is a wonderfully encouraging time - it will also have moments where our patience will be tested. So, be sure to pack plenty of patience.
I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love (Ephesians 4:1-2)
Pack a willingness to learn.
Bring an open mind and an open Bible. Compare what you hear with what you read in the Scriptures (Acts 17:11).
You may hear some things at PTP that make you think, “I’ve never thought about it that way before,” or “I’ve never heard that point of view before.” We might be tempted to immediately dismiss something we hear that’s different than what we always thought to be true.
Let me encourage us to compare everything we hear with God’s Word. Maybe we still have a few things we can learn from the Bible.
Bring that willingness to learn along with you.
I will meditate on Your precepts, And contemplate Your ways. I will delight myself in Your statutes; I will not forget Your word. (Psalm 119:15-16)
Double-check that you brought love for your brethren.
One of the things I’m looking forward to at Polishing the Pulpit is seeing some friends and brethren I’ve not seen in a long time.
Part of the blessing of PTP is being able to rekindle and renew those friendships with our brethren we might not see all that often.
The way we treat each other this week at PTP - how we talk about our brethren this week - let it all be done with love, just as Christ loves us.
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. (1 John 4:7-11)
Of course, the things I’ve mentioned in this article shouldn’t just be “packed” for PTP - they are daily necessities in the Christian’s life.
I am glad I have the opportunity to help work at PTP, and I look forward to seeing some of you there! I plan to share something about my time at PTP in each article I send for the next week or so.
Let’s all pray for safe travels and that God may be glorified!
