I preached this weekend from John 2:1-11, the story of Jesus turning water into wine at a wedding feast where the wedding host had made a major social blunder in his day of running out of wine.  This passage has been a favorite of mine for some time in that I often feel after I get finished with my sermon preparation that I am about to give a glass of water to those listening, and I then plead with God to change my offering into some really good wine. I am amazed at how often He actually does that based on response from those listening to me each week. This regular experience of God fixing my sermons doesn’t prompt me to study and prepare less diligently the next time, in fact the opposite is true, I am so humbled is  by God’s obvious gracious gift to me and to those listening that I study and write with even more devotion and passion. The preaching and teaching time is a genuine encounter with the living God as He speakes to us as we have gathered together in His name.