Beautiful Words Blog | Standing in the Kitchen By Pastor John Moropoulos | Gateway Christian Fellowship

In February Gateway hosted the Valley Pastors’ Prayer Network. I deeply appreciate the close connection these pastors share, and feel privileged to host them.

Hosting means providing worship to open our gatherings, a short devotional, and breakfast. Having our café makes the last part easy. Our bakers always impress our pastoral guests with our cinnamon rolls, Greek pastries, and coffee. It is a joy to watch the reactions.

The worship is also something we readily provide. This year our worship team really stepped up and blessed the pastors, bringing them into a place of worship that I know we pastors definitely, and sometimes desperately, need. Thank you to our worship team.

Now the devotion is where I come in. I most always share “a favorite Greek word” from

Scripture. It’s usually easy to pick one because I just love doing it. And the pastors have

generally responded well, so I am happy to do it.

But this week was different. I really couldn’t come with anything. There are certainly a wealth of words in the New Testament that I could talk about. I felt like this month had in fact gone really well. The pastors especially enjoyed τράπεζα (trapeza), which means “table.” We talked about inviting people to sit at the Lord’s Table, our table, and the power of that invitation.

But this week was different. It was hard. I felt empty, without a sense of direction. I saw one pastor, whom I greatly respect, eating lunch in the café. I approached him and asked, “Brother, what’s our word this week.” He smiled and said, “You’re on your own.” I’m so glad he did. He turned me back to the Lord. I was back to, “Lord, what would You have me say?”

So I went home and went downstairs to my study. I prayed. I got some books out that have proven helpful over the years. I thought of something, studied it. Soon realized this was not direction I should be going.

So I went upstairs. I went into the kitchen and began to heat the water for a cup of tea. As the kettle warmed I prayed. As I prayed I gazed aimlessly around room.

And there it was. Right in front of me. The knife block. I bought Joyce some really nice

Japanese knives for Christmas this year and boy are they sharp. There it was. “Sharp.”

So this morning I shared with the pastors the word for “sharp” which also means “exact” or “careful.” We talked about the need to be careful, exact, and sharp in our presentation of the Gospel. I am convinced it was what we all needed. God came through again.

And the best part was the help I got. I felt, during my preparation, that there was more to “sharp” than I was getting, so I called a friend, a good friend whose profession requires really sharp implements. He generously gave me his insights and his time. It was exactly what the situation called for.

So again, God was good to me. He gave me direction, inspiration, and a good friend. And it blessed us all.

So praise be to our God and Savior, and to my friend, “Thank you.”