Sunday, September 07, 2008

The Ledfords and The Bushes

The President of the United States got to meet some special people this week.

Dan Ledford writes about the Ledford's amazing experience on Friday:




"Still can't believe it happened! We are also going to have the photo sent to us that was taken by the White House Photo Office. I'll post it when we get it."


"The sermon introduction:

Our girls are learning about the Civil War at the beginning of this school year, and so we made a field trip down to Gettysburg this past Friday. One of our stops was at the Gettysburg National Cemetery.

As we walked around the cemetery we saw some security personnel show up and asked what was going on. They said, “We were told a VIP might be showing up, but we’re not sure.” We walked around some more and then saw a full motorcade pull up to the Gettysburg Address memorial. It was the President of the United States.

The Secret Service invited us over and – standing at the spot where Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address, We met the President and First Lady. We got our picture taken with George & Laura Bush. And then the President stood and talked with us for a few minutes.

He told us how much he has valued the prayers of the people. He talked to us about how – he didn’t do it when he was younger but – he has read the Bible every day in the Oval Office. And I told him that I was a Presbyterian pastor and with a huge smile on his face he said, “Thank you for preaching God’s Word.”

What an incredible experience. We left trembling, in shock at what had just happened. The President gave Abbi, Rachel and Noelle official Presidential Pins. Noelle was trying to put hers on, and dropped it. The President of the United States kneeled down and picked it up, and pinned it on her shirt.

Wow! I’m still trembling as I tell you about this.

Over the past 36 hours since then, replaying it in our minds and talking about it, I realized that I want to have more times when being with the Lord leaves me trembling like that.

This morning we conclude a look at the 11 attributes of God given in the Westminster Shorter Catechism, which asks, “What is God? God is a spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth.” Charles Hodge described this as “probably the best definition of God ever penned by man.”

It is our goal that in looking at these attributes that we would know God – that he would draw us even closer to himself. Exodus 34:6-7 is the Scripture cited by the catechism for the last 3 attributes of God. So we will look at all 3 together in that passage. May we draw near to God, so much so that it may leave us trembling."

[Read Dan's whole sermon here.]

1 comments:

WOW! And to think that the Ledfords were at our house for dinner just recently! In the presence of ones who've been in the presence of greatness! How exciting - a lifetime memory for the girls. From all we have heard, President Bush is a very humble man. So happy that you got to meet him in person!

Susan & Rich Stallings, Mechanicsburg, PA