Now that I've posted that below, an update will be okay :P Life has been super busy here, and I don't get on the internet much because I don't get it in my room, but it has definitely been awesome here lately. It was sad to see them go, but the staff are gone now, so we are here on our own. Praise God for them though, they have been such an inspiration to me and I'm sure all the other students here on project, and have really just poured their lives into us these last 5 or 6 weeks. Now we all have our different responsibilities to make the project work, I'm one of the 3 leaders of the community team that plans our Thursday night dinners, Saturday project socials, and little things throughout the week to help build Christ-centered, authentic, fun, and encouraging Christian community with the believers here on project. So far, our socials have been a photo scavenger hunt, a white elephant style creative date, an Arrrrgg Shake Your Booty pirates/ninja dance party, a field day/games on the beach, and a movie night which was a rain plan for what was supposed to be an epic Ice Age:The Meltdown themed pool party. So those are some of the fun things :P
We also had a Men's day/night last Tuesday, which was awesome. We did a high ropes course first, which was cool just to see people encourage each other. Also, it just taught me that there were times where I had to depend on the rope to hold me, just as there are times in life where I just have to depend on God to get me through. We also just had some time bonding as men, reading and discussing the Word that we'd been studying through the life of Samson. During/after that, we did a really cool prayer walk (in the pouring down rain) where we were given some physical representations of things we had been learning about: rejecting passivity, leading courageously, and sexual purity, and were challenged by the staff men regarding these three things. It was a powerful night.
Also, two Thursdsays ago, we had Transition night, where we learned the roles we would be taking on once the staff left, and then the staff left for the weekend halfway through the meeting to throw us into those roles immediately. Also, the project directors washed the feet of the new student project directors and assistant directors as an example of servant leadership, and then those students washed the feet of the new Bible study leaders, who then washed the feet of those in their Bible study. We also joined together as a Bible study and afterwards all the guys to pray over our studies and our men and the rest of the project. It was also a very powerful night, and not only demonstrated a great example of servant leadership, but also gave the realest picture of Jesus washing His disciples' feet that I have ever had, that even though Jesus was the Son of God, and had all authority on heaven and earth, He loved us enough and was not above serving His disciples in the lowest, most humbling way possible.
Working on the pirate ship is tiring, but it really is a great job! It is a lot of fun and it allows for me to build relationships with our coworkers as well. It's been awesome to see God stir in me a heart for our coworkers. The purpose of us getting jobs is not only to support ourselves but mainly to minister to our coworkers. However, it has become less of a thing that we are supposed to do, but something that I want to do. As I've gotten to know them more deeply, I've come to really enjoy my friendship with them, want to hang out and talk with them, but also to really be concerned with their heart, and what is most important in their lives, which is their relationship with Christ. My prayer is that God will open them up to His Gospel, and also that they wont see our desire for spiritual conversations as us preaching at them, but rather us loving them and being concerned for what we truly believe matters most to them.
God has also been great and faithful in our initiative evangelism. It was pouring down rain this last Saturday, which is easy to think "God, why are You allowing a massive downpour and thunderstorm when we have a plan to reach people for You on the beach today?" We didn't have much of a rain plan, so we split up between a mall, bus stop, and the pier/wherever you felt led to go. Kevin and I went to the pier to talk with people underneath the pier, but everybody appeared busy or with large families, etc. So, we walked on top of the pier, where there was one lone guy under a shelter from the rain. As soon as we started talking to him, he walked away because he didn't want to talk to us. So as were thinking about the ultimate fail it was, God provided us with four Indian people that walked to the same spot that guy had left under the shelter. It turned out they were Hindu, and we got to have a decent conversation with them about their faith and our faith, and we got to lay out some of the Gospel. Then Jordan, Josh, Kevin, and I decided to go share at the library afterwards for lack of another place to go in the rainstorm, and when we got there, we saw two homeless people outside under an overhang, who were only staying there because of the rain. One guy had gotten his bike stolen, but found it with two flat tires later, so we were able to go buy him a bike lock and new tubes for his tires. We also randomly decided to get 4 ponchos, and when we returned, there were 4 homeless people, so we each gave them one. Jordan and I got to go through the Gospel with two of them who professed to be Christians, which was awesome, and Kevin and Josh talked with the other two as well. One, it was a testament to people caring what you have to say when they know that you care, but it was moreso a testament to how great God is, and how He has a plan in everything that He does. It was great to see how God worked through the rainstorm, as we would have never come into contact with those people if it were not for the storm.
Anyways, so that is it for now, but please keep praying for me to have faith and understanding in the greatness of God, for God to give me greater desire for Him, that He would consume me like I said in my previous post, and that I would consider all things to be rubbish compared to knowing Christ.
Monday, July 5, 2010
Faith
It's been so long since I've posted anything, it's so hard to find time to do everything that I want to do here on project- spending time with God, developing relationships with people on project, getting sleep to prepare for a long day on the pirate ship :P - much less doing things outside of those 3! I want to post more of an update, but first I want to post what's been on my mind lately.
I talked with Kevin and Ryan last night about faith, and why the miracles and lives of the apostles don't happen today. We concluded it was because of our lack of faith; we limit God's power to what we think He can do, based on our own reason and what society/culture/science tells us is possible and impossible. God is independent of matter and space, of time and motion. God and His greatness and power are infinite! They cannot be fully comprehended by our minds, nor can we pretend to understand and decide what is possible for God and what is impossible--ALL is possible! Trying to size God down to something our minds can manage is idolatrous, unworthy of God, and keeps us from having faith in what He can really do. In Matthew 14, Jesus and Peter both walk on water! However, Peter had enough faith, even though he was scared, to actually step out onto liquid water and expect to be able to walk on it since Christ commanded him to. In Acts 3, Peter commands a lame beggar to get up and walk, and he does! Would we have the faith today to walk up to somebody and actually believe that God would heal them on the spot? Both of these things would be considered impossible in today's society because we say they are outside of science, the laws of physics, essentially they are things that we "know" can't happen.
As for the faith itself, in Acts 2, believers are living such lives devoted and consumed by Christ that numbers were being added to them daily! It seems like a huge deal even here on summer project when a single person comes to Christ! The faith to live this way and trust so wholeheartedly comes by stepping out in faith as Peter did in Matthew 14, but also by living a life consumed by Christ, as paul writes in Galatians 2:20-- "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me." When we are so devoted to Christ that ever action is for Christ, every desire is for Christ, when we have that insatiable desire to know God, for a very poor example, like we do a new girl that we like--getting to know God at all costs, sacrificing time, sleep, money, other plans, when all our attention is focus on getting to know Him more--that is when we will experience Christ's power to move, work, and live through us, because we will be surrendering every bit of control to Christ, so that Christ controls all aspects of our lives, like Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:14, "The love of Christ controls us," because Jesus Christ died for every sin of Paul's and the entire world, that Paul loves Christ so much for that sacrifice and is indebted so much to Christ that he is controlled by Christ's love, that every decision he makes is for Christ, to know Christ more, and reaching out to others with Christ's love.
All that being said, I feel like the lives of most Christians today, certainly including myself, are SO far away from the way Christ desires us to live, such as how the apostles lived. We can't be Christians and have the Gospel in our lives, our lives need to BE the Gospel, lived out daily! Personally, I don't feel like my life is fully controlled and consumed by Christ. I don't feel like I'm taking up my cross and following Christ, I feel like I'm inviting Christ to come influence my life where I am and what I'm doing right now, instead of leaving behind what I know and following after Christ, not thinking twice, not looking back on what I want to be doing for my own fun and interests.
All that being said, my prayer is still that every day God would continue to draw myself to Him, that I would be consumed with Him, amazed by His love, trusting in His power, and that I would step out and act on my faith in such a great God. How different would our lives look if we were truly trusting in the full power of God and being consumed by Him daily?
And a last sidenote, a little thing to think about: I laughed when I first thought about it, but what if my goal for the summer was to have faith enough to walk on water? It sounds ridiculous at first, but I think it is just an example of how we immediately limit God's power and our access to it through our faith to what we think is physically possible by what we know. It would disobey our "laws" of science, but then again, didn't raising Jesus from the dead on the third day disobey them also?
"Ah, Sovereign LORD, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for You." -Jeremiah 32:17
I talked with Kevin and Ryan last night about faith, and why the miracles and lives of the apostles don't happen today. We concluded it was because of our lack of faith; we limit God's power to what we think He can do, based on our own reason and what society/culture/science tells us is possible and impossible. God is independent of matter and space, of time and motion. God and His greatness and power are infinite! They cannot be fully comprehended by our minds, nor can we pretend to understand and decide what is possible for God and what is impossible--ALL is possible! Trying to size God down to something our minds can manage is idolatrous, unworthy of God, and keeps us from having faith in what He can really do. In Matthew 14, Jesus and Peter both walk on water! However, Peter had enough faith, even though he was scared, to actually step out onto liquid water and expect to be able to walk on it since Christ commanded him to. In Acts 3, Peter commands a lame beggar to get up and walk, and he does! Would we have the faith today to walk up to somebody and actually believe that God would heal them on the spot? Both of these things would be considered impossible in today's society because we say they are outside of science, the laws of physics, essentially they are things that we "know" can't happen.
As for the faith itself, in Acts 2, believers are living such lives devoted and consumed by Christ that numbers were being added to them daily! It seems like a huge deal even here on summer project when a single person comes to Christ! The faith to live this way and trust so wholeheartedly comes by stepping out in faith as Peter did in Matthew 14, but also by living a life consumed by Christ, as paul writes in Galatians 2:20-- "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me." When we are so devoted to Christ that ever action is for Christ, every desire is for Christ, when we have that insatiable desire to know God, for a very poor example, like we do a new girl that we like--getting to know God at all costs, sacrificing time, sleep, money, other plans, when all our attention is focus on getting to know Him more--that is when we will experience Christ's power to move, work, and live through us, because we will be surrendering every bit of control to Christ, so that Christ controls all aspects of our lives, like Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:14, "The love of Christ controls us," because Jesus Christ died for every sin of Paul's and the entire world, that Paul loves Christ so much for that sacrifice and is indebted so much to Christ that he is controlled by Christ's love, that every decision he makes is for Christ, to know Christ more, and reaching out to others with Christ's love.
All that being said, I feel like the lives of most Christians today, certainly including myself, are SO far away from the way Christ desires us to live, such as how the apostles lived. We can't be Christians and have the Gospel in our lives, our lives need to BE the Gospel, lived out daily! Personally, I don't feel like my life is fully controlled and consumed by Christ. I don't feel like I'm taking up my cross and following Christ, I feel like I'm inviting Christ to come influence my life where I am and what I'm doing right now, instead of leaving behind what I know and following after Christ, not thinking twice, not looking back on what I want to be doing for my own fun and interests.
All that being said, my prayer is still that every day God would continue to draw myself to Him, that I would be consumed with Him, amazed by His love, trusting in His power, and that I would step out and act on my faith in such a great God. How different would our lives look if we were truly trusting in the full power of God and being consumed by Him daily?
And a last sidenote, a little thing to think about: I laughed when I first thought about it, but what if my goal for the summer was to have faith enough to walk on water? It sounds ridiculous at first, but I think it is just an example of how we immediately limit God's power and our access to it through our faith to what we think is physically possible by what we know. It would disobey our "laws" of science, but then again, didn't raising Jesus from the dead on the third day disobey them also?
"Ah, Sovereign LORD, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for You." -Jeremiah 32:17
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Reflection Night
We have reflection nights on Tuesday nights from 7:30-10PM to reflect and spend time with God. This is just a little something I was thinking about while I was reflecting. (Inspired by/taken partially from Francis Chan's Just Stop and Think video haha)
Obeying God's Commands
_____________________
If we really KNEW God, knew His character, knew His love for us, we would obey His commands. Jesus says in John 14:15 that "If you love me, you will obey my commands." On first glance it sounds like a controlling or blackmailing friend, family member, or significant other trying to coerce you into doing something. The word love in Greek means "to love dearly" or "to be fond of." If we knew God on such an intimate level that we loved Him DEARLY, or were FOND of Him, it would radically alter our perspective on God's commands. He is our creator, knows everything about us, and we know NOTHING compared to His all-encompassing knowledge, His omniscience! He gave us laws for our own good, so that we could have a great life here. People talk bad about these commands like they are an evil or restricting thing, but they are a gift to us, a necessary thing! When He commands not murder, steal, or lie, it is not a restricting thing at all, He is just saying "Hey, this would be a better place if you didn't kill each other, lie to each other, or steal and rip each other off." When He says not to have pride, He is saying "Your life is going to be easier, you'll get along with other people better, and you can realize how much I have done for you if you're not puffed up on your own pride all the time." When He says not to mess around with our significant other before you're married, He's simply saying "Hey if you don't get so physically and emotionally intimate with your girlfriend, if you don't idolize her, if you focus on Me while you're with her, you're going to end up better in the long run, it's going to be so much better if you save that intimacy for the one person you end up marrying and experience that intense love and desire for your one companion for life." When He says not to look at a girl in a lustful way, He's not trying to take away your enjoyment and appreciation of God's creation which is beautiful, He's just saying "Hey that girl is going to respect you more, you will have more respect for her, you'll save yourself pain and desire from longing after something you won't have, and you'll appreciate true intimacy that goes beyond surface level beauty if you don't look at a girl that's not your wife in that way."
God isn't trying to take away ANYTHING from us, He's only trying to GIVE life to us and keep us from destruction. If that is still hard to believe, consider the fact that He gave His own son for us! He loved us so much, He wanted to give us LIFE so much, that even though we broke His laws and committed a crime against Him, He sent His only son, who He loved so dearly, to the earth to be punished and killed, paying the penalty for our own sin that we deserved so that we would not have to spend eternity in the worst place imagineable-- Hell, apart from Himself! How would a God that is willing to give the most precious thing to Himself, His own Son, take away from us any kind of joy or satisfaction? Hardly! His commands are for our benefit, His laws have been given to us because He loves us and has the BEST plan, beyond what we could imagine, for our lives. We might not understand why He commands some things, our own understanding might even lead us to think that the best thing would actually be in opposition to His command, but He gave us that command out of love for us and wanting the best for us!
Therefore, if we loved Christ, if we REALLY knew Him on such an intimate level, if we truly realized His love for us and understood that He would suffer and endure all the sin of the world to give us life, we would understand that His commands are only for our own good, and we would obey His commands.
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Summer Project Begins!
Hey all! So this is the beginning of my blog, I was meaning to start this on the first few days, but things have been crazy busy. I got to Clearwater last Sunday and met with my "life group" right away. It's a group of six guys (including myself) and two staff members, and they're pretty awesome people, and we'll be sharing life together and having bible studies weekly over the summer. Total, there were 40 new students and almost 20 staff members to meet here, which was pretty overwhelming trying to meet everybody, especially being a day late. But so far it is an amazing group of people and a great representation of Christian community, as everybody's primary focus is Christ and loves one another without any judgments or reservations. In a typical week, we work Monday through Friday, have dinner as a project and our weekly meeting with a message and worship on Monday nights, a 2.5 hour reflection time/time with God on Tuesday nights, have bible study and dinner on Wednesday nights, have dinner with our family groups (a different group of people to help us get to know more people) and a separate mens and womens time on Thursday nights, have a free dinner/night on Friday nights to hang out together or with people we meet/coworkers and such, an initiative evangelistic outreach (aka to people we've never met before, like on the beach) on Saturday afternoon, a social to build community that night, Church on Sunday morning, and Prayer and Praise on the beach Sunday night.
Speaking of work, we have to get a job in order to learn to minister to our coworkers while we are here. The first day of the job hunt (last Monday) was exhausting, as I looked around and applied many places, but didn't get anything. I auditioned with 4 other guys to work on a pirate ship cruise on Tuesday. We were told that they were only going to hire 3, maybe 4 pirates, but they ended up hiring all 5 of us...God has been faithful in providing! Right now I'm still training for the job, we aren't official pirates until we know how to do everything by heart, so I'll give some more details about it once I'm official :P Others still don't have jobs, so we are praying for them, that would God would provide for them, and rest for now in the knowledge that God has a purpose for everything and it is by His sovereign will that they will get a job when He chooses.
We've been training in communicating the Gospel and how to walk in the power of the Holy Spirit using some booklets they have provided us. Yesterday afternoon we went out on the beach and split up in 2's and 3's and shared with people on the beach. It was great to be a part of God's mission for Clearwater this summer! 4 guys we talked to weren't interested in spiritual things, but also said it's one of those things that they just don't talk about, so hopefully our talking to them will leave them with some conversation to dwell on. We also talked to a couple on their honeymoon who were believers but were under the impression that our good works affect our salvation, and explained to them that it was all about Jesus's sacrifice on the cross, and that works are simply a product of our trust in Christ. We also talked to a homeless man Friday who believed in Christ but was filled with hurt and sin and thought that his sin was going to keep him out of heaven. It's been great getting to talk with people about God!
I'd love to say more but it would be nearly impossible to put everything that we have done in one blog! I'm really excited as we start a new week of work, building relationships, and growing in our walks with God as the week progresses. I ask that you'd pray for me first of all that I would continue to trust in God for my satisfaction and confidence, not in myself or other people on project. I also ask that I would not consider myself and my own desires/concerns when talking to others, but that I would consider only the Gospel. Through this, I ask that you would pray for myself and our project, that we would be able to strengthen relationships with coworkers, initiate spiritual conversations with those we come into contact with, and continue to build true Christian community, love others more than ourselves. Thanks for reading, and I'll post again when I get a chance!
To Christ be all the glory.
Jeremy
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
