Sunday 22 April 2007
Wednesday 28 March 2007
Worshipping God in the darkness of a student pub
Last night, Monday 26th March, after our regular Christian Union meeting (which reached a record length of 2.5 hours), Sam asked me did I want to perform a Christian song in the Stables, the on-campus student pub, which is right beside where the CU is held. The Stables had an open mic night, so this was the perfect opportunity.
Of course, I being a man of little faith, spend two minutes trying to think of excuses not to do it – I was very tired, my voice was slightly gone, and there probably wouldn't be any slots for me to sing in any way. Praise God, I somehow realised that I was just trying to think of excuses, so I eventually said, "ok, let's go".
So we basically headed over to the Stables, where about 10 others from the CU joined us. Just to set the scene, there were over 100 students in the pub, all of them drinking and “having a laugh”. Eventually, after a half hour wait, I got on stage, my friends from CU formed a small crowd in front of the stage, I plugged in my guitar, and sang Chris Tomlin's Enough to all the students in the pub. Then we did Marvelous Light by Charlie Hall, finishing with Matt Redman's Blessed be Your Name.
In the midst of the darkness of a student pub, God's people gathered to worship and praise our mighty Father with song. I am convinced nothing like this has ever happened at University of Limerick. There is an open mic night every Monday night, so God-willing, we will continue worshiping in the Stables every Monday night. We have faith that by the power of God, our worship will draw students to the life and forgiveness of sin that can only be found in Christ Jesus our Lord.
May this inspire you to think big, to have dreams, and to truly believe that God can do the impossible. Five weeks ago, we began talking to people about Jesus in the Stables, this Monday we sang worship songs with a PA system to over 100 students socialising in a pub. God is waiting for people to step up and humbly say, "Lord, here I am. I will do whatever you ask, no matter how impossible it may seem. Send me." With those people, He will change the world and draw men unto Him.
All of You is more than enough for all of me
For every thirst and every need
You satisfy me with Your love
And all I have in You is more than enoughYou are my supply
My breath of life
And still more awesome than I know
You are my reward
worth living for
And still more awesome than I knowAll of You is more than enough for all of me
For every thirst and every need
You satisfy me with Your love
And all I have in You is more than enoughYou’re my sacrifice
Of greatest price
And still more awesome than I know
You’re the coming King
You are everything
And still more awesome than I knowMore than all I want
More than all I need
You are more than enough for me
More than all I know
More than all I can say
You are more than enough for me
Thursday 8 March 2007
Does He Exist?
This is a poem a good friend of mine at college wrote. Up until five months ago, she was a stout atheist. Then God began calling to her, and after three months of searching, she wrote this:
He has no alphaby Tracy Slevin - 6th March '07
He has no omega
So you say ‘No’
But
No alpha
And no omega
Mean Yes!!!
Mean absolute
Mean infinite
Mean eternal
I know my logic is flawed
Sure I’m only a child
But My Lord loves me
And I know He is there
My logic:
We only know it is dark
because the light is gone
Our bones know the chill of cold
because they miss the heat
Do you see where I’m going with this?
Let me explain, the best that I can.
We wouldn’t know despair
unless our deepest soul knew peace beyond peace
We couldn’t fear
unless our spirit knew hope beyond hope
Pain wouldn’t hurt so much
if our inner heart didn’t secretly know,
secretly hold, secretly feel love beyond love
Our deepest soul
Our spirit
Our inner heart
All know He is there
I know my logic ain’t perfect
It’s nowhere near perfect
But it is one outlook
I don’t know if it’s right
I don’t know if it’s wrong
But I know the conclusion
And I know the conclusion
Is real,
Is true,
Is beyond doubt
I know He is there
I know He loves me, imperfect me.
I know that He holds
Peace beyond peace for me, for us
I know that He keeps
Hope beyond hope for me, for us
I know that He has
Love beyond love for me, for us
He is there
He is here
He is everywhere
And He is good
He is forgiving
He is merciful
He does exist
But
You cannot blame Him
for disasters, for evil,
Anymore than your cells
can blame you for illness, for disease
because just as each of your cells
affect your health
Each act by each person
affects the world
Peace, Hope and Love
He has them for each of us
Some say ‘All He asks is that you believe’
Response: ‘Sure,
lets see you jump off an
unimaginably high cliff
with no safety net’
More of my logic:
True belief comes with time, take small steps but remember
You’ve gotta take a risk, you gotta jump at some point
Yeah, it’s scary, it’s petrifying
But you gotta remember and this is beyond important,
Believing in Him
Following Him
Is worth it.
He does exist
He is powerful
And He loves you!!!
Tuesday 27 February 2007
Beyond48 - Teenstreet Ireland
Introduction
I'm trying not to use my typical language to describe how incredible Teenstreet (TS) Ireland was, but I think I'm failing. Quite simply, God's glory, might, goodness, mercy and love were powerfully on display during this weekend!
For those of you who don't know (shock-horror!), Beyond48 happened 17th - 19th February '07. It was a Christian Irish youth conference run by OM (Operation Mobilisation), and is an off-shoot of the famous Teenstreet Germany (a review of which is here).
An incredible 350 teens, youth leaders and volunteers packed out Kilkenny College for what was to be an exciting, God-filled weekend (for those of you not living in Ireland, 350 Christians at an event in the south is quite a big deal!).
The weekend can be divided into four parts: main sessions, breakout sessions, NET groups, free time.
Main Sessions
Firstly, the teaching. Wow. It was, as TS tradition has it, by Dan & Suzie Potter, the founders of the TS movement. They are incredibly gifted at keeping the attention of a bunch of rowdy teenagers, and do so through various means. For example, Dan is a talented magician/trickster who uses various wow-effect tricks relating to something they are trying to teach the teens. On stage, they take turns speaking, carrying the plot on from each other every 2 minutes or so, which really keeps you awake.
As the title of TS Ireland, Beyond48, suggests, the theme was all about getting "beyond" - beyond yourself and the limitations/falsehoods that the world and Satan try to convince you exist, beyond the conference (48 hours). We were taught three steps we need to take:
There was also a strong emphasis on social justice, both nights they had several speakers and videos encouraging us to demonstrate God's love by standing for justice in this world. For example, Stop the Traffik, which is a movement for the freeing of the 27 million people in slavery today, you can read more about it here.
The music: It is such an amazing experience to worship God together with other saints! Especially doing so alongside teenagers from your own church. The band itself, Epiphany Project were supposedly all under 20 and were very talented and God-focused.
Breakout Sessions
There were two breakout sessions in total, where different workshops and seminars were offered, dealing with issues such as sexuality, radical Christian living in a school, and standing for social justice.
The one session I went to, sexuality, was very average, although the other two were apparently very challenging and relevant.
NET groups
NET group are the family units of TS, usually consisting of 7 teens and 1 or 2 coaches, either all guys or girls. NET group times was when things happened. It was such an amazing and humbling experience to see teenagers open up to the love of Jesus and His call on their lives! I know that all the teens in my group went home very encouraged and challenged to live more radically for the cause of Christ!
These times were really great just to pray for each other and to share what God had been teaching us over the weekend. This presents the clear opportunity of keeping in touch after the weekend for accountability and encouragement.
Conclusion
If you are reading this, and you have never been to any Teenstreet, I highly recommend it to you! If you're a teenager, tell your youth leader about it! If you're a youth leader, consider seriously bringing a group along to a Teenstreet event. I know they are lots of money, but they are well worth it. Many youth groups organise fund-raisers.
The next upcoming Teenstreet is TS Germany, 28th July - 4th August '07, information for which can be found here. (A review is here).
To God be the glory, forever and ever!! Amen.
I'm trying not to use my typical language to describe how incredible Teenstreet (TS) Ireland was, but I think I'm failing. Quite simply, God's glory, might, goodness, mercy and love were powerfully on display during this weekend!
For those of you who don't know (shock-horror!), Beyond48 happened 17th - 19th February '07. It was a Christian Irish youth conference run by OM (Operation Mobilisation), and is an off-shoot of the famous Teenstreet Germany (a review of which is here).
An incredible 350 teens, youth leaders and volunteers packed out Kilkenny College for what was to be an exciting, God-filled weekend (for those of you not living in Ireland, 350 Christians at an event in the south is quite a big deal!).
The weekend can be divided into four parts: main sessions, breakout sessions, NET groups, free time.
Main Sessions
Firstly, the teaching. Wow. It was, as TS tradition has it, by Dan & Suzie Potter, the founders of the TS movement. They are incredibly gifted at keeping the attention of a bunch of rowdy teenagers, and do so through various means. For example, Dan is a talented magician/trickster who uses various wow-effect tricks relating to something they are trying to teach the teens. On stage, they take turns speaking, carrying the plot on from each other every 2 minutes or so, which really keeps you awake.
As the title of TS Ireland, Beyond48, suggests, the theme was all about getting "beyond" - beyond yourself and the limitations/falsehoods that the world and Satan try to convince you exist, beyond the conference (48 hours). We were taught three steps we need to take:
- Stepping back into ourselves, to see the people we have become when Christ set us free;
- Stepping upward to see everything from God's perspective, and
- Stepping forward into God's plan, and surrendering your own to His.
There was also a strong emphasis on social justice, both nights they had several speakers and videos encouraging us to demonstrate God's love by standing for justice in this world. For example, Stop the Traffik, which is a movement for the freeing of the 27 million people in slavery today, you can read more about it here.
The music: It is such an amazing experience to worship God together with other saints! Especially doing so alongside teenagers from your own church. The band itself, Epiphany Project were supposedly all under 20 and were very talented and God-focused.
Breakout Sessions
There were two breakout sessions in total, where different workshops and seminars were offered, dealing with issues such as sexuality, radical Christian living in a school, and standing for social justice.
The one session I went to, sexuality, was very average, although the other two were apparently very challenging and relevant.
NET groups
NET group are the family units of TS, usually consisting of 7 teens and 1 or 2 coaches, either all guys or girls. NET group times was when things happened. It was such an amazing and humbling experience to see teenagers open up to the love of Jesus and His call on their lives! I know that all the teens in my group went home very encouraged and challenged to live more radically for the cause of Christ!
These times were really great just to pray for each other and to share what God had been teaching us over the weekend. This presents the clear opportunity of keeping in touch after the weekend for accountability and encouragement.
Conclusion
If you are reading this, and you have never been to any Teenstreet, I highly recommend it to you! If you're a teenager, tell your youth leader about it! If you're a youth leader, consider seriously bringing a group along to a Teenstreet event. I know they are lots of money, but they are well worth it. Many youth groups organise fund-raisers.
The next upcoming Teenstreet is TS Germany, 28th July - 4th August '07, information for which can be found here. (A review is here).
To God be the glory, forever and ever!! Amen.
Tuesday 20 February 2007
Evangelism
Last Monday night (that being the 12th of February) after the Christian Union meeting, I went to the on-campus student pub by the name of The Stables. Along with my two house mates Samuel (a fellow student) and Berny (an Italian missionary), we spoke to people about the amazing gospel of Jesus Christ.
I am sharing this with you in the hope of inspiring you to use everything at your disposal in order to reach the lost. Also, I hope to convince you that you need only be indwelled by the Holy Spirit (which every true Christian is - Romans 8:9) in order to tell the Good News to strangers.
Frankly, I was quite scared at the prospect of talking to strangers about Jesus, especially as we had not been able to organise tracts. In fact, I was so scared I said to Sam, "hey, we should leave it tonight 'cos we don't have any tracts to hand out." To which he replied, "no way!".
"So how are we gonna approach people?"
"Well, I'm just gonna walk up to people and tell them about Jesus."
That's what he was gonna do. I was gonna follow him around for the night. There's no way I could just walk up to people and start a conversation about the most important thing they'll ever hear!
Before walking to the Stables we prayed to our Awesome God for strength, courage and boldness, for God to accept our offering, and to use it to touch people's lives. So we headed for the Stables, me being quite scared. I had this sudden urge to run home.
Arriving there, Sam walked immediately to a group of people and began talking to them. Reluctantly, I followed. But then, something strange happened; I suddenly knew that I should start a conversation of my own. Wow, that was scary! "No way," I said to myself. Somehow, I turned away from Sam's group and looked around for other prospectives. I spotted one, and immediately Satan attacked. The evil one begun to pour fear upon fear into my heart. I stopped walking for a moment.
Thankfully, the Spirit in me is greater than the spirit that is in the world, and so, by the power and grace of God, I walked up to this person (my legs still shivering out of fear) and said, "hey, can I tell you about Jesus?"
Immediately, all the fear left. This is what Jesus promises us in Luke 21:13-15:
As soon as the conversation was over, and I began looking for others to witness to, the fears poured in again; when I began another conversation, the fear was immediately replaced with deep peace and joy.
This fear of witnessing to strangers is so powerful because Satan is absolutely scared of it! He will do anything to get us to stay quiet about our beliefs. So let us remember that the evil one has already been defeated!
And finally, you do not need to be gifted in any way (apart from being able to hold a conversation) in order to witness to strangers. And even if it is the case that you will not talk to a stranger, you can simply hand out tracts silently.
Our job in evangelism is to proclaim the gospel; it is only God who can save. And so, as we witness, we do so knowing that the result of it and the extent of the harvest is completely in God's hand (John 6:44). It is the Holy Spirit who softens people's hearts so they might hear and understand the gospel. That is why we can pray with full confidence for the salvation of our friends, our family, and all those to whom we witness.
And so I plead with you to join me in reaching the lost for Christ. Let us stop using "personal evangelism" as an excuse to stay in our comfort zones (although we should by all means continue witnessing to our friends!). Let's proclaim the gospel to as many people in as many ways as possible, so that others would get to share in our salvation and, above all, that God might be glorified.
I am sharing this with you in the hope of inspiring you to use everything at your disposal in order to reach the lost. Also, I hope to convince you that you need only be indwelled by the Holy Spirit (which every true Christian is - Romans 8:9) in order to tell the Good News to strangers.
Frankly, I was quite scared at the prospect of talking to strangers about Jesus, especially as we had not been able to organise tracts. In fact, I was so scared I said to Sam, "hey, we should leave it tonight 'cos we don't have any tracts to hand out." To which he replied, "no way!".
"So how are we gonna approach people?"
"Well, I'm just gonna walk up to people and tell them about Jesus."
That's what he was gonna do. I was gonna follow him around for the night. There's no way I could just walk up to people and start a conversation about the most important thing they'll ever hear!
Before walking to the Stables we prayed to our Awesome God for strength, courage and boldness, for God to accept our offering, and to use it to touch people's lives. So we headed for the Stables, me being quite scared. I had this sudden urge to run home.
Arriving there, Sam walked immediately to a group of people and began talking to them. Reluctantly, I followed. But then, something strange happened; I suddenly knew that I should start a conversation of my own. Wow, that was scary! "No way," I said to myself. Somehow, I turned away from Sam's group and looked around for other prospectives. I spotted one, and immediately Satan attacked. The evil one begun to pour fear upon fear into my heart. I stopped walking for a moment.
Thankfully, the Spirit in me is greater than the spirit that is in the world, and so, by the power and grace of God, I walked up to this person (my legs still shivering out of fear) and said, "hey, can I tell you about Jesus?"
Immediately, all the fear left. This is what Jesus promises us in Luke 21:13-15:
"This will result in your being witnesses to them. But make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves. For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict."A long conversation ensued. And that's precisely what it was - a conversation. I told him the basics of the gospel, he responded by explaining his beliefs and telling me why he didn't agree with mine. I couldn't answer all his questions, but that was all right.
As soon as the conversation was over, and I began looking for others to witness to, the fears poured in again; when I began another conversation, the fear was immediately replaced with deep peace and joy.
This fear of witnessing to strangers is so powerful because Satan is absolutely scared of it! He will do anything to get us to stay quiet about our beliefs. So let us remember that the evil one has already been defeated!
And finally, you do not need to be gifted in any way (apart from being able to hold a conversation) in order to witness to strangers. And even if it is the case that you will not talk to a stranger, you can simply hand out tracts silently.
Our job in evangelism is to proclaim the gospel; it is only God who can save. And so, as we witness, we do so knowing that the result of it and the extent of the harvest is completely in God's hand (John 6:44). It is the Holy Spirit who softens people's hearts so they might hear and understand the gospel. That is why we can pray with full confidence for the salvation of our friends, our family, and all those to whom we witness.
And so I plead with you to join me in reaching the lost for Christ. Let us stop using "personal evangelism" as an excuse to stay in our comfort zones (although we should by all means continue witnessing to our friends!). Let's proclaim the gospel to as many people in as many ways as possible, so that others would get to share in our salvation and, above all, that God might be glorified.
Thursday 25 January 2007
God worked miracles for my exams!
YESS!!! THANK YOU LORD FOR BEING SO AMAZING!!!
I have finished the exams! And they were a resounding success! I am seriously in awe of the miracles God wrought in my two hardest exams!
The first hard one was on Thursday, 9am, Inorganic Chemistry. I only had one day (Wednesday) to study it, FROM SCATCH! There was still so much to do that basically all I did was rewrite the notes once and try understand everything as I went (since I didn't remember ever having written the original notes in the first place). I was praying a lot, and on Sunday I had asked my church to pray for me. Still, I was very undisciplined, as I kept on surfing the internet for short time-spans (which is very easy for me to do 'cos I study with the PC on since I use wikipedia a lot to understand material).
So, Thursday morning, 8:30, I went to the exam hall and found out that everyone else taking the exam had very low hopes also, which cheered me up, especially 'cos we're marked to a curve (meaning that if no-one gets above 60%, 55% might equal an A). Still, when I sat down and received the question sheet, and read through the question, I realised I had nearly no clue what all those questions were about! So I decided I better pray, so I spent two minutes with my eyes closed talking with God. Then I just started writing.
And kept writing. Did some figuring out. Wrote some more. Figured out some more. In the end, I was able to fully answer EVERYTHING!!! PRAISE GOD!!
It keeps getting better - the next two exams, the last of which was today, went really really well (although today's required less miraculous intervention)!
I am absolutely in awe of what God has done for His glory through me! And I can take absolutely no credit, because three weeks before the exams I had done ZERO study, and even when I began, it was often very unfocused. And yet God granted me success and my memory was so sharp it was definitely supernatural. As a matter of fact, even if I end up not getting any As, I can honestly say I don't really care that much, because I AM SATISFIED IN GOD!!! His fountain of love and joy has filled me undeservingly, and I give HIM THE GLORY!
But it gets better. Ya I know, hard to believe! One of my best friends in my course (none of them are Christians), Eamonn, I had been talking to alot over the exam weeks, and he knew I was praying a lot about my exams, and he knew that I was doing a lot better than I expected. Then, for today's exam, he said I should pray that the questions would be similar to the questions from the previous two years (since those are the ones we all studied). And the questions were pretty much the same! An hour after the exam, I get a text from him saying, and this is a direct quote, "Praise to god! He answered your prayers!" God is touching the hearts of one of my friends!! I seriously was jumping up and down in my room out of joy!
I have finished the exams! And they were a resounding success! I am seriously in awe of the miracles God wrought in my two hardest exams!
The first hard one was on Thursday, 9am, Inorganic Chemistry. I only had one day (Wednesday) to study it, FROM SCATCH! There was still so much to do that basically all I did was rewrite the notes once and try understand everything as I went (since I didn't remember ever having written the original notes in the first place). I was praying a lot, and on Sunday I had asked my church to pray for me. Still, I was very undisciplined, as I kept on surfing the internet for short time-spans (which is very easy for me to do 'cos I study with the PC on since I use wikipedia a lot to understand material).
So, Thursday morning, 8:30, I went to the exam hall and found out that everyone else taking the exam had very low hopes also, which cheered me up, especially 'cos we're marked to a curve (meaning that if no-one gets above 60%, 55% might equal an A). Still, when I sat down and received the question sheet, and read through the question, I realised I had nearly no clue what all those questions were about! So I decided I better pray, so I spent two minutes with my eyes closed talking with God. Then I just started writing.
And kept writing. Did some figuring out. Wrote some more. Figured out some more. In the end, I was able to fully answer EVERYTHING!!! PRAISE GOD!!
It keeps getting better - the next two exams, the last of which was today, went really really well (although today's required less miraculous intervention)!
I am absolutely in awe of what God has done for His glory through me! And I can take absolutely no credit, because three weeks before the exams I had done ZERO study, and even when I began, it was often very unfocused. And yet God granted me success and my memory was so sharp it was definitely supernatural. As a matter of fact, even if I end up not getting any As, I can honestly say I don't really care that much, because I AM SATISFIED IN GOD!!! His fountain of love and joy has filled me undeservingly, and I give HIM THE GLORY!
But it gets better. Ya I know, hard to believe! One of my best friends in my course (none of them are Christians), Eamonn, I had been talking to alot over the exam weeks, and he knew I was praying a lot about my exams, and he knew that I was doing a lot better than I expected. Then, for today's exam, he said I should pray that the questions would be similar to the questions from the previous two years (since those are the ones we all studied). And the questions were pretty much the same! An hour after the exam, I get a text from him saying, and this is a direct quote, "Praise to god! He answered your prayers!" God is touching the hearts of one of my friends!! I seriously was jumping up and down in my room out of joy!
Psalm 65
Praise awaits you, O God, in Zion;
to you our vows will be fulfilled.
O you who hear prayer,
to you all men will come.
When we were overwhelmed by sins,
you forgave our transgressions.
Blessed are those you choose
and bring near to live in your courts!
We are filled with the good things of your house,
of your holy temple.
You answer us with awesome deeds of righteousness,
O God our Savior,
the hope of all the ends of the earth
and of the farthest seas,
who formed the mountains by your power,
having armed yourself with strength,
who stilled the roaring of the seas,
the roaring of their waves,
and the turmoil of the nations.
Praise awaits you, O God, in Zion;
to you our vows will be fulfilled.
O you who hear prayer,
to you all men will come.
When we were overwhelmed by sins,
you forgave our transgressions.
Blessed are those you choose
and bring near to live in your courts!
We are filled with the good things of your house,
of your holy temple.
You answer us with awesome deeds of righteousness,
O God our Savior,
the hope of all the ends of the earth
and of the farthest seas,
who formed the mountains by your power,
having armed yourself with strength,
who stilled the roaring of the seas,
the roaring of their waves,
and the turmoil of the nations.
Update July '06: My results for these exams were 5 As and 1 C. What a miracle!
Passion 07 Review!
Introduction
I was in the states over the Christmas holidays, visiting my dearly beloved friends, and while I was there, we attended Passion Conferences, and I just wanted to let you all know about it. This is quite long, but I think and pray you will enjoy it and grow from it, as you are awed by the greatness and glory of our God.
For those of you that don't know, just a little introduction regarding what Passion Conferences is. The movement was started in 1985 when Louie Giglio headed the bible studies at Baylor University in the States with just a handful attendees. By God's mighty power, the bible study grew until eventually 10% of the student population there regularly attended the bible studies. A vision to reach other universities was born, and Passion Conferences began, meeting once a year since 1997, the first being attended by 2,000 students. Its vision is, "to glorify God [by] uniting students in worship and prayer for spiritual awakening in this generation". Since then, more and more students have been gathering at Passion Conferences every year, this year (Passion 07) seeing over 22,000 students united for the glory and renown of God, representing over 1,200 campuses from all the states in the U.S. and 33 other countries around the world! Now to Passion 07, Jan 1 - 4.
Review
Where to start? God did so many wonderful and awesome things there is no way I can tell you all of them. But my prayer is that throughout this review I can give you a glimpse of Christ's power to redeem and empower His people, as a witness to the kingdom He is reigning here on earth. I know that a lot of you reading this are comprehensive about large gatherings, thinking that emotions often take over, and that it easily becomes too focused on the people as opposed to God. Although Passion 07 was certainly not perfect, I hope to convince you by the end of this review that Christ was at the centre of this amazing time, and that God's glory was the ultimate and heartfelt aim. In the words of Louie Giglio during the first meeting, "We didn't come here for a conference. We didn't come here for the music. We didn't come here for the speakers. We came here to glorify God and to seek Him first above all else."
The conference was held in Atlanta, Georgia. Monday the 1st of January, 7pm, the first main meeting occurred. When we finally were admitted into the Phillips Arena (seating 20,000 people, a smaller arena housed the rest, linked by video conference), all I could think of was Hebrews 12:1 - "since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses". And that's what it was! A GREAT cloud of witnesses! Here in Ireland we can't even imagine that many Saints gathering to glorify God. I am a witness that, no, it did NOT take my eyes off God (although it was a temptation at times); instead, it drew me closer to Him and opened my eyes even more to His greatness and unsearchable riches! Words cannot describe the scene as Charlie Hall and his band began singing:
And 24,000 saints were worshipping God, lifting up His Name, ascribing Him glory! I cannot wait to be in heaven, where we will worship and praise God with BILLIONS of people! This was just such a tiny foretaste of that glorious dwelling place, but yet, I could barely contain it and take it in. God is so great, no words can suffice to express my delight at having been saved from my wretched sin and being granted the privilege of bringing Him glory with such a great cloud of witnesses and of "making loud our freedom song" with the roar of 23,000 saved sinners, singing their praise to the Almighty!!
The speaker that night was Louie Giglio, who retold the story that will be retold for all eternity: How God, the creator of the universe, became man and humbled Himself to death, so that we, sinners condemned for an eternity in hell, might have LIFE! How God, out of His free will, even though He was not forced to do so, decided, for His glory, to make a way for us sinners to be blameless and free from guilt in His sight, that we might spend an eternity worshipping Him and adoring Him. Even more, we are made righteous by Christ's death, so that God no longer sees our sin when He looks at us, but He sees Christ's righteousness in us, because Christ is alive in us!!! And thousands of people clapped and cheered the mighty truths that God has revealed to us, as the stadium celebrated God's grace and mercy. Louie shone with love and humility, as he inspired us to fall in love with God and be amazed at His greatness and in awe of His glory.
The main session ended ca. 10pm, and we then went on to Community Groups, in which we were divided into groups of 1,000 and met in smaller rooms (they were still HUGE). There, we were further subdivided into Family Groups, 8 people each, preferably people that have never met before. We were told that this would be where things would happen, although we all thought, "yeah right, I think the main session will be where things'll happen". Well, we were wrong! Even though I only spent six or seven hours with my family group, I grew to love them and trust them implicitly. All of us grew close together so quickly, because what we had in common and what we talked about is the most powerful connection any human can have - JESUS CHRIST! Throughout the conference, we met twice a day to do bible studies together and discuss how God was changing our lives and how He was challenging us. We prayed for each other and praised God together. Unfortunately, and this makes my heart break, I might never see them again here on earth:( But I look forward to the day I will be reunited with them before the throne of God in heaven! If you are reading this, I don't care who you are, what situation you are in, what friends you currently have, gather around you a group of Christians who love Jesus and with whom you can walk the walk and talk the walk together! Encourage each other, admonish each other, pray for each other, praise God together! The strongest bonds you will have to other humans will be those based on Christ! James 5:16: "confess your sins to each other and pray for each other."
When the Community Group ended around 11.30pm, I met up again with my dear friends from Virginia Beach with whom we (Caoimhin, Mira and I) had come to Passion: Eric, Jessica and Beverly (I love you guys and I miss you so much!). There were several late-night concerts on, and we went to see a brand-new heavy-rock Christian band called Leeland. Now, I wasn't looking forward to it that much 'cos I thought the concert would be like so many rock concerts - focused on the band, the crowd cheering for the hot guitarist, etc. God forgive me, I was so wrong! The whole concert was focused on God, it was basically a praise and worship session! The group leader, Leeland, prayed many times, read from the Word, and the songs they sang were focused on Jesus, our mission here on earth, His great love, etc.! I was moved to tears as I saw the passion and love for Jesus the band had, and I was humbled as I realised this concert wasn't meant to be about the band, but about God our Father. At times all I could do was cry and lift my hands to God, I was so humbled and sorry that I had thought the band was about its own glory, as they sang, "God You are great, God You are great, God You are great, God You are great!" Let me share with you one of their songs, Sound of Melodies:
We have been redeemed for a purpose! And that purpose is that our lives would be an offering to God, a sound pleasing to Him! Come, join the melody of His song that is being sung by thousands of saints all over the globe, the sound of all melodies, the music of the redeemed, the lives of "sinners and thieves lifted up from the ashes". PRAISE GOD!!!
The topic of the second-last talk; the Great Commission: "Go and make disciples of all nations." The facts Louie recounted made me want to cry out of shame and sadness, and I hope they will shock you also: 2.5 billion people out of the 6.5 billion sharing this planet with us do not have the Word of God in their own language!!! Even worse, less than 2% of all missionaries are directed toward these 2.5 billion people! We often hear the statistic that 95% of the world's wealth is owned by 1% of the world's population. Well, it seems to me terribly similar to only 2% of the world's missionaries working with the 40% of the world's population, those being the ones who do not have the Word of God in their own language! Let that sink in!! And we think missions abroad aren't a priority?? How selfish we are! And so Louie called us to not forget the true meaning of the Great Commission, which is so simple that it has been largely forgotten today: "Go and make disciples of all nations." How much clearer could Jesus have made it? Where are the tears of the saints for the lost and unreached?
The last talk was simply wrap-up; but God wasn't done yet. Throughout the conference, a campaign called Do Something Now had been occurring. Do Something Now consisted of several ways we students could contribute financially and otherwise to the work of the kingdom throughout the world. Two of those were by donating toward the translation of the New Testament for an unreached language group, the second, writing letters and signing petitions against the evergrowing industry of sex trade, in which mostly young women are snatched from the streets of third world cities and enslaved to satisfy the sexual cravings of people in "civilised" countries, Europe, America, and so on (click here to find out more). All in all, Do Something Now had a target of collecting $500,000 from 23,000 students over the course of the conference. Now for us poor students, that seemed an impossible, laughable goal! But God is so much bigger than our expectations - Louie informed us that over $750,000 had been raised! Praise God!!
Then Louie revealed the plans of Passion for the coming years: There would not be another huge single Passion Conference; instead, in 2007, several smaller conferences would be held all over the United States in order to reach even more students and inspire them to live for God's glory! Even further, in 2008, conferences will be held in 20 major cities all over the world! I pray that one of those would be Dublin. This world tour will cost an estimated $4 million, and so an offering was taken up. Now, I thought, "people have already given so much, this is gonna be a meagre offering." Boy, was I wrong once again! There were several collection baskets held by volunteers around the stadium, and when Louie asked for the offering, it was like the whole stadium got up and flocked toward the collection baskets! Just today, the figure for that single offering from 23,000 students has been released (click here for full results of Do Something Now). The figure from that single offerring is ........... $256,000!!!!! Praise God!
In a questions and answers sessions, John Piper was asked, "Considering you are practically a celebrity, how do you manage to stay humble all the time?" To which he answered, without hesitation, "you presume I do stay humble all the time!" And that complete honesty really was one of the marks of all the speakers and, in fact, the whole conference. This, coupled with an unwavering passion to see God glorified in and above all things are two major components, I believe, to God having chosen to work so powerfully through this conference. And I am witness that He worked powerfully to change many lives, including mine! Oh what joy it is to stand, walk and live always in the presence of the almighty God and have a personal relationship with the creator of the universe. So often we forget that we really do not deserve His grace and mercy; and that His grace is enough to satisfy all our needs ! My prayer is that this review has awoken in you a stronger and more powerful passionate for Jesus Christ and His renown here on earth. So often, we put God inside boundaries, but His might and power have no limits! God has not stopped performing miracles, whatever some may say or believe! He still heals, physically and spiritually! And He wants you to be a part of His great work! He has called us by name and wants to change the world - using us! So don't refuse His call. Give Him everything, because He alone is worthy of all praise.
If you read this far, well done! Because the review had gotten so long, I moved the summaries of the other main session talks to the bottom, so if you wanna read more, scroll further down! Feel free to respond to this e-mail if you have any questions:)
Summaries of other main sessions
The next main session a lady called Beth Moore came to speak to us. When she was about to open with prayer, she asked us all to stand. Once we were standing, she went down on her knees and prayed to our heavenly Father. Her talk was about humility; before God, and before humans. The main point was that, as Christians, we have two options: (a) humble ourselves, or, if we don't do it ourselves, (b) have God do it for us. And it is much less painful when we humble ourselves! God will only use people who are humbly acknowledging Him as God and others as better than themselves (Phi 2:3). And yet, that doesn't mean we shouldn't speak up for ourselves or God. But notice, speaking up - to speak up, you have to be looking up, up to others and up to God! It was so challenging, I came out terribly convicted of my own pride, my selfishness, my swollen ego, when, in fact, all I deserve is eternal separation from God. Because everything we have is a gift of God, given freely by Him! Salvation is a gift, and we can neither add anything nor take anything away! So join with me in dedicating ourselves to a life of humility, a life that proclaims how small we are and how great God is! God, we are so small, but yet we puff ourselves up to be these great men and women. Help us to fight our flesh through your power, help us to stay humble and rely solely upon You for strength, and to give You ALL THE GLORY! We are nothing, useless, sinners and lost apart from You. Amen.
That was Tuesday morning; Tuesday evening, a guy called Frances Chan was speaking. God works so differently than we expect or often predict, and Passion was no exception. Not many had heard of Frances, so people weren't as enthusiastic about hearing him as they had been for the previous two speakers. But God did a powerful work that evening. God's Spirit broke my heart that night as I fell in love with Jesus all over again and realised that everything is about loving Jesus with all our heart. And that was Chan's message: The Christian life is not about doing this or that, going to this conference, leading that bible study, giving x amount of money to an offering, etc. NO!! The Christian life is about being in love with Jesus!!!!! He gave His life for us!! And what do we do? So often we become selfish, and we indulge ourselves, satisfy our sinful nature. Often, we are just luke-warm Christians! Jesus says that He will "spit" luke-warm Christians out of His mouth (Rev 3:16)! He was challenging us not to become half-hearted Christians who end up living a comfortable life with a nice income, having (nearly) every material thing we need. Those are not victorious Christians!! In the words of Jesus, "You say, "I am rich. I have everything I want. I don't need a thing!" And you don't realise that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked." (Rev 3:17). The challenge was this: are we living lives to satisfy our sinful nature, indulging in materialism and other worldly things, or are living lives that glorify God, which are the lives that truly satisfy us? In the words of Jesus, "For whoever wants to save his life will loose it, but whoever looses his life for me will gain it". (Luk 9:24)
That evening during family groups, God's work was being made visible as we shared some things that were deeply troubling us in our lives and that God had challenged us in. We spend time praying for each other, that we would love Jesus more and more, and that, in the words of the old hymn, the things of earth would "grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace".
The next morning, the speaker was John Piper. I'm sure some of you have heard about him; he is quite famous among Christian circles, especially over America. He has written many, many books, probably his most famous being "Desiring God". When he walked on stage, a huge cheer erupted, which made me slightly sad that the poor guy had achieved something like celebrity status in Christian circles. But then I remembered that the heroes of old in the bible were probably not very different. Just think of Moses or king David. What surprised me was how unimposing he appeared. He went straight into prayer, asking God to guide him as he spoke, and to prepare our hearts to listen to what God had to say to us. He then informed us that the closest he had ever come to being fired from his position as a pastor at his church was when he published a paper entitled "Missions and Masturbation". I can imagine why! He then told us that countless people who are passionate Christians in their teen and college years become luke-warm Christians later in life, content with a nice income, large house and Mercedes, comfortable in their middle-class life, wasting their lives when they should be living passionately for the cause of Christ! And he said that the root of this problem is, for many, failure to deal with sexual failure. He talked not about how to prevent sexual failure, but how to deal with it once it has happened. Piper recounted to us Christ's sacrifice, which paid our sins once for all, and that once we have been saved by the grace of God, we can do nothing to loose that salvation - "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" (Rom 8:35). Christ's blood is sufficient to cover all our sins! He encouraged us to draw close to God for comfort and forgiveness after failure, especially after sexual failure! So many people today live in shame at their failings in this area, and never tell others! So they end up living half-hearted Christian lives, never able to fully commit because they fail to deal with the shame and guilt. But Jesus not only takes our sin, He also takes our guilt - if we let Him.
"But as for me, I watch in hope for the LORD, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me. Israel Will Rise. Do not gloat over me, my enemy! Though I have fallen, I will rise. Though I sit in darkness, the LORD will be my light. Because I have sinned against him, I will bear the LORD's wrath, until he pleads my case and establishes my right. He will bring me out into the light; I will see his righteousness." Micah 7:7-9
I was in the states over the Christmas holidays, visiting my dearly beloved friends, and while I was there, we attended Passion Conferences, and I just wanted to let you all know about it. This is quite long, but I think and pray you will enjoy it and grow from it, as you are awed by the greatness and glory of our God.
For those of you that don't know, just a little introduction regarding what Passion Conferences is. The movement was started in 1985 when Louie Giglio headed the bible studies at Baylor University in the States with just a handful attendees. By God's mighty power, the bible study grew until eventually 10% of the student population there regularly attended the bible studies. A vision to reach other universities was born, and Passion Conferences began, meeting once a year since 1997, the first being attended by 2,000 students. Its vision is, "to glorify God [by] uniting students in worship and prayer for spiritual awakening in this generation". Since then, more and more students have been gathering at Passion Conferences every year, this year (Passion 07) seeing over 22,000 students united for the glory and renown of God, representing over 1,200 campuses from all the states in the U.S. and 33 other countries around the world! Now to Passion 07, Jan 1 - 4.
Review
Where to start? God did so many wonderful and awesome things there is no way I can tell you all of them. But my prayer is that throughout this review I can give you a glimpse of Christ's power to redeem and empower His people, as a witness to the kingdom He is reigning here on earth. I know that a lot of you reading this are comprehensive about large gatherings, thinking that emotions often take over, and that it easily becomes too focused on the people as opposed to God. Although Passion 07 was certainly not perfect, I hope to convince you by the end of this review that Christ was at the centre of this amazing time, and that God's glory was the ultimate and heartfelt aim. In the words of Louie Giglio during the first meeting, "We didn't come here for a conference. We didn't come here for the music. We didn't come here for the speakers. We came here to glorify God and to seek Him first above all else."
The conference was held in Atlanta, Georgia. Monday the 1st of January, 7pm, the first main meeting occurred. When we finally were admitted into the Phillips Arena (seating 20,000 people, a smaller arena housed the rest, linked by video conference), all I could think of was Hebrews 12:1 - "since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses". And that's what it was! A GREAT cloud of witnesses! Here in Ireland we can't even imagine that many Saints gathering to glorify God. I am a witness that, no, it did NOT take my eyes off God (although it was a temptation at times); instead, it drew me closer to Him and opened my eyes even more to His greatness and unsearchable riches! Words cannot describe the scene as Charlie Hall and his band began singing:
God above all the world in motion
God above all my hopes and fears
And I don't care what the world throws at me now
Hear the sounds of the generations
Making loud our freedom song
All in all that the world would know Your name
Cause I know my God saved the day
And I know His word never fails
And I know my God made a way for me
Salvation is here
Salvation is here and He lives in me
Salvation that died just to set me free
Salvation is here and He lives in me
Cause You are alive and You live in me.
And 24,000 saints were worshipping God, lifting up His Name, ascribing Him glory! I cannot wait to be in heaven, where we will worship and praise God with BILLIONS of people! This was just such a tiny foretaste of that glorious dwelling place, but yet, I could barely contain it and take it in. God is so great, no words can suffice to express my delight at having been saved from my wretched sin and being granted the privilege of bringing Him glory with such a great cloud of witnesses and of "making loud our freedom song" with the roar of 23,000 saved sinners, singing their praise to the Almighty!!
The speaker that night was Louie Giglio, who retold the story that will be retold for all eternity: How God, the creator of the universe, became man and humbled Himself to death, so that we, sinners condemned for an eternity in hell, might have LIFE! How God, out of His free will, even though He was not forced to do so, decided, for His glory, to make a way for us sinners to be blameless and free from guilt in His sight, that we might spend an eternity worshipping Him and adoring Him. Even more, we are made righteous by Christ's death, so that God no longer sees our sin when He looks at us, but He sees Christ's righteousness in us, because Christ is alive in us!!! And thousands of people clapped and cheered the mighty truths that God has revealed to us, as the stadium celebrated God's grace and mercy. Louie shone with love and humility, as he inspired us to fall in love with God and be amazed at His greatness and in awe of His glory.
The main session ended ca. 10pm, and we then went on to Community Groups, in which we were divided into groups of 1,000 and met in smaller rooms (they were still HUGE). There, we were further subdivided into Family Groups, 8 people each, preferably people that have never met before. We were told that this would be where things would happen, although we all thought, "yeah right, I think the main session will be where things'll happen". Well, we were wrong! Even though I only spent six or seven hours with my family group, I grew to love them and trust them implicitly. All of us grew close together so quickly, because what we had in common and what we talked about is the most powerful connection any human can have - JESUS CHRIST! Throughout the conference, we met twice a day to do bible studies together and discuss how God was changing our lives and how He was challenging us. We prayed for each other and praised God together. Unfortunately, and this makes my heart break, I might never see them again here on earth:( But I look forward to the day I will be reunited with them before the throne of God in heaven! If you are reading this, I don't care who you are, what situation you are in, what friends you currently have, gather around you a group of Christians who love Jesus and with whom you can walk the walk and talk the walk together! Encourage each other, admonish each other, pray for each other, praise God together! The strongest bonds you will have to other humans will be those based on Christ! James 5:16: "confess your sins to each other and pray for each other."
When the Community Group ended around 11.30pm, I met up again with my dear friends from Virginia Beach with whom we (Caoimhin, Mira and I) had come to Passion: Eric, Jessica and Beverly (I love you guys and I miss you so much!). There were several late-night concerts on, and we went to see a brand-new heavy-rock Christian band called Leeland. Now, I wasn't looking forward to it that much 'cos I thought the concert would be like so many rock concerts - focused on the band, the crowd cheering for the hot guitarist, etc. God forgive me, I was so wrong! The whole concert was focused on God, it was basically a praise and worship session! The group leader, Leeland, prayed many times, read from the Word, and the songs they sang were focused on Jesus, our mission here on earth, His great love, etc.! I was moved to tears as I saw the passion and love for Jesus the band had, and I was humbled as I realised this concert wasn't meant to be about the band, but about God our Father. At times all I could do was cry and lift my hands to God, I was so humbled and sorry that I had thought the band was about its own glory, as they sang, "God You are great, God You are great, God You are great, God You are great!" Let me share with you one of their songs, Sound of Melodies:
We who were called to be Your people
Struggling sinners and thieves
We're lifted up from the ashes
And out came the song of the redeemed
The song of the redeemed.
We have caught a revelation
That nothing can separate us from
The love we received through salvation
It fills your daughters and your sons
Your daughters and your sons
Can you hear the sound of melodies
Oh, the sound of melodies
Rising up to You
Rising up to You, God
The sound of melodies
Oh, the sound of melodies
Rising up to You
Rising up to You, God.
The sound of Your love
The sound of Your love
Is what You're hearing
The sound of Your sons
The sound of Your sons
You've won Your children
The sound of Your love
The sound of Your love
Is what You're hearing
Your daughters in love
Your daughters in love
You've won your children
The sound of melodies
Oh, the sound of melodies
Rising up to You
Rising up to You, God
We have been redeemed for a purpose! And that purpose is that our lives would be an offering to God, a sound pleasing to Him! Come, join the melody of His song that is being sung by thousands of saints all over the globe, the sound of all melodies, the music of the redeemed, the lives of "sinners and thieves lifted up from the ashes". PRAISE GOD!!!
The topic of the second-last talk; the Great Commission: "Go and make disciples of all nations." The facts Louie recounted made me want to cry out of shame and sadness, and I hope they will shock you also: 2.5 billion people out of the 6.5 billion sharing this planet with us do not have the Word of God in their own language!!! Even worse, less than 2% of all missionaries are directed toward these 2.5 billion people! We often hear the statistic that 95% of the world's wealth is owned by 1% of the world's population. Well, it seems to me terribly similar to only 2% of the world's missionaries working with the 40% of the world's population, those being the ones who do not have the Word of God in their own language! Let that sink in!! And we think missions abroad aren't a priority?? How selfish we are! And so Louie called us to not forget the true meaning of the Great Commission, which is so simple that it has been largely forgotten today: "Go and make disciples of all nations." How much clearer could Jesus have made it? Where are the tears of the saints for the lost and unreached?
The last talk was simply wrap-up; but God wasn't done yet. Throughout the conference, a campaign called Do Something Now had been occurring. Do Something Now consisted of several ways we students could contribute financially and otherwise to the work of the kingdom throughout the world. Two of those were by donating toward the translation of the New Testament for an unreached language group, the second, writing letters and signing petitions against the evergrowing industry of sex trade, in which mostly young women are snatched from the streets of third world cities and enslaved to satisfy the sexual cravings of people in "civilised" countries, Europe, America, and so on (click here to find out more). All in all, Do Something Now had a target of collecting $500,000 from 23,000 students over the course of the conference. Now for us poor students, that seemed an impossible, laughable goal! But God is so much bigger than our expectations - Louie informed us that over $750,000 had been raised! Praise God!!
Then Louie revealed the plans of Passion for the coming years: There would not be another huge single Passion Conference; instead, in 2007, several smaller conferences would be held all over the United States in order to reach even more students and inspire them to live for God's glory! Even further, in 2008, conferences will be held in 20 major cities all over the world! I pray that one of those would be Dublin. This world tour will cost an estimated $4 million, and so an offering was taken up. Now, I thought, "people have already given so much, this is gonna be a meagre offering." Boy, was I wrong once again! There were several collection baskets held by volunteers around the stadium, and when Louie asked for the offering, it was like the whole stadium got up and flocked toward the collection baskets! Just today, the figure for that single offering from 23,000 students has been released (click here for full results of Do Something Now). The figure from that single offerring is ........... $256,000!!!!! Praise God!
In a questions and answers sessions, John Piper was asked, "Considering you are practically a celebrity, how do you manage to stay humble all the time?" To which he answered, without hesitation, "you presume I do stay humble all the time!" And that complete honesty really was one of the marks of all the speakers and, in fact, the whole conference. This, coupled with an unwavering passion to see God glorified in and above all things are two major components, I believe, to God having chosen to work so powerfully through this conference. And I am witness that He worked powerfully to change many lives, including mine! Oh what joy it is to stand, walk and live always in the presence of the almighty God and have a personal relationship with the creator of the universe. So often we forget that we really do not deserve His grace and mercy; and that His grace is enough to satisfy all our needs ! My prayer is that this review has awoken in you a stronger and more powerful passionate for Jesus Christ and His renown here on earth. So often, we put God inside boundaries, but His might and power have no limits! God has not stopped performing miracles, whatever some may say or believe! He still heals, physically and spiritually! And He wants you to be a part of His great work! He has called us by name and wants to change the world - using us! So don't refuse His call. Give Him everything, because He alone is worthy of all praise.
If you read this far, well done! Because the review had gotten so long, I moved the summaries of the other main session talks to the bottom, so if you wanna read more, scroll further down! Feel free to respond to this e-mail if you have any questions:)
Summaries of other main sessions
The next main session a lady called Beth Moore came to speak to us. When she was about to open with prayer, she asked us all to stand. Once we were standing, she went down on her knees and prayed to our heavenly Father. Her talk was about humility; before God, and before humans. The main point was that, as Christians, we have two options: (a) humble ourselves, or, if we don't do it ourselves, (b) have God do it for us. And it is much less painful when we humble ourselves! God will only use people who are humbly acknowledging Him as God and others as better than themselves (Phi 2:3). And yet, that doesn't mean we shouldn't speak up for ourselves or God. But notice, speaking up - to speak up, you have to be looking up, up to others and up to God! It was so challenging, I came out terribly convicted of my own pride, my selfishness, my swollen ego, when, in fact, all I deserve is eternal separation from God. Because everything we have is a gift of God, given freely by Him! Salvation is a gift, and we can neither add anything nor take anything away! So join with me in dedicating ourselves to a life of humility, a life that proclaims how small we are and how great God is! God, we are so small, but yet we puff ourselves up to be these great men and women. Help us to fight our flesh through your power, help us to stay humble and rely solely upon You for strength, and to give You ALL THE GLORY! We are nothing, useless, sinners and lost apart from You. Amen.
That was Tuesday morning; Tuesday evening, a guy called Frances Chan was speaking. God works so differently than we expect or often predict, and Passion was no exception. Not many had heard of Frances, so people weren't as enthusiastic about hearing him as they had been for the previous two speakers. But God did a powerful work that evening. God's Spirit broke my heart that night as I fell in love with Jesus all over again and realised that everything is about loving Jesus with all our heart. And that was Chan's message: The Christian life is not about doing this or that, going to this conference, leading that bible study, giving x amount of money to an offering, etc. NO!! The Christian life is about being in love with Jesus!!!!! He gave His life for us!! And what do we do? So often we become selfish, and we indulge ourselves, satisfy our sinful nature. Often, we are just luke-warm Christians! Jesus says that He will "spit" luke-warm Christians out of His mouth (Rev 3:16)! He was challenging us not to become half-hearted Christians who end up living a comfortable life with a nice income, having (nearly) every material thing we need. Those are not victorious Christians!! In the words of Jesus, "You say, "I am rich. I have everything I want. I don't need a thing!" And you don't realise that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked." (Rev 3:17). The challenge was this: are we living lives to satisfy our sinful nature, indulging in materialism and other worldly things, or are living lives that glorify God, which are the lives that truly satisfy us? In the words of Jesus, "For whoever wants to save his life will loose it, but whoever looses his life for me will gain it". (Luk 9:24)
That evening during family groups, God's work was being made visible as we shared some things that were deeply troubling us in our lives and that God had challenged us in. We spend time praying for each other, that we would love Jesus more and more, and that, in the words of the old hymn, the things of earth would "grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace".
The next morning, the speaker was John Piper. I'm sure some of you have heard about him; he is quite famous among Christian circles, especially over America. He has written many, many books, probably his most famous being "Desiring God". When he walked on stage, a huge cheer erupted, which made me slightly sad that the poor guy had achieved something like celebrity status in Christian circles. But then I remembered that the heroes of old in the bible were probably not very different. Just think of Moses or king David. What surprised me was how unimposing he appeared. He went straight into prayer, asking God to guide him as he spoke, and to prepare our hearts to listen to what God had to say to us. He then informed us that the closest he had ever come to being fired from his position as a pastor at his church was when he published a paper entitled "Missions and Masturbation". I can imagine why! He then told us that countless people who are passionate Christians in their teen and college years become luke-warm Christians later in life, content with a nice income, large house and Mercedes, comfortable in their middle-class life, wasting their lives when they should be living passionately for the cause of Christ! And he said that the root of this problem is, for many, failure to deal with sexual failure. He talked not about how to prevent sexual failure, but how to deal with it once it has happened. Piper recounted to us Christ's sacrifice, which paid our sins once for all, and that once we have been saved by the grace of God, we can do nothing to loose that salvation - "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" (Rom 8:35). Christ's blood is sufficient to cover all our sins! He encouraged us to draw close to God for comfort and forgiveness after failure, especially after sexual failure! So many people today live in shame at their failings in this area, and never tell others! So they end up living half-hearted Christian lives, never able to fully commit because they fail to deal with the shame and guilt. But Jesus not only takes our sin, He also takes our guilt - if we let Him.
"But as for me, I watch in hope for the LORD, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me. Israel Will Rise. Do not gloat over me, my enemy! Though I have fallen, I will rise. Though I sit in darkness, the LORD will be my light. Because I have sinned against him, I will bear the LORD's wrath, until he pleads my case and establishes my right. He will bring me out into the light; I will see his righteousness." Micah 7:7-9
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