So it's been pretty insane. I had a dream last night, where within the dream, in three different instances, Romans 12:1-2 was mentioned. And so I was thinking about it on the way to church, and thinking about wanting to go and read it in context, and then Pastor Mike mentioned it in his sermon! I was just like, holy cow.
"Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. 2Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will."
I love those verses. It goes along with Hume Lake the summer before my sophomore year. The theme based on 1 Peter 1. About being strangers in this world. Not conforming.
The Message has a cool version of Romans 12:1-2
"1 -2 So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for Him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what He wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you."
I remember how badly when I came back from Hume that year, I was so set on wanting to be a stranger in this world. To stand out. To have people question why I'm happy. To have people ask me about my faith. To not just go with the flow, but to do what I know's right. Man. That summer was awesome. And then this summer was amazing. I have the greatest times when I am focused on God. When it's not about pleasing myself and making myself happy, I'm more happy. When it's about others. I find my joy, in others being happy. Or, well, that's kinda like, hypocritical of what I said in the last post. I guess I find joy in others being genuinely happy? Or I find joy in trying to help others feel better. I don't know. This makes me happy just by typing this stuff out, even if I'm not making sense. But I love it!
And I like Romans 12:11-13, it reminds me a lot of what our team was about. Like, majorly.
11 -13"Don't burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant. Don't quit in hard times; pray all the harder. Help needy Christians; be inventive in hospitality."
Sunday, August 20, 2006
Monday, August 07, 2006
OB
You know what's like, the biggest insult to an OBer, I think? "I'm glad you're back. I was scared you were gonna change. I'm glad you didn't." *smack in the face*... No, that didn't happen to me. Well, not exactly. I was in the car with my someone, and I told her that Fall Out Boy and some other songs were coming off my Ipod, and she just happened to mention "That's the only difference I've seen since you got home.".... Granted, she'd only been home for 36 hour, and most of the time I wasn't with her.. But.... I mean, she totally didn't mean it in an insulting way, she was just talking. But to me... That was like... I felt like crying. Have I already slipped back to not being how I should be? Melody sent Nor Cal an e-mail today about Psalm 78, and how the Israelites forgot all that God had done for them. How could they forget everything that He did for them!? How can I forget everything He taught me this summer? I didn't forget. It's just.. I could make up excuses as to why I'm not like, out there talking to a trillion people. I'm so caught up in hanging out with friends and making sure we still have fun... That I'm not like... ugh. This really bugs me. I mean, I feel a change in me. But if people can't see a change, then what's the point? Why would I go away for a summer, and come back exactly the same as I was before? How come I still avoid defending my faith when jokes are cracked about it? How come I'm spending more time looking at team pictures and talking to team mates about how awesome God was this summer, than I am reading my Bible, or than out there talking to people? Man... Being home is so hard. I miss the accountability. It was so nice to have our leaders share with us in our excitement, and in our disappointment. It was nice to have spiritual conversations with people my own age. To have people who genuinely cared about you, not just physically and emotionally, but spiritually. That could tell you spots where you needed to work on, and tell you because they genuinely love you, and not cuz they want to humiliate you.. It was so easy to go up and talk to random people when you had someone with you. I miss not having to have a guy with me at all times, it was such a comfort. I miss Tim leading worship. I miss Sunday programs. I can't sing, but I loved choir. My Savior, My God. I Give You Me. Ah man, I Give You Me. La Loma. The tears... Man...
People keep asking me what the greatest part of my summer was. And to my non Christian friends, it's hard for me to tell what my faovorite memory is. I normally just say how amazing my team was or the bus rides or something. And, I mean, those are great memories, and they put an instant smile on my face. But the memory that puts an instant, ginormous grin on my face.. Brian. I don't know what his last name is. I met him in Tracy, California. At some park on fourth of July. Half our team was doing laundry, the other half of us were at the park talking to people. There was a big carnival type thing going on, and we were passing out flags with little cartoons attached to them. I was walking around with Brett and Becky and we ran out of flags. So we started talking to people. We did the cross illustration for a few kids, but they spoke mostly Spanish, so it was hard to get the message across. So we started walking towards the total opposite end of the park and saw this african american guy sitting on a bench, early 20's, with a do-rag on his head. We couldn't decide if we wanted to go talk to him or not, but then Brett mentioned how his host home had said that this summer was about being "comfortable with being uncomfortable", so we walked over to talk to him. We just kinda talked to him about a whole range of things, and about Operation Barnabas. And how his family life was kinda messed up - his mom was Jehovah's Witness and his dad was Catholic or something. We went through the Way of the Master, and through the court room example, and he still didn't want to believe. Then Becky talked about how you don't have to be perfect. That even Christians do bad things, and we aren't expected to be perfect. And she had some great personal stories that really hit his heart straight on. We had to be back at the church by noon, and it was a good ten minute walk away, and it was 11:45. We'd been talking to him for about 45 minutes. Brett asked him again if he wanted to believe, and he said yes. Oh my, we were SO beyond excited. Brett prayed with him, and Brian seriously, instantly looked happy. We told him we hated to, but we had to leave. But, we also mentioned that we'd be coming back that night for the fireworks at 8, and if he wanted to talk to us, he could come back then. He was like "Oh, okay" and then we had to like, power walk back to the church. But we were so excited and happy. Ginormous grins on all of our faces all day long. When we went back to the park that night, us 3 were in the middle of this really bizare converstaion with this lady, and it was 8, and we couldn't see Brian. So we kept talking, then looked again, and he was there! Holy cow! That was so awesome! So we said bye to the lady we were talking to, and headed over to Brian, with a Bible we'd grabbed off the bus. It was really awesome to talk to him and try to encourage him. And, he asked us for Bible verses for him to read through and for our favorite ones. And then he came and watched the fireworks with our team. Oh man. That was seriously one of the most exciting and amazing things all summer. He didn't have to come back to the park 8 hours later. But he did. And that... Man.
It's hard for some people to grasp how exciting it is to accept Christ into their lives. Or how exciting it is to watch someone accept Him. But seriously. That was my most amazing moment. Something I never plan on forgetting.
People keep asking me what the greatest part of my summer was. And to my non Christian friends, it's hard for me to tell what my faovorite memory is. I normally just say how amazing my team was or the bus rides or something. And, I mean, those are great memories, and they put an instant smile on my face. But the memory that puts an instant, ginormous grin on my face.. Brian. I don't know what his last name is. I met him in Tracy, California. At some park on fourth of July. Half our team was doing laundry, the other half of us were at the park talking to people. There was a big carnival type thing going on, and we were passing out flags with little cartoons attached to them. I was walking around with Brett and Becky and we ran out of flags. So we started talking to people. We did the cross illustration for a few kids, but they spoke mostly Spanish, so it was hard to get the message across. So we started walking towards the total opposite end of the park and saw this african american guy sitting on a bench, early 20's, with a do-rag on his head. We couldn't decide if we wanted to go talk to him or not, but then Brett mentioned how his host home had said that this summer was about being "comfortable with being uncomfortable", so we walked over to talk to him. We just kinda talked to him about a whole range of things, and about Operation Barnabas. And how his family life was kinda messed up - his mom was Jehovah's Witness and his dad was Catholic or something. We went through the Way of the Master, and through the court room example, and he still didn't want to believe. Then Becky talked about how you don't have to be perfect. That even Christians do bad things, and we aren't expected to be perfect. And she had some great personal stories that really hit his heart straight on. We had to be back at the church by noon, and it was a good ten minute walk away, and it was 11:45. We'd been talking to him for about 45 minutes. Brett asked him again if he wanted to believe, and he said yes. Oh my, we were SO beyond excited. Brett prayed with him, and Brian seriously, instantly looked happy. We told him we hated to, but we had to leave. But, we also mentioned that we'd be coming back that night for the fireworks at 8, and if he wanted to talk to us, he could come back then. He was like "Oh, okay" and then we had to like, power walk back to the church. But we were so excited and happy. Ginormous grins on all of our faces all day long. When we went back to the park that night, us 3 were in the middle of this really bizare converstaion with this lady, and it was 8, and we couldn't see Brian. So we kept talking, then looked again, and he was there! Holy cow! That was so awesome! So we said bye to the lady we were talking to, and headed over to Brian, with a Bible we'd grabbed off the bus. It was really awesome to talk to him and try to encourage him. And, he asked us for Bible verses for him to read through and for our favorite ones. And then he came and watched the fireworks with our team. Oh man. That was seriously one of the most exciting and amazing things all summer. He didn't have to come back to the park 8 hours later. But he did. And that... Man.
It's hard for some people to grasp how exciting it is to accept Christ into their lives. Or how exciting it is to watch someone accept Him. But seriously. That was my most amazing moment. Something I never plan on forgetting.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)