Friday, June 20, 2008
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
true worship
Last night of GCM New Staff Training - May 25, 2008
“Missions is NOT the ultimate goal of the church.
Worship is.”
“If the essence of worship is satisfaction in God, then worship can’t be a means to anything else. You simply can’t say to God, “I want to be satisfied in You so that I can have something else.”
Because that would mean that you are not really satisfied in God but in that something else.And that would dishonor God, not worship Him.” – John Piper
"I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
3 "You shall have no other gods before [a] me.
4 "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing love to a thousand {generations} of those who love me and keep my commandments.
Exodus 20:6
1) Worship the Lord first; 2) Let everything else flow out from that
“Missions is NOT the ultimate goal of the church.
Worship is.”
“If the essence of worship is satisfaction in God, then worship can’t be a means to anything else. You simply can’t say to God, “I want to be satisfied in You so that I can have something else.”
Because that would mean that you are not really satisfied in God but in that something else.And that would dishonor God, not worship Him.” – John Piper
"I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
3 "You shall have no other gods before [a] me.
4 "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing love to a thousand {generations} of those who love me and keep my commandments.
Exodus 20:6
Biggest lesson I learned from staff training:
1) Worship the Lord first; 2) Let everything else flow out from that
As a friend said, "Missions is our call just as much as worship is. Worship without missions is dead worship, it is only self involved. I think we have to begin with worship, missions without it is only duty, and worship is only true when it springs into mission."
Pics from staff training
May 19-26, Orlando, Florida
It was a great week! I was intense and challenging as expected, but the awesome part was how good it was and how much God blessed my time out there. I left really encouraged with what I had learned, areas I'd seen God work in my heart over the week, lifelong relationships in ministry that were built, and just how encouraging it was being surrounded by so many incredible men and women who share the same callings and dreams. I LOVED being surrounded by so many people who are passionate about surrendering their lives to God's will and making Him known.
Here's a group shot of us, people at training are being sent to a variety of campus churches, inner city/urban churches, campus church plants and international church plants such as: University of Michigan, Mars Hill Church in Seattle, University of Michigan's church plant to Ohio State University, Des Moines, Iowa State, Kairos in Hollywood/LA, South Africa, Bay Area/Washington DC, University of North Texas, Virginia Tech, and one lone chick from the University of Missouri!
Here's the apartments we stayed at. they are a part of the Wycliffe Bible Translation Institute.
Here's my lovely roommates on our last day!
The beautiful ladies at staff training, that's right there were four of us... yes, there's a need for women in ministry lol. I love these girls. Here's bottom to top: Julie, Sarah, and Rachel.
The guys letting loose on one of very few "free times." The girls and I looked at Sarah's wedding photos, her and her husband just celebrated their one year!
It was a great week! I was intense and challenging as expected, but the awesome part was how good it was and how much God blessed my time out there. I left really encouraged with what I had learned, areas I'd seen God work in my heart over the week, lifelong relationships in ministry that were built, and just how encouraging it was being surrounded by so many incredible men and women who share the same callings and dreams. I LOVED being surrounded by so many people who are passionate about surrendering their lives to God's will and making Him known.
Here's a group shot of us, people at training are being sent to a variety of campus churches, inner city/urban churches, campus church plants and international church plants such as: University of Michigan, Mars Hill Church in Seattle, University of Michigan's church plant to Ohio State University, Des Moines, Iowa State, Kairos in Hollywood/LA, South Africa, Bay Area/Washington DC, University of North Texas, Virginia Tech, and one lone chick from the University of Missouri!
Here's the apartments we stayed at. they are a part of the Wycliffe Bible Translation Institute.
Here's my lovely roommates on our last day!
The beautiful ladies at staff training, that's right there were four of us... yes, there's a need for women in ministry lol. I love these girls. Here's bottom to top: Julie, Sarah, and Rachel.
The guys letting loose on one of very few "free times." The girls and I looked at Sarah's wedding photos, her and her husband just celebrated their one year!
faithful::a long joyful obedience::therefore, go.
Written Day one of GCM New Staff Training - Monday May 19, 2008
Where He calls
He will be there
He goes before me
And He walks with me now
He leads the way
Removes all the obstacles from the path
You assured me not to be afraid
That you’d be with me every step of the way.
The other night as I left a group of people hanging out after The Rock, there was a period of time where I was walking alone. They were all going to hang out but I had more stuff to finish before leaving for training the next day. As I started walking, I felt a peace washing over me. I kept feeling an intense tug on my heart and the words, Therefore go kept repeating over and over in my mind. The call you place on every Christ follower to therefore go and make you known, introducing people to this wonderful relationship they can have with you. Therefore, go, Mazvita, I heard you saying to me again and again as I kept moving forward away from the group. Being sent. And that is what our true identity is as children of God, the ones that Jesus loves and the ones who are sent.
The beginning of a separation of sorts, but an intense union with you.
I was going alone.
But I was not alone.
As I was walking there and walking past Middlebush, I could feel your presence like the cool breeze on the back of my neck. I could feel you there, moving me ahead as I walked through Middlebush one last time to go to the parking lot where my car was parked. I was saying goodbye, the end of an amazing chapter, a time that will never happen again, but a new chapter and a future that was awaiting me, full of promises from you, full of hope. I closed the doors behind me and had to keep walking when these words were nearly audible
“Put your hand in His [Jesus’] hand, and walk alone with Him. Walk ahead, because if you look back you will go back.”
I read that opening line of the private writings of Mother Teresa over a month ago yet the entire line was nearly spoken to me by God’s gentle whisper that night.
These parting words from her mother were engraved on the heart of eighteen-year-old Gonxha Agnes Bojaxhiu, the future Mother Teresa, as she left her home in Skopje to commence her life as a missionary. Her lifelong love relationship with Christ is one I desire to have. It doesn’t happen overnight, just as it didn’t for her, it’s in a series of steps, a series of “yes’s” to His voice.
“In the silence of the heart God speaks.”
The Lord asked me to simply walk with Him.
To simply trust Him.
And He has been so faithful.
I don’t even have words to describe it but faithful is the closest it gets.
My prayer is to know Him. To become more like Christ, to realize my life is not my own and to rejoice in all that He is and the fact He desires relationship with each and every one of us.
I could totally relate to these words:
“This my new vocation has been one prolonged “Yes” to God… my conviction that “the work is His”—is more than the reality… I know for certain He asked—“Will you do this for Me” Everything was His—Today His work has grown because it is He not I that do it through me.
Of this I am so convinced—that I would give my life gladly to prove it.” – Mother Teresa
I long to give my life gladly to the cross of Christ, but I know most of the time the battle is with myself. I need God’s help to live this long, joyful obedience. I need God’s help for me to step out of the way, and for Him to use me, fully, to fulfill His purpose for my life.
Our loving God is faithful, He is mighty to save.
photo courtesy of eric papp.
Taste and see that the lord is good.
your love oh lord
reaches to the heavens
your faithfulness
stretches to the sky…
your righteousness
is like the mighty mountainsyour justice flows
like the ocean's tide…
Original post written: May 16, 2008reaches to the heavens
your faithfulness
stretches to the sky…
your righteousness
is like the mighty mountainsyour justice flows
like the ocean's tide…
This song was playing as I was driving through campus over lunch today to run errands and my eyes filled with tears.
You have blessed me beyond measure. With a life more beautiful and fuller than I’d ever imagine. You’re leading me to the dream, the calling you’ve placed over my life since before I was conceived, you’re fulfilling the desires of my heart.
The other day at work one of the ladies here in the Med. School asked me where I was going in my life, you’re going somewhere, Mazvita she said.
I told her in a couple sentences and then realized that was an answer to prayer, I’ve been asking God to help me communicate the vision as clearly as I can possibly understand it right now. It will change, it will constantly evolve, but the underlying calling will not.
I want to plant churches and women’s shelters here and abroad, I want to be a part of what God’s doing to restore beauty out of brokenness and devastation. I’ve seen this at work in these two places and have come to realize that one cannot exist without the other. There is no healing or true recovery apart from Christ, this happens in both places, Christ uses people to go, touch and love the hurting around us and allow them to come into relationship with only One who can truly save.
Two years ago today I graduated and had an inkling but wasn’t sure of what you wanted me to do…
As I was looking back at pictures I thought, yup, this is the life He has given me, this is my life in Christ. And sometimes I cannot believe it is real.
Fall to the ground and die.
My life is no longer my own, yet the sacrifice required in making that realization compared with the joys and reassurance and peace, cannot be compared.
Lord, thank you. Thank you for the privilege of serving you here. Thank you for the lives you brought into my life, that you used me to take part in what you were already doing in their lives. That you have called me to this specific work
To serve you with joy, my king.
He knows that doing his work will keep me humble. Because I cannot do it on my own. I cannot do it without surrendering my will to h is each day and asking for his power to flow through me. Because I cannot rely on myself, my skillset or my own abilities, everything has to come from him, and it is more beautiful that way. My life is his, and he is mine. Thank you for the blessings, thank you for the life you’ve given me in you, in your body of Christ, thank you for touching my life and making it that which I never imagined. Thank you for rescuing me and pulling me out of the miry depths of despair. Of depression. Of wasting away. Of staggering towards my death. Of hopelessness. Of chaos. Of pain.
Thank you for raising me up to new life in you. The old has gone, the new has come.
I’m ready for our next adventure and I’m clinging to you and your promises you've spoken to me, from the time when I first cried out to you years ago, to now…
Never will I leave you
Never will I forsake you
I will be with you
I am mighty to save.
i will lift my voice to worship You, my king I will find my strengthin the shadow of your wings
“I will extol the Lord at all times, his praise will always be on my lips. My soul will boast in the Lord; let the afflicted hear and rejoice. Glorify the Lord with me, Let us exalt his name together. I sought the Lord and he answered me; He delivered me from all my fears.” Psalm 34:1-4
You have blessed me beyond measure. With a life more beautiful and fuller than I’d ever imagine. You’re leading me to the dream, the calling you’ve placed over my life since before I was conceived, you’re fulfilling the desires of my heart.
The other day at work one of the ladies here in the Med. School asked me where I was going in my life, you’re going somewhere, Mazvita she said.
I told her in a couple sentences and then realized that was an answer to prayer, I’ve been asking God to help me communicate the vision as clearly as I can possibly understand it right now. It will change, it will constantly evolve, but the underlying calling will not.
I want to plant churches and women’s shelters here and abroad, I want to be a part of what God’s doing to restore beauty out of brokenness and devastation. I’ve seen this at work in these two places and have come to realize that one cannot exist without the other. There is no healing or true recovery apart from Christ, this happens in both places, Christ uses people to go, touch and love the hurting around us and allow them to come into relationship with only One who can truly save.
Two years ago today I graduated and had an inkling but wasn’t sure of what you wanted me to do…
As I was looking back at pictures I thought, yup, this is the life He has given me, this is my life in Christ. And sometimes I cannot believe it is real.
Fall to the ground and die.
My life is no longer my own, yet the sacrifice required in making that realization compared with the joys and reassurance and peace, cannot be compared.
Lord, thank you. Thank you for the privilege of serving you here. Thank you for the lives you brought into my life, that you used me to take part in what you were already doing in their lives. That you have called me to this specific work
To serve you with joy, my king.
He knows that doing his work will keep me humble. Because I cannot do it on my own. I cannot do it without surrendering my will to h is each day and asking for his power to flow through me. Because I cannot rely on myself, my skillset or my own abilities, everything has to come from him, and it is more beautiful that way. My life is his, and he is mine. Thank you for the blessings, thank you for the life you’ve given me in you, in your body of Christ, thank you for touching my life and making it that which I never imagined. Thank you for rescuing me and pulling me out of the miry depths of despair. Of depression. Of wasting away. Of staggering towards my death. Of hopelessness. Of chaos. Of pain.
Thank you for raising me up to new life in you. The old has gone, the new has come.
I’m ready for our next adventure and I’m clinging to you and your promises you've spoken to me, from the time when I first cried out to you years ago, to now…
Never will I leave you
Never will I forsake you
I will be with you
I am mighty to save.
i will lift my voice to worship You, my king I will find my strengthin the shadow of your wings
“I will extol the Lord at all times, his praise will always be on my lips. My soul will boast in the Lord; let the afflicted hear and rejoice. Glorify the Lord with me, Let us exalt his name together. I sought the Lord and he answered me; He delivered me from all my fears.” Psalm 34:1-4
faith
…of greater worth than gold which perishes even though refined by fire…
original post written: Friday May 16, weekend before staff training
This is one of my favorite definitions of faith. This definition implies and brings home the truth that without faith it is impossible to please God. that our desire to trust in our Father and to know Him and believe Him brings him an overwhelming amount of joy, that in exercising our faith, seeing God move mountains before us and trusting He will be faithful, makes His heart sing. This talk below really resonates with me because of the journey God's been taking me through my heart this semester.
“And without faith it is impossible to please God,
For whoever would approach must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him….
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.”
He held the rubberband is his hand, and said, when the rubberband is sitting here like this in the palm of my hand, it can do very little. It just sits there. It’s not being used for what it was intended for… but when it’s here, he pulls the rubberband wide and stretches it…
When my faith is just sitting there in my hand, it is worth very little. Why is it so important for our faith to be stretched, to expand, because our faith is how we see and know that He is who He says He is.
From Drage’s talk at Glimpses of Eternity and The Rock:
6In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
“Faith is the exercise of trusting, depending, relying on God for what he has to do in any given situation.”
God often takes us out of the Comfort zone into the Stretch zone.
The only way God builds faith in us is to stretch us.
These (trials) have come (WHY?) so that your faith--of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire--may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
1Peter 1:7
But being stretched is scary. It’s a lot easier and the temptation is there to remain the comfort zone.
In the comfort zone we:
Rely on Self- Self Reliant, Self Confident
We feel in control
We can do it ourselves
Safe- It is safe - no risk
Easy- takes little effort
Have done it before
Listen to ourselves
In the stretch zone we are:
God Reliant, God Dependent
We are not in control- it is a scary- fearful place
Potential for failure is there
You could get hurt- it is risky
We must have the strength of God- we need outside help
We have never done something like this before
Learning to listen to God
What are the results (effects) of living by faith?
According to 1 Peter 1:9 - for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
God delivers [Salvation] through a person’s faith. Salvation is 1. Was Saved, 2. Being Saved and 3. Will Save
Through Faith we experience Salvation... deliverance, preservation, safety, salvation
Salvation Experience #1- the realness of God!
Salvation Experience #2- the peace of God!
Salvation Experience #3- the positive effects of our suffering!
Salvation Experience #4- the presence of God some DAY
Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.”
He held the rubberband is his hand, and said, when the rubberband is sitting here like this in the palm of my hand, it can do very little. It just sits there. It’s not being used for what it was intended for… but when it’s here, he pulls the rubberband wide and stretches it…
When my faith is just sitting there in my hand, it is worth very little. Why is it so important for our faith to be stretched, to expand, because our faith is how we see and know that He is who He says He is.
From Drage’s talk at Glimpses of Eternity and The Rock:
6In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
“Faith is the exercise of trusting, depending, relying on God for what he has to do in any given situation.”
God often takes us out of the Comfort zone into the Stretch zone.
The only way God builds faith in us is to stretch us.
These (trials) have come (WHY?) so that your faith--of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire--may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
1Peter 1:7
But being stretched is scary. It’s a lot easier and the temptation is there to remain the comfort zone.
In the comfort zone we:
Rely on Self- Self Reliant, Self Confident
We feel in control
We can do it ourselves
Safe- It is safe - no risk
Easy- takes little effort
Have done it before
Listen to ourselves
In the stretch zone we are:
God Reliant, God Dependent
We are not in control- it is a scary- fearful place
Potential for failure is there
You could get hurt- it is risky
We must have the strength of God- we need outside help
We have never done something like this before
Learning to listen to God
What are the results (effects) of living by faith?
According to 1 Peter 1:9 - for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
God delivers [Salvation] through a person’s faith. Salvation is 1. Was Saved, 2. Being Saved and 3. Will Save
Through Faith we experience Salvation... deliverance, preservation, safety, salvation
Salvation Experience #1- the realness of God!
Salvation Experience #2- the peace of God!
Salvation Experience #3- the positive effects of our suffering!
Salvation Experience #4- the presence of God some DAY
God is moving me from the comfort zone to the stretch zone once again, asking if I will trust Him and hold on hope.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
ān-tĭs'e-pā'shen
original post on old blog: May 13, one week before leaving for GCM new staff training“I find I'm so excited, I can barely sit still or hold a thought in my head. I think it's the excitement only a free man can feel, a free man at the start of a long journey whose conclusion is uncertain. I hope I can make it across the border. I hope to see my friend, and shake his hand. I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams.”
Ellis Boyd Redding, The Shawshank Redemption
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