Theology on Facebook

In addition to being my birthday (well, it was still my bday when I started writing this), it was also day two of x4:12 at Hope. I was unable to get together with my parents for my birthday, and was able to stay for the closing lesson/sermon. I’ve got to be completely honest and say that I’ve been staying extra busy lately and I think that part of the reason is because I’m afraid to hear what God’s been telling me all along. That if I follow His path, I’ll never get anything I want. Sound selfish? Yeah, I thought so, too. Have I tried it my way before and bombed? You betcha. Have I learned from it? You would think so.

So, back to the lesson/sermon. It was about listening to God. Finding out his plan for me by digging deeper in prayer and in His word. I’m actually sorry that I didn’t have my Bible and journal with me; that’s how intense it was. I so wanted to find a quiet place to think and pray, but we had plans to eat after.

When I got home, I sat down to write this. I am a crazy sucker for multi tasking, so I decided to check my Facebook. As God would have it, Dr. York was also online and sent me birthday wishes via Facebook chat. And I had to ask him: How do you know if something is God's will for you and not just something you want?

His response hit the nail right on the head. “Let me put it like this: get your heart into such a state that it has no will of its own. THEN you can hear God's voice. Usually we drown it out with our own desires. But when you get to the place where it doesn't matter, so long as you do what He wants and what glorifies Him, then you can almost always figure things out”.

How awesome is God that he would see fit to align everything up for me like this? It is humbling and wonderful. It is also perfect timing; my visit to Asbury is Friday.

The Pride of Life and Swings

Yesterday was the type of day where God just continually reminds me of His grace, presence and all around awesomeness. It wasn't my typical Sunday; I overslept for my church's early service and decided to try and make Hope's late service as promised. After enjoying some wonderful worship; I settled in to take sermon notes. (You can find the sermon here.)

Wow. Talk about getting a message from God and putting some things into perspective!! A few key points really jumped out at me. And I am guilty.

1. I am my own resource; I don't need help from others (yeah, it turns out all this time thinking that I'm just independent was code for full of pride). I see those who are dependent as weak. (Why!!??!!!)

2. Where are my prejudices?

And; that people only belong in one of two categories. Someone who is with Christ or someone who Christ has died for. (Amen!!)

And then comes an even cooler example of God's greatness. Laminin. If you've listened to the sermon, I suspect that you can hear what the pastor is referring to (I could be wrong). Anyway, it's much cooler when you see it for yourself; so watch this video, please...


And I am blown away, because three or four days ago, a friend forwarded an e-mail to me about laminin and I was very frustrated by it because I could not find a picture of laminin anywhere.
A cool God thing, and all in God's perfect timing!!

And then I go with my friend's church (Hope) to visit students at the Stewart Home. I'm out of my comfort zone. I'm around people I don't know very well and students with needs that I'm not accustomed to dealing with. I'm excited and the music is great and everyone is having fun. I'm sitting on the bleachers and while all this rockin' praise music is playing, a group of people start dancing in front of the stage. I want to dance with them, but what will my friend think? (crazy, right?) And then she decides to dance, I hesitate and the band begins to play Open Skies. It won't make much sense to you now, but all I could think was we're all held together by laminin; and it's as if our bodies reflect praise for the Creator whether we accept Him or not. And that being childlike is awesome; so I joined the dancing crowd and was at peace and joyful. I let the pride drop and it was the best part of my day; holding hands and dancing with a girl named Wendy. Receiving hugs as if they were from God Himself. Being serenaded (Happy Birthday) by one student.

It seemed like I got a glimpse of heaven. I really doubt that we'll all be sitting in nice little rows singing somber hallelujahs or only walking streets of gold next to people in our comfort zone. At least I hope not. I hope we'll be praising God in a big ol' mosh pit; happy and having the time of our (after) lives.

Afterwards some of us went to the park. I love the swings; always have, always will. So after I ate, I hit the swings. And life was good. I got to be "childlike" and not think about work or where else I should be or what I should be doing. I was just me. Enjoying the day and the fellowship of those around me. And it was awesome.