Hello readers,
Well August was another great month, this summer has flown by, and the last few weeks have delivered some summer weather. sunny in the high 20s this week. beautiful.
I have finished up at TransCanada, as I head back to school at U of C on tuesday. this week I have been hanging out with friends and preparing for school.
I went camping with some of the youth and my buddy Jake a few weeks back. we went to Drumheller for a weekend, it was awesome, and we were blessed with Justin's mom letting us borrow her van (we needed more space!). it turned out to be a beautiful weekend. forecasts a week earlier were calling for rain, but we had sunny skies and mid 20s weather. we did some hiking, some swimming (in the Red Deer river) and ate lots and lots of food.
This past weekend I helped Nat and Ryan with their garage sale, which was somewhat successful. A friend from Capernwray and her boyfriend (Lisa and Micheal) were travelling in North America (from Germany) and they stayed here for a night. We had dinner at the Calgary tower, walked around downtown and hung out at Eau Claire on sunday night. On monday we drove out to Banff and hung out there for the day, with beautiful weather. it was a great time to catch up and hang out with them, and to be a tourist in my own province.
Also got to catch up with a few other friends from Capernwray (Tyler and Daralynne) before they took off for Colorado.
As for Football, our team has been in several close games this last month, with a 1 point loss, a 6 point win and last night, a 14 point loss to the top team in the league. We are now 7-6, with one game left and a bye week, we are in 6th and need some help (one team to lose one of thier last 2 games) or to beat the 2nd place team in the league without our starting QB to make the playoffs.
we have one game left.
It has certainly been a great summer, and I will have to enjoy the last few days before school starts.
For my thoughts portion, i thought i would take a look at some of my notes from the Hillsong conference i attended back in July 2008 in Sydney.
One of the speakers was Mike Pilavachi, he is always interesting to listen to. He discussed how worship, evangelism and Justice belong together.
ok so worship, when you love someone you tell everyone. When we praise God, we are showing him love, but worship isn't just praise. Worship communicates our love for God. True worship, in whatever it is, shouldn't be forced. it is merely us doing something that will bring glory to God, we can imagine that God is enjoying it, or that we are doing whatever it is in a way that shows his love and how we feel about him.
Evangelism is an overflow of worship. hmm, how does that work? Evangelism is telling people about Christ, so our worship is seen by others (but doesn't always have to be). when our worship is around other people (like serving for example) it is Evangelism even though we aren't doing it as evangelism. we are serving doing something because we want to (as worship to God, to show love) and in doing it we show people the love to Christ. This is evangelism and worship, where they meet. our worship effectively can evanglize to others, and they might in turn ask questions or at least think about why we are doing what we are doing, and why we believe it, what is driving us to do it etc.
If you look in Acts, it talks about the Pentecost, where the Holy Spirit poured out upon the people as they worshipped. the worship led to evangelism, telling people about Jesus was not nearly as effective as the Holy Spirit. Its God that saves people, not us, we can lead people to that point, but just like in worship, it has to be a decision in the heart, and only the Holy Spirit can truly reach that.
the first response to the Holy Spirit at Pentecost was worship, the second was evangelism. one lead to and created the other. "worship is a glimpse of heaven."
then there is Justice. the New Testament talks more about justice than heaven, hell, the 2nd coming and sex. Paul and others realized that justice is important, Jesus came to not only save, but to help us to be better people. We shouldn't just worship and neglect the poor and broken. a few verses, Amos 5:21-24, Isaiah 58:6, Micah 6:8.
Justice is worship, a form of it at least.
ok, so justice is important, what does that mean? i guess it means to treat everyone the way Jesus would treat them, justice means fairness, so treating them like sons and daughters of God, because we all are. even if some don't believe in God, he created them, for a purpose, and with love, so they should be treated with love. Kind of like a few posts ago i mentioned loving people even though they aren't doing the right thing, love the person behind the actions and words. Like Hitler (I discussed this a few months ago, so won't go further into that again).
Mother Theresa said "we do it for Jesus", she spent many of her later years working with Lepers, the most rejected and poor people, just loving them. She is seen as a saint, "we do it for Jesus", that puts it together. She was worshipping God by treating them with love, she was evangelising through her actions and she was treating them like they should (ie Justice)
John 4 - with the Samaritan woman. Jesus doesn't preach, he asks for water. This doesn't seem to matter, but looking at it, Jesus started where she was, with water. He didn't start with his agenda or telling her she was a horrible person. This is evangelism, sure there was some intention of helping her, but he just wanted to care for her. God loves everyone, not matter what they have done.
God wants a church without walls, not a church that preaches the good news, but one that is good news. Yes its good to bring people to church, or for them to come on their own, but not everyone wants to go to church (the building) or is able to, but we are the church everywhere, we can be Jesus to people, and its worship. Worshipping God, showing love, treating people with justice, and letting God shape our lives.
I think its important to say here, that we can't do this on our own. We are selfish, we aren't perfect, we find it easier to find imperfections in people than to love them despite those imperfections. its like when we are younger, we easily find faults in people "your stinky, your ugly, your poor" etc, but as we grow up we look past faults in people. Some people take longer than others.
My point though is, that the Holy Spirit works in us, on our hearts, and as we get closer to God (prayer, praise, devotions, learning, trying to listen to him) the fruits of the Spirit come out. God shapes our hearts. He pulls us closer, even when we try to resist. If we try to get closer to God, slowly things start to change, we start to develop things like faithfulness, self-control, goodness, patience, gentleness, kindness, love, joy and peace. We can embrace these things, and realize the good that God is doing in us, raising our confidence in what we are, who we are, and the knowledge that with God in control, life won't be perfect, but he is shaping us into people of God, to do great things and have an impact.
Worship at first is more of a struggle, justice doesn't make sense and evangelising seems too hard, but over time, and with practice, God works in us so that it is natural. We start to love worship, care about justice and naturally practice evangelism, without even knowing it. Often we have a bigger impact than we think, and God loves us more than we think sometimes too (in the hard times)
wow ok, so that is alot. I hope that made you think, not sure if there is any practical application, but there probably is. Think about the impact you have had on your friends lives, think about what you can change, think about how you can help to bring justice in our world, think about how you can show God's love, how you already worship in different ways, how you serve, and think about where your faith is.
How evident is your faith to people around you?
well some things to think about,
thanks for reading,
Adam
