Monday, April 21, 2008

snow in washington

So this weekend, I had the privilege to work with Precept at one of their Youth conferences in Seattle Washington.  Yes, there was snow (which was quite a change from close to 90 degree weather in SoCal).  The weekend's theme was "You've got next" which is a call to the next generation to rise to the call of all believers as Priests.  The students were placed in classrooms where we introduced the inductive study method.  We went through different passages in the Bible that dealt with:
1. Who we are:
a. None are righteous(Romans 3:9-12)
b. As believers we are priests chosen to proclaim the excellencies of Him who saved us(1 Peter 2:4-12)
c. We are set apart and are to look different and act different! 
2. Identifying where God is working:
a. God reveals Himself through creation(Romans 1:18-26)
b.If they are seeking, then the Lord is working.  It is nothing of ourselves.  God is the One who calls men to Himself.
3. We have been given gifts
a. For God's glory
b. For the equipping of the saints for the work of service & the building up of the body of Christ(Ephesians 4:7-13)
c. Example of Moses-God giving(and preparing him)gifts of leadership.  Given by God for God's glory.  God was working while Moses was obeying God's commands every step of the way.
4. How to Live a Lifestyle of Service
a. The discipline of following Him Now(Mt. 4:18-25)
b. The discipline of dying to my own dreams and desires(Mt. 10:37-42/Luke 9:23)
c. The discipline of letting Him take the lead(Mt. 11:25-30)
d. The discipline of living it out in front of others(2 Thess. 3:6-15)
5. Living a Life Characterized by Love
a. Loving God and Your neighbor(Mt. 22:36-40/Jn. 13:34-35/Gal. 5:14)
b. Loving from the perfect love given by God(1 Jn. 4:7-21)
c. Loving your enemies(Mt. 5:43-48/Luke 6:27-36)

This weekend we all tried to help make practical applications for them.  We didn't want them to come to a conference just to hear (probably what they have already heard before) what they are supposed to do.  If they came and learned what they are to do, but then did not act upon it, then it was all in vain.  So, we tried to make them think about their gifts that the Lord has given them and how they could serve when they go back home.  We asked them about the different ministries they were involved in, sports teams, music groups, school activities...etc.  We also identified people in their lives who were hard to love and made practical application, so that when they go back home they can serve them in real ways in order to show the Love that they have received through their Savior, Jesus Christ.

It was such a great weekend.  My group was really great.  I had about 15 students.  One of the boys I had was autistic.  He was so precious and loved Jesus with all his heart.  He was absolutely brilliant!  He loved to talk though, and so in class I would ask a question and he would go on this wild tangent about Martin Luther (which all the other kids had NO clue who he was...they were all 8-10th grade) or Marxism, but he really did contribute to the discussion.  The other students really responded great to him.  The only thing I wish was different was me.  I wish I had more experience with that disability in order to really teach him the principles.  I wish I would have known how his brain worked a little better in order to help him more.  

I do have to say that it was one of the most mentally challenging things I have ever experienced.  We only had an hour for each session and it was already going to be hard to jam the whole lesson into that hour without any distractions.  So while he was talking, I was trying to really understand what he was trying to explain to me, and how it related to the topic we were talking about, while thinking about how to lead his thought back to the lesson, all the while trying to keep the rest of the group engaged in the discussion that seemed to be scattered everywhere.  

I do know why the Lord placed him in my group though.  Not only did the Lord prepare me in a way that I was really comfortable with (and have a heart for) people with disabilities, but also that the Lord wanted me to be dependent on Him (especially it being my first time to lead a small group).  The Lord wasn't going to let me think that I could lead a classroom without Him.  And let me tell you, I was constantly at the mercy of the Lord.  There wasn't a second that went by that I thought I could have done it on my own.  I was begging for the Lord to help and sustain me.  The Lord is awesome.  He didn't let me even entertain the idea of self sufficiency!  

This has really given me a spark to finish the school year out strong as well as excite me about this summer's internship.  I know that the Lord has me going there for a purpose and that end goal is for His glory.  I can't wait to keep updating this blog about all that the Lord will be doing!  

Well, finals are this week.  They start Thursday and will go until Tuesday of next week.  The Lord is good.  Please keep praying for the interns heart as we are preparing to go to Tennessee and that we would all finish our study on James (we will be doing a PUP study with the students at Boot Camp) before we arrive!  

Saturday, April 5, 2008

Faith

Right now my life feels like it is in limbo.  Limbo is the word of the semester.  There are so many unknowns and it is scary.  I seek the Lord's face constantly.  I am at His mercy begging Him to reveal to me what He has for me.  This morning I was praying and I just heard Him say, "Holly be patient.  Just wait."  He has been teaching me patience all along.  That is one of the hardest things to act upon...or not act upon! :)  I am not patient and that is probably why the Lord is teaching me patience.  I tell the Lord that I will do anything that He wants me to; "Just tell me and I'll do it!" Well, He has told me to wait and so if I do not, I am not being true to my word and, worse, I'm living in sin.  I'm worrying about things that I can't fix.  I'm worrying about the future and I can't do anything about the future right now. I just need to rest in His unwavering faithfulness.  The Lord is so good to me and continues to bless me everyday.  I look at this past year and see His faithfulness in decisions I have made about College, Roommates, Classes, Ministry, Bible Studies, Focus Application.  He has been faithful in strengthening me and growing me in Him.  He has taught me more about His word more than ever this year.  He has been my strength, my wisdom, my guide, my life.  Why should I be worrying?  Shame on me that I should ever doubt that He can run my life!  Why is it so hard to give up complete control?  Lord build my faith in you.

My God,
I bless thee that thou hast given me the eye of faith, 
     to see thee as Father,
     to know thee as a covenant God,
     to experience thy love planted in me;
For faith is the grace of union
     by which I spell out my entitlement to thee:
Faith casts my anchor upwards
     where I trust in thee
     and engage thee to be my Lord.
Be pleased to live and move within me,
     breathing in my prayers,
     inhabiting my praises,
     speaking in my words,
     moving in my actions,
     living in my life,
     causing me to grow in grace.
Thy bounteous goodness has helped me believe, 
but my faith is weak and wavering,
     its light dim,
     its steps tottering,
     its increase slow,
     its backslidings frequent;
It should scale the heavens, but lies groveling in the dust.
Lord, fan this divine spark into glowing flame.
When faith sleeps, my heart becomes
     an unclean thing,
     the fount of every loathsome desire,
     the cage of unclean lusts
     all fluttering to escape,
the noxious tree of deadly fruit,
the open wayside of earthly tares.
Lord, awake faith to put forth its strength
     until all heaven fills my soul
     and all impurity is cast out. 

Friday, April 4, 2008

the new faces of CBU


Ok, so I'm going to blog about an event that happened in my life the other day!  Exciting...I know.  So since CBU is growing rapidly they are investing in advertisement.  They have already shot one commercial that a couple of my friends and I got to be involved in.  Jonathan talked about scooters and skateboarding around campus (because it is the cool thing to do here...I even bought my roommate a scooter for Christmas:)...oh and a side note: it was $18!!!  I remember when my parents bought them for us kids and they were around $100!  We had to have grandparents chip in for them!)  They interviewed me about campus life and how the on campus "community" was like(it was corny, but they used it! hehe)  
So this time, they filmed Monica and I in our cottage-mate's room next door to ours(she is the admission host that hosts prospective students when they come visit our campus).  Monica sat on the bed and I was at the desk.  They made us act like we were doing our homework.  Monica was working on her computer while I was reading Old Testament Ethics!  Quite invigorating:)  

They made me ask her a random question (so it looked like we were talking about something important) and then she was to answer back.  Side note: Improv is tough! :)  Then Monica and Rachel (another fellow cottage-mate) went into the kitchen to do more shooting.  By now, we felt like real actresses.  Where are my peanut m&m's??  Rachel and I played cards while Monica made tea! lol

So now that we've made it into 2 commercials, I think I have to say that we are the new faces of CBU!

And this is my RA cindy:  I love her.  
She loves India and is pretty much the greatest RA ever:)

Thursday, April 3, 2008

Thoughts from Al Mohler on Marriage and God's glory

OK, so it may looked like I'm obsessed with this topic, but this is a great article by Al Mohler...I PROMISE:)

....ok back to homework...I can see the light at the end of the tunnel;)

[from Al Mohler’s blog]

Marriage and the Glory of God

“Dearly beloved, we are gathered here in the sight of God and in the face of this congregation, to join together this man and this woman in Holy Matrimony; which is an honorable state, instituted by God in the time of man’s innocency, signifying unto us the mystical union that is betwixt Christ and his Church.”

That familiar language from the Anglican Book of Common Prayer, recited thousands of times each week in various forms, presents a vision of marriage as a deeply Christian institution—even a necessary portrait of the love that unites Christ and His church. As marriage signifies this “mystical union,” it points to an understanding that takes us far beyond the relationship of the husband and wife. Do most Christians have even the slightest understanding of this?

It is bad enough that the secular world has discounted marriage into a quasi-legal contract that, like other voluntary contracts, can be made or broken at will. The greater tragedy is the failure of Christians to take marriage seriously. According to the Bible, marriage is not only designed by the Creator as an arena for human happiness and the continuation of the human race—it is also the arena of God’s glory, where the delights and disciplines of marriage point to the purpose for which human beings were made.

Marriage is about our happiness, our holiness, and our wholeness—but it is supremely about the glory of God. When marriage is entered into rightly, when marriage vows are kept with purity, when all the goods of marriage are enjoyed in their proper place—God is glorified.

Our chief end is to glorify God—and marriage is a means of His greater glory. As sinners, we are all too concerned with our own pleasures, our own fulfillments, our own priorities, our own conception of marriage as a domestic arrangement. The ultimate purpose of marriage is the greater glory of God—and God is most greatly glorified when His gifts are rightly celebrated and received, and His covenants are rightly honored and pledged.

Marriage is not greatly respected in our postmodern culture. For many, the covenant of marriage has been discarded in favor of a contract of cohabitation. An ethic of personal autonomy has produced successive generations who think of the world as the arena of their own personal fulfillment and of marriage as an outdated relic of an outgrown culture of obligation.

Ours is an era of self-expression. Individuals express themselves through marriage, and then express themselves through divorce—as if all of life is nothing more than a succession of acts of self-expression.

A divorce culture explains away obligation and sacred promises as temporary statements of emotional disposition. I may feel married today—I may not feel married tomorrow.

Our culture is so sexually confused that the goods of sex are severed from the vows and obligations of marriage. Thanks to modern technologies, we can have sex without babies, babies without sex, and both without marriage. For many, marriage has become an irrelevancy.

For others it is worse. Some have lambasted marriage as a domestic prison, a patriarchal and oppressive institution foisted upon unsuspecting men and women in order to deny them freedom, autonomy, fulfillment, and liberation. And, for a post-Christian culture, there is that nagging problem of the essential character of marriage as sacred institution. A society that disbelieves in God will eventually disbelieve in marriage.

Christian couples who are committed to this high conception of marriage must see themselves as counter-revolutionaries. In a very real sense, they are. They are standing against the tide of public opinion, against the trend of modern morality, against the erosion of order and the deflationary market in faithfulness. Before God, they stand committed to each other—and only to each other. To live together for each other, no matter what may come.

The church has recognized three great purposes of marriage, and all three of these have been subverted by the sexual revolution and its aftermath.

The first is the procreation and nurture of children, if God should grant children to the marriage. This purpose is dishonored by many, but it is honored among believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. Children are to be welcomed as gifts to the institution of marriage, transforming husband and wife into father and mother. In our anti-natalist age, some see children as impositions—or worse. The denial of a procreative orientation for marriage—every marriage genuinely open to the gift of children—is a denial of the biblical vision of marriage itself.

The second great purpose of marriage, as the ancient language expresses it, is “as a remedy against sin, and to avoid fornication … that [believers] might marry and keep themselves undefiled members of Christ’s body.” Marriage as a remedy for sin? This purpose is ridiculed among many, but it is honored among Christ’s disciples. This is exactly what the Apostle Paul took as his concern in writing to the church at Corinth. Confused and seduced by sexual sin, that church had compromised its own ability to represent Christ. Paul pointed to marriage as a means of channeling sexual desire into its proper context, lest believers “burn with passion” and sin against God. [1 Corinthians 7:9]

Our culture has turned “burning with passion” into a hedonistic art form. Explicit sexuality—stripped of the constraints of marriage—is the energy behind much of our economy, the material for entertainment, the substance of art, the enticement of advertising. Those who believe that sexual intercourse should be limited to marriage are dismissed as moral throw-backs, hopelessly outdated creatures who simply have no clue about the modern world.

The third great end of marriage is companionship throughout life, through good and bad, comfort and loss, sickness and health, until death parts the husband and wife. The mystery of completeness is expressed in the statement that the two shall become one. When a man and a woman exchange marriage vows, they become one solitary unit. After the exchange of these vows, we can no longer speak of the husband without the wife, or of the wife without the husband. They have become one, both in the physical union of the marital act and in the metaphysical union of the marital bond. As a married couple—husband and wife—they will live to the glory of God with each other, for each other, and to each other.

The end of marriage is its beginning—the glory of God, the mystery of Christ and the church. The exclusivity and purity of the marriage bond points to the exclusivity and purity of the relationship between Christ and His church.

How does marriage glorify God? Tertullian, one of the early church fathers, offers wisdom: “How beautiful, then, the marriage of two Christians, two who are one in home, one in desire, one in the way of life they follow, one in the religion they practice … Nothing divides them either in flesh or in spirit … They pray together, they worship together, they fast together; instructing one another, encouraging one another, strengthening one another. Side by side they visit God’s church and partake God’s banquet, side by side they face difficulties and persecution, share their consolations. They have no secrets from one another; they never shun each other’s company; they never bring sorrow to each other’s hearts … Seeing this Christ rejoices. To such as these He gives His peace. Where there are two together, there also He is present.”

Marriage is the source of great and unspeakable happiness. Yet because of sin it is not unmixed happiness. But marriage is not first and foremost about making us happy. It is for making us holy. And through the covenant of marriage two Christians pledge to live together so as to make each other holy before God, as a testimony to Christ.

Keep this in mind in the midst of today’s frenzied marriage debates. Marriage is first and foremost about the glory of God. All of the manifold gifts of marriage are derived from that great fact.