Remember the Lord who is great and awesome: 2009

Thursday, November 5, 2009

He Deserves the Credit

Wow! What a blessed day!
Tonight we had Forge. Emmanuel led in a wonderful time of worship. We had some new students which always makes my day, and they were enjoying participating in the icebreaker. (What a wonderful idea, getting kids to be comfortable before they worship and learn together.)
Then Kevin spoke about Jonah and how when God called him, he ran the other way. We do that same exact thing. Why? Because we're scared. Or because those people don't deserve forgiveness, they deserve exactly what they have coming--Destruction!
Then he challenged students to go out. They could go out and prayerwalk or meet students and share Christ with them. But that this was not a time to socialize with friends.
Some of the kids really jumped on the challenge to meet students, some prayed with each other, some brought kids from the hallway that were at a Fraternity/Sorority party next door to pray with them, some encouraged others as they are struggling with things. It was such a blessing to see God moving among them.
And this is something that we cannot take credit for. It is totally Him. He moved in them as Kevin challenged them to go for those students that maybe 'out of our comfort zone' but that they need to hear about Christ as much as anyone.
I wish I could explain better this wonderful evening, but I know that it was holy and I pray that God will show up like that every day and we would become bold and come out of our comfort zones to reach the ones that He loves and that He sent His son to die for.
Solo Deo Gloria.

Monday, October 19, 2009

Psalm 145

1I will proclaim Your greatness, my God and King; I will thank You forever and ever. 2Every day I will thank You; I will praise You forever and ever. 3The LORD is great and is to be highly praised; His greatness is beyond understanding. 4What You have done will be praised from one generation to the next; they will proclaim Your mighty acts. 5They will speak of Your glory and majesty, and I will meditate on Your wonderful deeds. 6People will speak of Your mighty deeds, and I will proclaim Your greatness. 7They will tell about Your goodness and sing about Your kindness. 8The LORD is loving and merciful, slow to become angry and full of constant love. 9He is good to everyone and has compassion on all He made. 10All your creatures, LORD, will praise You, and all Your people will give You thanks. 11They will speak of the glory of Your royal power and tell of Your might, 12So that everyone will know Your mighty deeds and the glorious majesty of Your kingdom. 13Your rule is eternal, and You are king forever. The LORD is faithful to His promises; He is merciful in all His acts. 14He helps those who are in trouble; He lifts those who have fallen. 15All living things look hopefully to You, and You give them food when they need it. 16You give them enough and satisfy the needs of all. 17The LORD is righteous in all He does, merciful in all His acts. 18He is near to those who call to Him, who call to Him with sincerity. 19He supplies the needs of those who honor Him; He hears their cries and saves them. 20He protects everyone who loves Him, but He will destroy the wicked. 21I will always praise the LORD; let all His creatures praise His holy name forever.

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Embarking on a new semester with the BSM

This semester has been such a new experience (well, they all are) but it feels different and I don't know how to put words on it. We have had lots of new students and they are hard-core seeking. Some are believers with a hunger to know Him more, and some are not believers and they are trying to figure this whole thing out.

On Saturday night after the outreach for Focus, we went to another church who was having a 'college night'. Kevin spoke about Christ being our treasure. Afterwards we went outside and they had a 'party on the patio' with tons of fajitas. We ate and then played games with the kids. Red Rover, Duck,Duck, Goose and Freeze tag. It was fun running around with the kids and as being the 'mom' of our group, I am really proud that the students aren't too cool to get down and play with the kids, and they actually really enjoyed it.

Then after a bit we all migrated to the parking lot on the other side of the church where some guys were playing basketball. We started playing knockout [or bump as we refer to it in Ohio ;)] there were like 30 people playing and this little ten year old kid kept getting us all out. :( It was really fun anyways.

After I got out of the game, I was sitting on the sidelines talking to a few of the students and one of them was talking about playing another game and said that we should do a sports/game night for BSM. It was really cool hearing that from him because he is not one of our core members, and he is not even a believer, yet he put himself as one of us.

And there are times that I feel that maybe we are not doing enough. We are not seeing hundreds of kids come to Christ, maybe we are doing something wrong, and then I realize that is very arrogant thinking. God will do whatever He wants and He may even use us, but maybe we will never see to what extent He uses us and that might be for the sole purpose that we do not become proud and think that we could do this all by ourselves.

Our theme this semester has been, "We will do nothing that we can take credit for". God does the work, we simply make ourselves available. And when we have done that, we believe that God will do things.

And we pray.

We pray for God to work in the lives of the students, to grow them, that they might seek to glorify Him through their lives. That we would love them with His love, with no strings attached, but that our love for them would be genuine and an outpouring of our love for Him.

So this is the BSM in a nutshell.

We appreciate your prayers for us that we would be open to God's leading, that He would open doors for us and that we would go serve Him with all of our hearts.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Concerning Christ

"But whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ." Philippians 3:7-8

I pray that this becomes my heartbeat. That nothing else matters.
Sometimes we want to do what is easiest, or what is expected of us, but what about HIM? He has great desires and plans for us and so often we miss the blessing because we want the easy way out. We don't want to be uncomfortable or to come upon any difficulties because of Him. We want the blessings, but not the struggles. We just forget that the greater blessings come from the struggles. He didn't promise us that it would be easy or even like we expected, He is bigger and has greater plans that we don't even know.

I think of AL Johnson. He was a student at UTSA up until last spring. He felt that God was calling him to go to Africa. He gave up his position on the track and cross-country team to go to Africa-- i.e. success. He experienced many crazy and difficult things, but he would tell you that it is the most amazing time of his life. God has taught him so much but that is out of his surrendering his will, his success, his 'happiness', and he received JOY and the peace of knowing that he is right in the middle of God's will for his life. When I receive the updates on AL's trip, I am blessed to no end to see his heart for God--I wish we all had his love. It is so encouraging to hear all the things that he has seen and learned since being there and it changes my heart too.

I guess he looks kind of mean in this pic, but he's not and he loves God with all of his heart, probably more than most people. So, continue to pray for Al as he's in Kenya serving God and continue to pray for us all that we seek to become more like Christ every day.
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/group.php?gid=107337507936&ref=ts
(this is the prayer network for Al and he also posted on the discussions a blog about his calling, it is a great encouragement and inspired this note)
If I gave up all of my dreams and my plans for my life, God would use me in ways that I could never imagine. Can I give it all up? Will I?

Saturday, August 29, 2009

Fridays with the kids

We worked with the Children at First Chinese Baptist Church on Fridays throughout the summer. It was such a fun experience that we just might have enjoyed more than the kids.

Week One

Before Forge on Thursday we were seated in the room and prayed before the meeting started. When we finished and opened our eyes, another of the leaders had walked in and joined the prayer time. Kevin quipped, 'we're still missing some, so lets pray again.'
But in all seriousness, God has honored the prayers that were offered and we had about 15 new students at Forge. Usually we run about 30-35, and we had about 50--not that it is all about numbers, but I do believe that numbers in some way do mean something.
I could feel the excitement in the room as the students started coming. One even came an hour early! Then they started coming in a steady flow a half-hour early. They were hungry to meet some fellow believers and to get connected with a Christian community. The BSM students ('my kids,' as I often refer to them, and they refer to themselves) we so open and welcoming to them. I stood at the door with two other students welcoming the new arrivals and inviting them in, then sometimes if the student had been really nervous as they entered the room, I would walk in just a few seconds after them and one of the kids would have already found them and started conversing with them. I was so proud!
After Forge most of the new kids stayed around talking, laughing and then taking it upon themselves to meet others that they had not yet met. They were very eager and several of them came up to me afterwards and asked how they could get more involved.
It was such a humbling night. We had prayed before, but sometimes we just don't know what we are praying for. Granted we know that our desire it to meet and love and reach students, but who? how? where? when? etc... As we were praying, I was reminded of this passage in Romans:

"For we do not know how we ought to pray, the Spirit himself pleads with God for us in groans that words cannot express. And God, who sees into our hearts, knows what the thought of the Spirit is, because the Spirit pleads with God on behalf of His people and in accordance with His will. We know that in all things God works for good with those who love Him. Those whom He has called according to His purpose." Romans 8:26-28

And then there was this excitement and hunger present that night. I don't know how else to describe it. It was also exciting because we knew that it was not because of us. The desire of the BSM this year has been, "we will do nothing that we can take credit for." So we desire to become a people of prayer and we will seek the face of God that we will know how we can serve. In the end, it is not how great of conversationalists we are, it is not how cool we are, it is not how good we sing, it is not how grand of events we can pull off, it is who HE is and how He manifests Himself through our lives when we are completely surrendered to Him.