Youth Convention, Night 2

The second night of youth convention was even greater than the first.  More laughter, more worship, more change in lives!  Saturday night I got the opportunity to watch and pray as hundreds of students came forward to pray for freedom from the “lovers” they had been turning their attention to and trying to find comfort in instead of God.  The message was the story of Hosea, the prophet, and his wife Gomer, the unfaithful prostitute, whom he loved and chased.  “She decks herself with rings and jewelry and goes to find her lover.  But me she forgot.” was the key verse that evening.  Those are the words the Lord spoke about Israel’s unfaithfulness.  You can hear His heartbreak. 

1,500 students were challenged to stop turning to their vices for comfort and solace and instead recognize God’s freedom and love.  I watched, prayed and cried as hundreds of students came streaming from every corner of the La Crosse Center to turn away from the answers and fulfillment of the world to God.  Students prayed and were changed.  They were set free from suicidal thoughts and depression, addictions to pornography, drugs and alcohol and anorexia, bulimia and cutting.  God is good and it was wonderful to see Him work so personally in lives.

The freedom found when we stop trying to make our vices stretch to cover our pain is amazing.  We admit our tactics and comforts don’t cut it and don’t fix the hurt.  We stop telling ourselves the lie that we can handle the situations and trials of life.  Instead, we stand in Christ, trusting not in our understanding and ability, but in His goodness and faithfulness.  Releasing the lie and embracing the Truth brings miraculous freedom.  And the miracle of freedom is what hundreds of students experienced on Saturday night.  The relief and joy seemed tangible as students began to worship God with all of their hearts, minds and souls, not just the portions that weren’t busy trying to find a solution and hold it all together.

It was an amazing and miraculous event.  I’m so happy I was able to be a part of it.

Youth Convention, Night 1

This weekend I get the privilege of helping the district with registration at youth convention in La Crosse, WI.  Last night we opened up and it was great.  Smooth sailing for registration, but nearly flawless check in, while incredible, was nothing, absolutely nothing compared to the service!

There are 1,500 people here this weekend and last night the vast majority of those people were worshiping God full tilt.  Interface is the worship band here this weekend and the excellence of music and heart they bring opens the doors for students to respond by pouring their worship out to God too.  A message given by Reggie Dabbs, interspersed with drama and music, on choosing to turn in the lies and junk of the world for the truth and life of God, to turn away from the past that has hurt to the God who heals, was exactly what was needed.  As I stood by the registration table in the lobby, I watched over 400 students pour out of the stadium and head to the response room where they talked about their first time or re-commitment to Christ.

Then I saw all 1,100 people left in the stadium praise God and worship Him with all of their might and as those 400 rejoined the rest of the group they entered in completely as well.  It was a great night to be in La Crosse and a wonderful first night at WNMD Youth Convention.

This afternoon there are football, basketball and dodgeball tournaments taking place.  The champion team from each sport gets to take home a 5' trophy.  There is definite excitment and competition in the air.  Let the games begin!  

Looking forward to a good day and evening!

Music of the Revolution

Tuesday I traveled to Madison to be a part of the revolution and on Wednesday at 12:08am the great leaders of Greycoats took the stage.  Well worth the travel and wait and exhaustion this morning.  I knew I appreciated their music before I saw them, but last night solidified my opinion of them as a truly superb band.  Greycoats’ Setting Fire to the Great Unknown is the CD to buy and the concert to attend.  They’re based out of Minneapolis, MN and just finished their East Coast tour last night, or this morning rather.

I woke up several times throughout the night with one of their songs rolling through my mind and that brought a broad smile to my face.  What a fantastic group. 

Seek out Greycoats and hear for yourself their ability to captivate.  Fantastic.  Find them online at Greycoats, Myspace or facebook and enjoy.

"Oh my gosh, for goodness sake, you just ran around a lake"

That’s what the man on the side of the road with drums at mile 12.5 sang as I ran past him on Saturday morning.  The word “ran” in that sentence has a very loose definition, he was sitting at the top of a large hill and I was more… not even jogging, it was a bit more like shuffling by the time I got to him.  But I was pleased. 

I’ve been training for a half marathon, a 13 mile run, all summer and for those of you who know me, you know that’s a HUGE stretch.  I hate running.  But, even so, I really wanted to say I’d run a half marathon (I wasn’t foolish enough to think I could tackle the whole).  I’d tried training before, but it never worked and then in May I felt like God said, “Now’s the time.”  When my friend Rhonda asked if I’d run with her, I agreed.

When I was in DC at the Unplugged conference I was introduced to the phrase “Fall in love with the climb”.  The phrase means to love the journey, the fun and the pain and the mess that comes with it.  The phrase was so brilliant to me that I wanted to do something physical to represent it.  I was already in training for the half marathon and it just seemed to click in.  All summer I’ve been trying to love the journey of training for the half marathon.  And surprisingly, I have for the most part.  When I started I could barely run a mile (seriously, it was bad) and then at the end 3 or 4 miles was no problem.

Through the process I’ve learned things about myself, one of the most important being that I can handle more than what I think I can handle.  I’ve learned things about God, like the fact that He is faithful and when we enter into a plan with Him, He will see us through and help us to the very end.  I’ve learned things about topography, like there is no place in the world that is as flat as Plover and that if you’re used to running in Plover, running anywhere else seems like a mountain range.

So, what’s the next big challenge?  I’m not quite sure yet, but I think it might have something to do with music.  Quite possibly leading worship from the guitar.  Ooo, that’s scary.

Creator of Amazing

Have you ever known a drummer?  Fascinating, isn’t it?  They are the King Midases of our time.  I’ve been friends with numerous drummers, my brother is a drummer, and now I work with drummers as a worship leader and one thing is true of all of them.  Everything that is placed in their hands becomes a percussion instrument.  A rhythm is created!  It doesn’t matter if it is the dining room table, a shoe, a set of keys, a broken pencil, a water glass or another individual’s head… or their own head for that matter.  If the drummer can reach it, it will become the object of tapping and rhythmic creation.

Just like drummers create rhythm, God creates amazing.  Whatever is placed in God’s hands becomes the creation center for something amazing.  It is incredible to see a master at work, especially when they are showing their talent with ordinary things.  Several years ago I had the privilege to see Stomp perform live.  Stomp is a percussion group that uses regular, everyday and often non-functional items to create astounding rhythms.  They use shop brooms and sinks full of water and garbage cans and tools and it is wonderful to see them create.  It is much more astounding to see God create something amazing out of a broken life.  Whatever is placed in His hands, no matter how broken and desperate or how wonderful and strong, He can make it into something Amazing.  When lives of abuse and addiction are placed in His hands, He creates amazing victories and freedom to be used and proclaimed for His glory.  When broken and jaded hearts are placed in His hands, He can create incredible capacity to hold and pour out Love.  When gifts of leadership and teaching are placed in His hands, He can create generation influencers and tide changers.  When gifts of compassion and endurance are placed in His hands, he can create phenomenal testimonies of sacrifice and encouragement. 

Whoever you are, whatever you have place it in the hands of God and He will make it astounding.  What should you place in His hands?  What can you give to the Creator of Amazing?

Pursuit

I was talking with a friend recently and she posed an interesting question to me.  She asked if, looking back, I could see God pursuing me all of my life.  My initial thought was, “No.”  But before the word was even formed on my lips, I knew it was not the truth.  The friend I was talking to had become a Christian later in life so I could guess at the kind of pursuit she looked back and saw, but I fully gave my heart and life to Christ when I was three years old.  I assumed I didn’t have a magnificent story to look back on and tell of moments He orchestrated for me to notice Him and know that He is real.  But in that split second before I answered my friend’s question, I realized the answer is, yes.  Yes, I look back on my life and realize that God has been pursuing me the whole time.  God’s pursuit of me is different than His pursuit of my friend.  God pursued my friend in a way that is similar to a man pursuing the woman he wants to marry.  I said that I saw His pursuit of me through most of my life more like the way a husband would pursue his wife after they’re married.

Christianity isn’t about the moment of conversion, when you say that you believe Jesus is the Son of God who died to take away your sins and you ask for forgiveness.  Just like marriage isn’t only about the moment a man and woman say “I do.”  That is just the beginning.  God’s pursuit is evident throughout all of our lives no matter when we come to Christ.  Sometimes it is made up of loud and extravagant events like a man trying to get a woman to notice that he is alive and at other times it is subtle, steady and consistent like a husband reminding his wife of who he is.  No matter which stage of Christian life you are at, God is pursuing you.  There are simply different types of pursuit for different times in our lives and different types of people, but the same remarkable God is pursuing each of us.  It’s not a question of if, it’s a question of how.  How has God pursued you in the past?  And how is He pursuing you now?

OT Kings vs. Peter

I’ve been reading Jeremiah and Mark in the mornings for the past month or so and last week I read about two similar sets of circumstances with two totally different outcomes.  In Jeremiah I read about Old Testament kings who turned their backs on God to worship idols they had created with their own imagination and hands.  In Mark I read about Peter who personally walked with Jesus for years and then, during Jesus’ trial, totally disowned Him.  Both denied and betrayed God, but the OT kings were carried off into captivity and killed and Jesus told Peter to be the shepherd of the early church and that Peter would be used as a major player in establishing the Church!  Big difference.

I think the difference between the two is the relationship they had with God.  The OT kings had diminished God and equated Him to stone and gold man-made idols.  They had no relationship with Him and therefore felt no remorse until after they were captured and in exile.  Peter on the other hand had spent years in Jesus’ inner circle and the Bible says that as soon as Peter realized what he had done he “broke down and wept.”

Peter, unlike the OT kings, was full of remorse the moment he realized that he had betrayed God.

This made me think.  Do I only respond when I’m receiving consequences of my actions and I’m in pain?  Or do I respond with remorse when I realize my actions have caused God pain?  It’s a bit of both.  I want that relationship though.

God help me to have the kind of relationship Peter had with You.  Help me to love You and know Your heart.   Thank you for Your Grace Lord.  I love You.