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| "I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest."
I've been hearing a lot over the past year about a spiritual revival going on in Boston. Pastor Josh of Highrock Brookline mentioned it again yesterday while telling the story of the Samaritan woman who, in her excitement, decided to go back to her town and spread word of the "strange man" that she had met by the well.
I see evidence all around us that such a "revival" is real, happening now, and that the fields truly are ripe for harvest. On our campus alone there are so many Godly men and women that are passionately promoting this spiritual transformation, whether they realize it or not. I know a few brothers and sisters who have started GIGs (Groups Investigating God), and have been putting their own time and energy on the line, week after week, for their non-believer friends. When new people decide to eat with and/or visit our West Small Group, there seems to be an implied understanding among the members that this newcomer should be pursued and invited. It's as if everyone is on their toes, actively trying to pull cynics, seekers, and believers alike into our group. In just the past year, Men and Women Groups have been started, and they've been dedicated to raising up and empowering Godly men and women to serve and lead in our fellowships, and to pursue Christlike perfection in every aspect of their characters and their lives. A particular group of brothers, two sophomores and a senior, decided last year that they'd live in a Quad in a freshman dorm so that they'd be able to live amongst the freshman that they'd be working with, and eventually draw them into our community. I've witnessed a fellow sister pursue a seeker, having her efforts met by other sisters who, without missing a beat, followed up with their own attempts to be an inviting, welcoming body of Christ. And when people are brought to Christ, it's a beautiful and miraculous thing. Just the fact that our mere human efforts, by God's hand that constantly moves everything into place, are enough to make all the difference for someones soul. To them, it means everything and is everything - every day and night spent, all the good times and the bad, every laugh and every cry, and every single moment of their lives.
All of it is at stake. Sometimes we forget that. Sometimes we don't realize how we place all of it, everything of theirs, onto a balance, weighing it out against our own convenience and sense of security that hangs on the opposing side. But when we don't forget, when we remember, God works through us in profound ways to draw their wandering souls to himself.
I don't believe that he'll ever ask any of us to do everything. But we all have our part to play and, as C.S. Lewis puts it, we are intended to be like players of one band or organs of one body. Just like my friend who stepped forward to invite her friend into the community, there were other sisters, other parts of the body, who simultaneously did their part, bringing God's bigger plan to completion. And I wouldn't be surprised if God has yet a greater design of which these other plans are only a small part of. In our communities we all have our own strengths, and they may balance against or complement the strengths of others. In one way or another, if you allow him to, God will ultimately use these strengths and gifts, along with those of others, for his glory. | | |
| Saw this on a friends facebook once and I thought it was a pretty awesome and inspirational quote -
"Well then, I will tell you. Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne and I myself have founded great empires; but upon what did these creations of our genius depend? Upon force. Jesus alone founded His empire upon love, and to this very day millions will die for Him. . . . I think I understand something of human nature; and I tell you, all these were men, and I am a man; none else is like Him: Jesus Christ was more than a man. . . . I have inspired multitudes with such an enthusiastic devotion that they would have died for me . . . but to do this it was necessary that I should be visibly present with the electric influence of my looks, my words, of my voice. When I saw men and spoke to them, I lightened up the flame of self-devotion in their hearts. . . . Christ alone has succeeded in so raising the mind of man toward the unseen, that it becomes insensible to the barriers of time and space. Across a chasm of eighteen hundred years, Jesus Christ makes a demand which is beyond all others difficult to satisfy; He asks for that which a philosopher may often seek in vain at the hands of his friends, or a father of his children, or a bride of her spouse, or a man of his brother.
He asks for the human heart; He will have it entirely to Himself.
He demands it unconditionally; and forthwith His demand is granted. Wonderful! In defiance of time and space,the soul of man, with all its powers and faculties, becomes an annexation to the empire of Christ. All who sincerely believe in Him, experience that remarkable, supernatural love toward Him. This phenomenon is unaccountable; it is altogether beyond the scope of man's creative powers. Time, the great destroyer, is powerless to extinguish this sacred flame; time can neither exhaust its strength nor put a limit to its range. This is it, which strikes me most; I have often thought of it. This it is which proves to me quite convincingly the Divinity of Jesus Christ."
-Napoleon Bonaparte
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| I promise I'll make a real update soon. My small group is going well, academics are going alright.... just need to catch up on reading asap before my exams next week. I need to keep writing. It's not like I'm spending so much time on work either so that I can't update. I'm thinking about trying to draw again. It's been so long, I probably can't do much anymore at all. Why let a talent go to waste instead of making it a gift from God? Also, trying to get my camera battery back (which I left at home) so I can take some nice pictures like I used to.... because this xanga is getting a little boring. Maybe I can work sometime somewhere and make enough money to get a real camera. Kind of something I always wanted haha.
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| I'm kind of in a state of shock. I don't think I've even fully grasped the weight of what has happened yet. But I feel like piece by piece the reality of it all is slowly coming together. I pray that as a church, we'll be able to bring the comfort that Pastor Ron needs in this terrible time. And as for the families - they need our prayers to reach out over them as well. I place my faith in God to guide us all -the Church, pastor Ron, and the families - through this tragedy and to help bring about comfort in the face of pain, mend hearts, and help us to encourage one another in continued growth like Pastor Wayne said.
I feel like I didn't get to spend enough time getting to know Ting while she was with us. But every moment that I remember of her when she was there - when everyone had gone home after church and she would just hang out with us, when she watched our basketball practices, when she cheered from the bleachers at our games - she truly radiated, glowed, with the love of Jesus Christ. She was an angel here on earth, and I know that at this moment she's with God and the angels in heaven.
"I am standing upon the seashore.
A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze
and starts for the blue ocean.
She is an object of beauty and strength,
and I stand and watch until at last she hangs
like a speck of white cloud
just where the sea and sky come down to mingle with each other.
Then someone at my side says,
'There she goes!'
Gone where?
Gone from my sight . . . that is all.
She is just as large in mast and hull and spar
as she was when she left my side
and just as able to bear her load of living freight
to the place of destination.
Her diminished size is in me, not in her.
And just at the moment
when someone at my side says,
'There she goes!'
there are other eyes watching her coming . . .
and other voices ready to take up the glad shout . . .
'Here she comes!' " -Henry Van Dyke
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