under the advisement of friends we are taking the Perspectives course.
The main gist of the course is to teach people that God has had a design from the beginning of time to reach out to people and win them back to himself.
we study this plan in several ways.
last night was excellent as Steve Hoke spoke, someone I've heard speak before at the ACMC.
he asks us to write down "YBI's" your big ideas.... the points we want to remember.. here are my 11.
1. God is less concerned about getting things DONE and more with developing our character. God is not in a rush like we are, to accomplish anything.
2. God is the star of the mission story
3. Theme of the course - God is at work around the world, completing His big picture.
4. Every decision we make will be faulty until we see the world as God sees it. (align our perspective with His) It is at this point, that we begin to Worship God and become very effective for Him
5. We are blessed so that we can bless others (abraham)
6. Evangelism is as basic as blessing someone else.
7. Melchizedek and Abraham - Abraham is blessed by God, and in turn 4 kings bless God.
.....
11. Would I waste my blessings for fear of losing them?
Sure I skipped a bit, but 11 was the one that hit me. See I'm going to the field, I'm not worried about losing what most Americans see as blessings. I feel that I will only understand my dependance on material wealth once I lose it, at the moment i'm looking forward to that. Although DSL will be a sad loss (-;.
But the blessings I hold most dear are the hardest to give to God. My children, my wife, my future security. These are the things that God has blessed me with, but I can't hold myself back from being a blessing to others simply because I'm afraid of what might happen to what I have. Abraham was going to kill his son.. his 16 year old son. They were infertile for something like 80 years... and then had a son, and then out of obedience for God, Abraham was going to lose him.
And then .... he worshipped God.
One quote was interesting "Missions exists because worship doesn't."
That quote doesn't mean that if we all were believers we wouldn't have missions.
It means if we were all filled in our hearts with the desire to uplift and bless God and did so exuberantly and effervescently, then God's Word would spread like wildfire... and there would be no need for missions.
The challenge I'm putting before myself after last night is this.
-to seek out God solely, so that my heart would be filled with Worship, and I would overflow with all things from God. From that one point, everything would work properly. I would not need ten step how-to manuals... I would not need to worry abotu how to share the Gospel, or how to serve my wife... because the spirit would fill me with a heart of Worship for God.
God is great.. He is amazing, and I'm only now realizing that it isn't out of duty, that you say these words, but out of something other than yourself that is poured into your heart through the conduit that is your relationship with God. My only duty is to keep that conduit wide and in repair so that His love may flow in ample quantities.
