this past weekend was our spring retreat and it was a great time. saturday night at the retreat was a particularly monumental night for a number of students and for our ministry.
the retreat takes place at the lake of the ozarks and there is a time of baptism down at the lake. so on saturday night we had 6 students get baptized. anna campbell, theresa beckmann, luis semidey, daniel williams, andrew hargis, and jeff hayes. it was awaesome...i felt like i maybe got a little bit of what it would have been like to be baptizing after Peter's sermon where 3000 came to faith. it just had such a communal feel to it...it was awesome!
and i think that the thing that i was by far the most excited about is that i really believe that none of them made the decision based out of a bunch of emotion or a "camp high". i have always said that i want to mess students live's up in the best way imaginable, and that is exactly the way i feel about these 6 students. i feel like they are all just in the beginning of a life-long process. i really believe that they have all been messed up in the best way imagineable!
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Friday, April 10, 2009
Good Friday...
it's a gloomy rainy day today...
seems somehow appropriate for what we know as Good Friday...
i was reading through the events of this day in Luke's account this morning and these words of Jesus when the guards came to seize Him really stuck out to me:
"Am i leading a rebellion, that you have come with swords and clubs? Every day I was with you in the temple courts, and you did not lay a hand on me. But this is your hour - when darkness reigns."
"THIS IS YOUR HOUR - WHEN DARKNESS REIGNS"...
this is the hour when darkness reigns, but it only reigns so that the amazing Light can be exposed - fully and completely exposed. it is a day and an hour where darkness reigns, but the light is eagerly waiting to burst forth. it will not be restrained for long - it can't be. the Light is too bright...the Hope is too perfect...and the Plan is almost complete. it is a day when darkness reigns...but only that Light may reign all the more...
seems somehow appropriate for what we know as Good Friday...
i was reading through the events of this day in Luke's account this morning and these words of Jesus when the guards came to seize Him really stuck out to me:
"Am i leading a rebellion, that you have come with swords and clubs? Every day I was with you in the temple courts, and you did not lay a hand on me. But this is your hour - when darkness reigns."
"THIS IS YOUR HOUR - WHEN DARKNESS REIGNS"...
this is the hour when darkness reigns, but it only reigns so that the amazing Light can be exposed - fully and completely exposed. it is a day and an hour where darkness reigns, but the light is eagerly waiting to burst forth. it will not be restrained for long - it can't be. the Light is too bright...the Hope is too perfect...and the Plan is almost complete. it is a day when darkness reigns...but only that Light may reign all the more...
Friday, April 3, 2009
Prayer Works...
sometimes it can be easy to say that prayer works and to not really ever process what that actually means, but today i was reminded of specfically what that actually means...
back before the school year started, we did a prayer walk around campus where we prayed for different parts of the campus and that God would have a presence in those places. as i was walking, i walked past the football stadium, the team was practicing and i was led to pray for the team and specifically to pray that God would bring someone onto the team that would be a light and that would represent Christ to those guys.
in our intern meeting today, one of our interns shared about how he is really excited about a guy in his small group, evan, who is on the football team and is really growing in his faith a lot and who is wanting to lead a small group next year with guys from the football team. and this intern reminded me about how he has not forgotten about how i shared at the beginning of the year that i had prayed for the football team...
it was a super cool reminder of the fact that prayer works and that prayer is a big deal and that God is doing things all around us if we will simply stop and see it.
back before the school year started, we did a prayer walk around campus where we prayed for different parts of the campus and that God would have a presence in those places. as i was walking, i walked past the football stadium, the team was practicing and i was led to pray for the team and specifically to pray that God would bring someone onto the team that would be a light and that would represent Christ to those guys.
in our intern meeting today, one of our interns shared about how he is really excited about a guy in his small group, evan, who is on the football team and is really growing in his faith a lot and who is wanting to lead a small group next year with guys from the football team. and this intern reminded me about how he has not forgotten about how i shared at the beginning of the year that i had prayed for the football team...
it was a super cool reminder of the fact that prayer works and that prayer is a big deal and that God is doing things all around us if we will simply stop and see it.
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