We traveled back down to Manti yesterday and we'll be back out on the streets again in a couple of hours. So far we've heard of a few people coming to Christ through these times of outreach before the pageant. We've also heard of countless people seeking truth, and thousands of seeds have been planted. The Lord has been faithful, and will continue in that tonight. Pray that He gives us opportunities, that we are emboldened and filled by His Spirit to have compassion and love for these people.
Last night I was able to have a great conversation with 3 young guys. One of them claimed to be a Christian, but didn't understand the Gospel. He wanted to understand why we were out here bashing Mormons, and wanted to know what the differences between Mormonism and Christianity were. Another one of the guys was a Muslim, which was really suprising to see, but definitely cool to just present the Gospel of freedom by faith and not works. The third guy was just agnostic, and he didn't say much, but he was still presented with the Gospel, so pray that it would take root in all three of these guy's lives.
Pray tonight for God to set up divine appointments, good weather, that there wouldn't be un-necessary tension between Mormons and Christians, and that the Gospel would take root in hundreds of people's lives. Pray for a true Miracle of Salvation for many tonight at the Mormon Miracle Pageant!
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
There is Nothing Better
Focus. Focus. Focus.
That one little word has been running through my head since, well, the beginning of this summer. Focus on God, and the rest will follow. Focus on your purpose, and you'll see awesome things accomplished. Focus on ministering to these people, open up doors and plant seeds.
That all sounds great, and I honestly think it is...but I found myself extremely discouraged as this first week in Utah went by. I became really sick on Sunday, and I have yet to legitimately, flat-out express the gospel to any LDS member. I was really down last night and this morning especially, and my mind was just on everything that I haven't accomplished yet--things I assumed I was here for.
And this is one of those times when the "But then God" statements completely turns everything around...
I was sitting in the Family History Center in Temple Square, the "Mormon Headquarters" if you will, while an 84 year-old lady I brought there with me searched for family records. I had been praying earnestly all morning for God to just use me and focus me...but I was feeling really discouraged and distraught. I took out my C.J. Mahaney book that I keep in my purse, "Living the Cross-Centered Life," and began reading. I read about how losing sight of the cross can mean losing sight of how much more Jesus knows about suffering and what He's given me through that suffering. Needless to say, God uses the most awkward of opportunities to bring things into crystal clear view.
Carrying around a few key verses to meditate on throughout the day is something I strongly recommend, and for precisely these kinds of moments. I pulled out my sheet and read Proverbs 20:9- "Who can say, 'I have cleansed my heart, I am pure from my sin?'" As well Proverbs 20:24- "Mans steps are ordained by the Lord; how then can man understand his way?"
For those who know me, this shock won't be that catastrophic--I broke down and cried. Right there. In the middle of that LDS shrine, where God caught hold of my heart and revealed to me things I hadn't been paying attention to. First, that my "focus" was my problem. Did you catch it? I was focusing so much on what I was doing and what I was or wasn't accomplishing that I forgot to look at what Christ has accomplished. What He's all ready done. That's the reason I'm here. Not for me to do anything, but for God to reveal Himself. And that may not look the way I think it should...God isn't exactly confined to the size of my thoughts. (Which I am thankful for beyond words.) It's possible that, while I came here to speak to Mormons about the love of the true Christ, maybe God has more to say to me. And maybe God will show His love to these people through me, without my help.
Secondly, that when I do become discouraged about anything, I need to remember to not just pray that He would help me through it and trust in Him, but that I would meditate on His faithfulness, His love, and what He's done for me. That is when the discouragement will fade.
Thirdly, that I was, in essence, trying to earn His love, by doing what I thought He wanted me to do. I was forgetting the very message I was trying to portray. But luckily for me, God doesn't revoke His offering. There are no ways to earn His love--but, I don't have to. Christ loved us. I've come to realize how impossible that is, especially if anyone else is anything like me.
God knows what He's doing. With every moment, every person, every conversation. And what's more--He loves us. And what could be better than to have an awesome Creator like that in control of what we do?
Allie
That one little word has been running through my head since, well, the beginning of this summer. Focus on God, and the rest will follow. Focus on your purpose, and you'll see awesome things accomplished. Focus on ministering to these people, open up doors and plant seeds.
That all sounds great, and I honestly think it is...but I found myself extremely discouraged as this first week in Utah went by. I became really sick on Sunday, and I have yet to legitimately, flat-out express the gospel to any LDS member. I was really down last night and this morning especially, and my mind was just on everything that I haven't accomplished yet--things I assumed I was here for.
And this is one of those times when the "But then God" statements completely turns everything around...
I was sitting in the Family History Center in Temple Square, the "Mormon Headquarters" if you will, while an 84 year-old lady I brought there with me searched for family records. I had been praying earnestly all morning for God to just use me and focus me...but I was feeling really discouraged and distraught. I took out my C.J. Mahaney book that I keep in my purse, "Living the Cross-Centered Life," and began reading. I read about how losing sight of the cross can mean losing sight of how much more Jesus knows about suffering and what He's given me through that suffering. Needless to say, God uses the most awkward of opportunities to bring things into crystal clear view.
Carrying around a few key verses to meditate on throughout the day is something I strongly recommend, and for precisely these kinds of moments. I pulled out my sheet and read Proverbs 20:9- "Who can say, 'I have cleansed my heart, I am pure from my sin?'" As well Proverbs 20:24- "Mans steps are ordained by the Lord; how then can man understand his way?"
For those who know me, this shock won't be that catastrophic--I broke down and cried. Right there. In the middle of that LDS shrine, where God caught hold of my heart and revealed to me things I hadn't been paying attention to. First, that my "focus" was my problem. Did you catch it? I was focusing so much on what I was doing and what I was or wasn't accomplishing that I forgot to look at what Christ has accomplished. What He's all ready done. That's the reason I'm here. Not for me to do anything, but for God to reveal Himself. And that may not look the way I think it should...God isn't exactly confined to the size of my thoughts. (Which I am thankful for beyond words.) It's possible that, while I came here to speak to Mormons about the love of the true Christ, maybe God has more to say to me. And maybe God will show His love to these people through me, without my help.
Secondly, that when I do become discouraged about anything, I need to remember to not just pray that He would help me through it and trust in Him, but that I would meditate on His faithfulness, His love, and what He's done for me. That is when the discouragement will fade.
Thirdly, that I was, in essence, trying to earn His love, by doing what I thought He wanted me to do. I was forgetting the very message I was trying to portray. But luckily for me, God doesn't revoke His offering. There are no ways to earn His love--but, I don't have to. Christ loved us. I've come to realize how impossible that is, especially if anyone else is anything like me.
God knows what He's doing. With every moment, every person, every conversation. And what's more--He loves us. And what could be better than to have an awesome Creator like that in control of what we do?
Allie
Monday, June 20, 2011
First Week Gone already!?!
I can't believe I've been here a week. It has been incredible so far to see the things that God has planned for the summer. I've been learning this week that everything that we do here is completely useless unless we do it with love. I really noticed this when we were at Manti. I had a couple of conversations with some LDS members and really felt a tendency to want to argue and fight these people. Then God just reminded me that even if I win the argument and these people leave the LDS church, they're no closer to a relationship with Christ than in the LDS church.
That's another thing God's been teaching me. I came out here with this whole hatred toward the LDS church as a religious institution and a money-making business. I saw that hatred come out while we were watching the pageant down in Manti and this quote came up. "You are the greatest miracle on this earth. Nothing is more important in this world than your development toward becoming gods." I've learned there's a difference between a righteous anger and hatred. Through spending time in Manti and at the LDS ward, as well as talking to Kelly, Colleen and Allie, I've come to realize that members of the LDS church are no more lost than anyone else who doesn't know Christ. As I said before, I really wanted to fight mormonism, rather than presenting the Gospel.
Saturday night I had the opportunity to have a really good conversation with a guy named Evan. He was a member of the LDS church, but as we got into a conversation, I could see him really trying to understand the Truth. He asked us what is good and evil. So we proceeded to explain how good is anything that affirms God's character, and evil is anything that diminishes His character. We then proceeded to discuss salvation and the law and he could not wrap his mind around Christ's righteousness freeing us completely. He said that the Gospel was too extreme for him. We got to pray for him and I trust that God is going to do something through our conversation.
Right now there's a High School team from Bethel Grace Baptist Church in Southern California. They were in Manti with us and I thoroughly enjoy having them down here. We're going to Temple Square with the team and then they will be working with a local church to help with a Vacation Bible School, which should be cool.
I'm really excited for the Spanish ministry I'll be starting. Thursday Kelly, Colleen, Allie, Joe and I got to just go on a prayer walk of the neighborhood where I'll be doing ministry. We got to walk around and found out where a lot of the smaller Spanish churches are and got their contact information. I will be trying to work with them to help meet the needs of the community around them, as well as just sharing the Gospel, doing Bible Studies and just spending time with these people.
One of the things I enjoy most about being here is the community that has started to form. Just about every day we have something going on in the Blue House that brings people in. Whether it's meals at night, pancakes on Thursday mornings, Bible Study on Wednesday night, bonfires, movie nights, or just hanging out and having conversations, God has provided a lot of different people who are from different walks of life. Praise Him for placing people into our lives and entrusting us to be His mouthpiece. Pray that He would empower us to be obedient to what He would have us do this week.
God Bless!
That's another thing God's been teaching me. I came out here with this whole hatred toward the LDS church as a religious institution and a money-making business. I saw that hatred come out while we were watching the pageant down in Manti and this quote came up. "You are the greatest miracle on this earth. Nothing is more important in this world than your development toward becoming gods." I've learned there's a difference between a righteous anger and hatred. Through spending time in Manti and at the LDS ward, as well as talking to Kelly, Colleen and Allie, I've come to realize that members of the LDS church are no more lost than anyone else who doesn't know Christ. As I said before, I really wanted to fight mormonism, rather than presenting the Gospel.
Saturday night I had the opportunity to have a really good conversation with a guy named Evan. He was a member of the LDS church, but as we got into a conversation, I could see him really trying to understand the Truth. He asked us what is good and evil. So we proceeded to explain how good is anything that affirms God's character, and evil is anything that diminishes His character. We then proceeded to discuss salvation and the law and he could not wrap his mind around Christ's righteousness freeing us completely. He said that the Gospel was too extreme for him. We got to pray for him and I trust that God is going to do something through our conversation.
Right now there's a High School team from Bethel Grace Baptist Church in Southern California. They were in Manti with us and I thoroughly enjoy having them down here. We're going to Temple Square with the team and then they will be working with a local church to help with a Vacation Bible School, which should be cool.
I'm really excited for the Spanish ministry I'll be starting. Thursday Kelly, Colleen, Allie, Joe and I got to just go on a prayer walk of the neighborhood where I'll be doing ministry. We got to walk around and found out where a lot of the smaller Spanish churches are and got their contact information. I will be trying to work with them to help meet the needs of the community around them, as well as just sharing the Gospel, doing Bible Studies and just spending time with these people.
One of the things I enjoy most about being here is the community that has started to form. Just about every day we have something going on in the Blue House that brings people in. Whether it's meals at night, pancakes on Thursday mornings, Bible Study on Wednesday night, bonfires, movie nights, or just hanging out and having conversations, God has provided a lot of different people who are from different walks of life. Praise Him for placing people into our lives and entrusting us to be His mouthpiece. Pray that He would empower us to be obedient to what He would have us do this week.
God Bless!
Friday, June 17, 2011
Manti!
We're just about to leave to Manti, Utah for the weekend. There is this huge pageant that the LDS church puts on every year that basically goes through the Book of Mormon. The play also basically spits in the face of Christianity. We' re going to be there basically open air evangelizing, spending time with a high school missions team that will be here for the week, and watching the pageant.
We're anticipating that this will be a difficult time spiritually, since we will be surrounded by a lot of darkness that comes along with the LDS church and the pageant. Prayer requests for this trip:
Safe travels
Boldness in evangelism
Open hearts of LDS members
Spiritual Protection
True fellowship and unity among our team
Thanks again guys for the prayer and support!
God bless
We're anticipating that this will be a difficult time spiritually, since we will be surrounded by a lot of darkness that comes along with the LDS church and the pageant. Prayer requests for this trip:
Safe travels
Boldness in evangelism
Open hearts of LDS members
Spiritual Protection
True fellowship and unity among our team
Thanks again guys for the prayer and support!
God bless
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
First Day Here!
I'm just finishing up my first day here. I've gotta say God has got HUGE plans for this place this summer. Today I woke up and talked to Joe Filer, a church planter who is sort of directing a lot of the things that are going on this summer. I found out more specifics about what I will be doing with the Spanish ministry.
Basically in Ogden there is a portion of the city is almost entirely Spanish. Throughout the summer my plan is essentially just to make myself available in the area to meet the needs of community, whether that be physical or spiritual, We're hoping to start a ministry where we do fun activities like flag football and other things like that for the kids in the area during the summer. We're also working on hopefully teaching through the Financial Peace University program by Dave Ramsey. This program teaches how to handle finances in a way that is honoring to Christ.
Other things that I'm excited about are the short term mission teams that will be here throughout the summer. Today the team from Arkansas, Colleen (another intern at the Blue House) and I went to Salt Lake City to visit Temple Square and watch an episode of Heart of the Matter (you can check out the show here). Going to Temple Square is always a good experience, because you can really see fully what Mormonism is all about. We didn't have too many fruitful conversations, but were able to pray for a couple of the sister missionaries. Tomorrow Allie gets here, so that means our intern group will be nearly complete!! Aubrey will be here next week!
This weekend we're going to be going down to Manti to watch a huge Mormon pageant, which I'll talk about in more detail in my next post. I think that's about it for the first day! So excited to see how God is going to change the community of Ogden and Salt Lake City this summer!
Basically in Ogden there is a portion of the city is almost entirely Spanish. Throughout the summer my plan is essentially just to make myself available in the area to meet the needs of community, whether that be physical or spiritual, We're hoping to start a ministry where we do fun activities like flag football and other things like that for the kids in the area during the summer. We're also working on hopefully teaching through the Financial Peace University program by Dave Ramsey. This program teaches how to handle finances in a way that is honoring to Christ.
Other things that I'm excited about are the short term mission teams that will be here throughout the summer. Today the team from Arkansas, Colleen (another intern at the Blue House) and I went to Salt Lake City to visit Temple Square and watch an episode of Heart of the Matter (you can check out the show here). Going to Temple Square is always a good experience, because you can really see fully what Mormonism is all about. We didn't have too many fruitful conversations, but were able to pray for a couple of the sister missionaries. Tomorrow Allie gets here, so that means our intern group will be nearly complete!! Aubrey will be here next week!
This weekend we're going to be going down to Manti to watch a huge Mormon pageant, which I'll talk about in more detail in my next post. I think that's about it for the first day! So excited to see how God is going to change the community of Ogden and Salt Lake City this summer!
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Preparing for Utah!!
In less than 48 hours I will be in Utah!!! If you don't already know, I will be spending the next two months in Ogden, Utah (which is about half hour north of Salt Lake City). You may be asking, what am I going to be doing in Utah?
I will be an intern with an organization called Utah Partnerships for Christ (UPFC). UPFC brings out short term mission teams throughout the summer. As an intern, I will be acting in a support role for these teams and basically just helping them out. I'll find out more details when I arrive. Another really cool opportunity that I have as part of my internship is that I will be starting up a Spanish ministry to families in the area. Not really sure what to expect with that, but I'm excited to see what God has in store and how He's going to use me.
Here are a few initial prayer requests. As time progresses I will provide updates with more specific prayer requests, praises, and just what God has been doing and teaching me through this experience.
I will be an intern with an organization called Utah Partnerships for Christ (UPFC). UPFC brings out short term mission teams throughout the summer. As an intern, I will be acting in a support role for these teams and basically just helping them out. I'll find out more details when I arrive. Another really cool opportunity that I have as part of my internship is that I will be starting up a Spanish ministry to families in the area. Not really sure what to expect with that, but I'm excited to see what God has in store and how He's going to use me.
Here are a few initial prayer requests. As time progresses I will provide updates with more specific prayer requests, praises, and just what God has been doing and teaching me through this experience.
Prayer Points
· Spanish Ministry I’ll be starting
· Short Term teams every week
· Spiritual Protection (Ephesians 6:12)
· Increased burden for the LDS (Romans 10:1-4)
· Unity among our team (Philippians 2:1-3)
· Boldness in proclaiming Christ (Ephesians 6:19)
· Wisdom and Discernment (Proverbs 2:6-9)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)