Sunday two-fer
I had an opportunity to show some love to the community yesterday.
Several, and by that I mean more than ten, of the local churches in Ogden for a morning yesterday put aside denominational differences and got together for a time for worship and community service. Nick Vujicic joined us for a few minutes in the morning to get us fired up. This is the first time I'd seen this man and if you've never heard of him, take a few minutes and google his name. He'd been in the state for a couple of days at the invitation of Gov. Gary Herbert to speak to the youth of Utah about bullying.
This man is a strong testament to God's grace and I'm so happy I had a chance to hear him speak in person. Our church showed a video presentation of an event he did here in northern Utah on Thursday last night, and I'm so sorry I missed both events. Sometimes working nights isn't all it's cracked up to be.
Anyway, the worship service on Saturday morning was a bit non-traditional but that's OK, I've been to services like that before and the only problem I have with them is me. I'm not used to them, but I do enjoy them. It's good to sing praise songs to our Lord and our Heavenly Father. Honestly, I enjoy the music.
I woke up yesterday morning and my tank was empty. I mean that. My emotional tank was well past the point that the tank empty light came on. I wasn't on fire for the Lord or anyone else yesterday morning and I knew it. But God is good all the time and He found a way to fill it up and quickly. But not how I thought.
One of the things we were asked to do was to talk to another someone we didn't know. I did. I spoke to a couple of different people I'd not met before. One was while we were gathering up trash from the frontrunner station in O-town. As one woman there remarked, "We're a messy people." But that's beside the point. We were there to just show some love to the community. And during that process, I got some badly needed things.
First is some sunshine. I need some Vitamin D in my life. So that was good.
Second was a conversation with a man I met yesterday. He asked me about witnessing at work and I told him my thoughts on it. Where he works, he says he gets a lot of grief for living the way he does and being on fire for Jesus. I'm 6 foot for and about 250 pounds these days. I don't get a lot of grief for my faith to my face. Some, but not a lot. Most of it comes when I walk away from the off-color stories that I just don't need to be a part of. When I share my faith, and I do, It's usually done one on one and in as private a manner as I can. I'll not back away from a discussion, but I will not fight about it with folks. I"m genuine in sharing and I'm not going to tell you you're going to hell if you don't accept Christ. Chances are you already have heard that.
My point is that you don't HAVE to go to hell. It's a choice.
Anyway, yesterday I wasn't that bright light for Jesus that I wanted to be. I was worn out and not 100% on my game. But that's all right, too, because what I was reminded that the flame might not be bright always, but the coals still glow white-hot. If you've been around a campfire before, you've seen white hot coals. You know it's the hottest part of the fire and if the flames go out, you can rekindle the fire by blowing on the coals and adding a little more wood.
I thought about that yesterday. The man told me he thought my approach with my coworkers was pretty good. It's nice to know you're doing something right. That point was driven home again today by a little skit at the worship service preformed by two of the young men of our church. As I thought about yesterday, I wanted to share with you a lesson about fires I learned.
The difference is between a "white-man" and an "Indian" fire. The story goes that a white man builds a big fire, has to stay back at a distance, and is cold. An Indian builds a small fire, gets close, and stays warm. I think this little analogy applies to witnessing for Christ.
I saw a lot of people on fire for Jesus yesterday morning. There were bright flames and there were glowing coals. But yesterday, all of us came together to be a part of the big C Church; the body of believers. Things didn't quite go as planned but for a first-time event, they went well. We loved our community. Did anyone notice? Maybe not what we did, but regular visitors to the area will notice on Monday that the trash was picked up. Sadly, there was something much more profound that happened and most people won't know that it did.
What was that thing? A bunch of believers from different backgrounds, with different worship styles, from different churches came together.We weren't Baptists, Catholics, or non-denominational members of this or that flock.
We were just he Church!
Several, and by that I mean more than ten, of the local churches in Ogden for a morning yesterday put aside denominational differences and got together for a time for worship and community service. Nick Vujicic joined us for a few minutes in the morning to get us fired up. This is the first time I'd seen this man and if you've never heard of him, take a few minutes and google his name. He'd been in the state for a couple of days at the invitation of Gov. Gary Herbert to speak to the youth of Utah about bullying.
This man is a strong testament to God's grace and I'm so happy I had a chance to hear him speak in person. Our church showed a video presentation of an event he did here in northern Utah on Thursday last night, and I'm so sorry I missed both events. Sometimes working nights isn't all it's cracked up to be.
Anyway, the worship service on Saturday morning was a bit non-traditional but that's OK, I've been to services like that before and the only problem I have with them is me. I'm not used to them, but I do enjoy them. It's good to sing praise songs to our Lord and our Heavenly Father. Honestly, I enjoy the music.
I woke up yesterday morning and my tank was empty. I mean that. My emotional tank was well past the point that the tank empty light came on. I wasn't on fire for the Lord or anyone else yesterday morning and I knew it. But God is good all the time and He found a way to fill it up and quickly. But not how I thought.
One of the things we were asked to do was to talk to another someone we didn't know. I did. I spoke to a couple of different people I'd not met before. One was while we were gathering up trash from the frontrunner station in O-town. As one woman there remarked, "We're a messy people." But that's beside the point. We were there to just show some love to the community. And during that process, I got some badly needed things.
First is some sunshine. I need some Vitamin D in my life. So that was good.
Second was a conversation with a man I met yesterday. He asked me about witnessing at work and I told him my thoughts on it. Where he works, he says he gets a lot of grief for living the way he does and being on fire for Jesus. I'm 6 foot for and about 250 pounds these days. I don't get a lot of grief for my faith to my face. Some, but not a lot. Most of it comes when I walk away from the off-color stories that I just don't need to be a part of. When I share my faith, and I do, It's usually done one on one and in as private a manner as I can. I'll not back away from a discussion, but I will not fight about it with folks. I"m genuine in sharing and I'm not going to tell you you're going to hell if you don't accept Christ. Chances are you already have heard that.
My point is that you don't HAVE to go to hell. It's a choice.
Anyway, yesterday I wasn't that bright light for Jesus that I wanted to be. I was worn out and not 100% on my game. But that's all right, too, because what I was reminded that the flame might not be bright always, but the coals still glow white-hot. If you've been around a campfire before, you've seen white hot coals. You know it's the hottest part of the fire and if the flames go out, you can rekindle the fire by blowing on the coals and adding a little more wood.
I thought about that yesterday. The man told me he thought my approach with my coworkers was pretty good. It's nice to know you're doing something right. That point was driven home again today by a little skit at the worship service preformed by two of the young men of our church. As I thought about yesterday, I wanted to share with you a lesson about fires I learned.
The difference is between a "white-man" and an "Indian" fire. The story goes that a white man builds a big fire, has to stay back at a distance, and is cold. An Indian builds a small fire, gets close, and stays warm. I think this little analogy applies to witnessing for Christ.
I saw a lot of people on fire for Jesus yesterday morning. There were bright flames and there were glowing coals. But yesterday, all of us came together to be a part of the big C Church; the body of believers. Things didn't quite go as planned but for a first-time event, they went well. We loved our community. Did anyone notice? Maybe not what we did, but regular visitors to the area will notice on Monday that the trash was picked up. Sadly, there was something much more profound that happened and most people won't know that it did.
What was that thing? A bunch of believers from different backgrounds, with different worship styles, from different churches came together.We weren't Baptists, Catholics, or non-denominational members of this or that flock.
We were just he Church!
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