Friday, January 12, 2007
Tonight was our last night of training. Well, I shouldn’t say that it’s been training, it’s really been impartation. If we choose to accept it. This was the culmination of a lot of pouring out on the part of Andrew, Gary, Seth, and Bob. And a night of ordination (not because they finished Bible school, but because they get it, they get what God’s accomplishing in the world, and they choose to be a part of it…they choose to accept their inheritance). So tonight, Chad Mast (our B squad leader) and 2006 World Racer, Bob Waig (AIM staff in Matamoros), and Fransisco (a preacher at the church we attended last Sunday) were ordinated by these apostolic leaders. It was a pretty emotional ceremony (I cried, but it doesn’t take much for me to cry).
My mom always apologizes for giving me the “crying gene.” I’ve never been more happy to have the crying gene… it shows I care, that I’m moved by things, that when the Holy Spirit moves I’m receptive. I’m not ashamed of my tears anymore, I embrace them. I hope I cry the rest of my life. I hope the hair on my arms stand on end constantly, because God’s presence will be forever upon me. I told Scott the other night that I finally understand the kid’s church song “This Little Light of Mine,” because when the Holy Spirit is upon you all you can see is light…. and you want to let it shine, let it shine, let it shine forever.
Some of you know what I’m talking about. Some of you think “that’s nice, but not for me…it’s kind of out there.” Some of you think I’ve just joined a cult. Some of you can’t even fathom God. But if you could imagine an all loving God, who devised from before the beginning of time a way for there to be light out of darkness, order out of chaos, life out of death, fruitfulness out of barrenness. That plan isn’t Heaven. I’m talking about US. God gave his son his inheritance(Psalm 2)… the Earth (and all that is in it), not the right hand of the Father. We need to stop living as if this world is Satan’s, or living as if we’re just supposed to be happy and get to Heaven. We recite the Lord’s prayer in most churches, but I don’t think we get that God’s will is done ON EARTH as it is in Heaven.
Most people, when asked why God created us, or why we are here, would answer something like, “to love God and love others.” But really, we were created TO BE LOVED. It’s not a profound thought, just one that we overlook (including myself). Oh, to just rest in the arms of your Father. Some of you have never experienced the love of a father and can’t imagine the God of the universe wanting to throw His arms around you and kiss you (Luke 15:20). I’m not talking about resting in a religion, but unfortunately there’s a lot of people who try to cozy up to a bunch of rules and standards for living, and call it God. And that’s why we have trouble figuring out how to love other people, we don’t experience God’s love first hand. How the heck do we give something out (and keep giving it out) if we haven’t received it first?
So my encouragement is… stop doing religion! God didn’t create it, He created relationship. So we can have a bunch of superficial relationships based on a bunch of rules… or we can let God romance us, so that we can love others from the overflow. It’s really quite simple, I don’t know why people don’t get it. Oh, and you don’t have to wait to go through a program on loving… activate now. It’s scary, you might feel uncomfortable at first, and you might get some funny looks (mostly from those following a religion), but the greatest gift you can give others is yourself… people who love breathe life into things that are dead.
Ask the Lord what your inheritance is (it may be a specific place of people, type of people, race of people… it could be one person) and then TAKE IT!
