Beyond Blaze Again

The following account is not about the actual Blaze conference. But I think that it could rightly be described a result of it.

The week before Easter, my Great Uncle Jerry ;-) and Aunt Lucretia were in town, and my family wanted to go somewhere neat with them. They decided to go to the zoo. Unfortunately, the only day they could go was a day I had to work (argh, being in the workforce -.-), so I didn't get to go. The night before they were going to go, however, Michael made a suggestion that surprised me. Valerie and I were sitting on the couch, and he comes up to us, saying, "Hey Val, how about you and me go proselytize someone tomorrow?" Valerie did a huge double take at his vocabulary, but I replied right away, "Yeah! How about two people, one for each of you?" After we set Val straight on what he meant by proselytize (go up to someone at the zoo, start a conversation with them, and if possible share Christ with them), he excitedly came up with Inspiration #2: "How about everyone talk to someone? Liz can talk to someone at the library, Dad can talk to someone at work, Chris... etc." Ok, now this was getting personal. But hey, how can I say no? How could I want to? I've never seen this brother be excited about this stuff before! So I agreed. Now if I was in, I was going to be all in. So I started praying, and thinking about who I could talk to.

Now as it happened, Chris wanted to use the truck that day (he wasn't going the zoo either), so he dropped me off at the library. He said that he could pick me up when I was done, but I told him it wasn't necessary. I figured I would get a ride from someone. There's a certain really nice lady that I work with: she goes to church because her daughter likes going to Sunday School, but I don't think that she has a genuine relationship with Christ. Maybe I could talk to her. And, if she wasn't there, then I could just walk the two miles home. It was a nice day... and I might meet someone on the way.

Well, she wasn't working that day. Alright, walking it would be. Oh boy, talking to strangers. When my shift was over, I got on the library computers as is my custom. But it wasn't too long before I started to get fidgety. I had to get going. What if I was late for a divine appointment? So I got going.

It was a sunny and breezy day. Most of my route home is neighborhoods and lots of people were out and about. The first house I walked by the garage was open, and a guy was walking around, rather aimlessly it seemed to me. I wondered as I walked past whether he was who God wanted me to talk to. Now when you simply wonder instead of actually ask it's easier to substitute your own answer instead of God's. It's like pretending to listen. But God doesn't give up that easy. Several houses later, I still couldn't get the guy out of my head. All right, all right! I told God, "Ok, I'll turn around, and if he's still there, I'll talk to him."

Well, what do you know: he was still there. Here I go. I stepped into the driveway. "Excuse me?" He turned around. "Yes?" "Well," I answered, "I couldn't help but notice, but you didn't seem too busy... would it be all right if I asked you a question?" The guy was probably about my age. Not overly talkative or friendly, but not hostile either. He probably thought I was selling something. (Not entirely wrong, I guess). He shrugged, so I plunged ahead. "If you died tonight, do you know what would happen to you?" His face was getting more stoic by the second, but he shook his head no. "Well, if I could tell you how you could know you were going to heaven for sure, would that be good news?" Abruptly, he turned on his heel with a "Have a good day" and retreated into the garage. I was undeniably dismissed. Whoa! Must've hit a nerve there!

After that experience, I was tempted to think, "Well, that's enough. I've filled my out-of-comfort-zone quota for the day." But when you do something like talking to strangers for Jesus' sake, something funny happens. You get a shot of spiritual adrenaline. I wanted to try again. After all, I hadn't really shared the gospel with anyone yet. So I kept my eyes open.

Fast forward about a mile. I walk right past a certain playground, which of course was filled with people. On pretense of putting a can in the garbage I enter. It feels very odd to be here all by myself without some other kids with me. But today I have a mission. Who am I here to talk to? There's a nice looking lady with 2 young children on a picnic blanket... maybe her. I head in their direction... and chicken out. I walk right past them. Deja vu, anyone? I circle around again, and this time stop. "Hello." "Hi," The mom answers. She is friendly, and I am relieved. I comment on her cute kids. The little girl starts chattering with me. Then, I get sudden inspiration. I invite them to the Easter Egg hunt that our church is having this weekend. After some discussion on directions to get there, the lady mentions that they currently don't have a church that they attend. So I happily invited them to come any Sunday as well. No deeper topics were broached, but I continued on my walk happy and hopeful.

In the end, I never did actually "share the gospel" with anyone that day. But who knows what God will do by one girl's meager attempts to obey. Maybe that guy talked that night with his friend about this weird girl who wanted to tell him how to get to heaven, and maybe his friend is a Christian and has been waiting for an opportunity like this to share with him. Or maybe the lady (I know her name but am not going to share it here) will decide sometime that she wants to find a good church and will think of ours. In any case, now that I've met them, I can pray for them. A few more people in this world that aren't faceless to me anymore.

Working with Jesus is truly an adventure! And I know I haven't tasted the half of it.

BLAZE & beyond...

Dare 2 Share 2010! The name of the tour this year was Blaze, and it was awesome. My dad, Chris, Valerie, Michael, Stephanie, and myself, along with our super youth group (27 people including leaders), all went, with a little help from "The Beast" (our "15 passenger" van).

In case you don't know, a Dare 2 Share conference is a two-day weekend that is all about mobilizing teenagers to share the gospel. There are thousands of people there, youth groups from all over the Midwest. So what did we do these past two days? Worshiped with Starfield, listened to teaching and hilarious stories by guys like Greg Stier and Zane Black, watched really intense skits, and were very challenged.

What I really came away with was how possible it is to share the gospel. Yes, it is very awkward to start conversations at first, but once you swallow your initial fear and just do it, it's not that hard. It doesn't matter if you know everything, because it's Jesus who does the saving, and the Holy Spirit who prepares and plans and works. Yes, you might lose "cool points", but isn't that was losing your life for His sake is all about? Jesus was definitely not concerned about what people thought of Him when He gave His life for us.

On Saturday there were a couple specific goals they challenged us to do that very day. One was the cell phone challenge. I'll tell you about my experience with that in a minute. Another one was to find a stranger during dinner and share the gospel with them. We ended up going to a little pizza joint, and I know I wasn't the only one who scoped out the place as soon as we got in there: 2 boys at one table, 2 girls at another, and a couple workers. Not really enough for 27 people to each witness to someone. But some boys went and talked to the two boys, some girls to the girls. Then Mrs. G (that's really what we call her) and Sarah went to talk to the employees, actually one in particular whose name is Lucy. Mrs. G asked her Lucy she knew if she knew where she would go, heaven or hell, when she died. Lucy said no, she had never thought about it. They got to talking a bit more, Sarah and Chris C. joining in as well. By and by they explained the good news of Jesus to her, and asked if she wanted to accept Christ as her Savior. And she was ready! She replied, "No doubt about it!" So they prayed with her, and now we who are in Christ have a new sister who was born yesterday! Incredibly, no customers came in that needed to be served the whole time they were talking with her. Also, Sarah had a Bible with her that she could give away. God is amazing!


Now about the cell phone challenge. Everyone had to call one friend who wasn't a Christian, and start a conversation with the purpose of sharing the gospel. And you didn't get off the hook if you didn't have a phone or bring it with you... you had to borrow someone else's once they were done. I borrowed my dad's phone, but the only person I could think of was my grandpa. I was pretty sure my grandma was a believer, though we had never talked of it, but I knew my grandpa was not. Usually he avoids talking about spiritual things. But, I called my grandparents' house, and someone answered, but  I couldn't hear a thing. I figured that it was because of the murmuring stadium that I was in the middle of, so I said into the phone that I would call in a half hour, and hung up. Next on the schedule was our lunch break, so I went outside of the restaurant and tried again, but the same thing happened. I could tell that someone had picked up, but I still couldn't hear anything. So very apologetically I said I would have to try later and hung up.

So today, Sunday, after church I called first to see if they were home... land line to land line, no connection problem this time... and then I hopped in the car and drove over. Chris came along too at the last minute. We got there and before we had been there very long, my grandma asks how the conference that we went to was. Ok. This was it. I took a deep breath and plunged ahead. "It was great. Actually, that kind of why we came over today." I then went into what the drama had been about and how it had made me realize that I needed to do what I could so people I cared about - them - wouldn't go to hell. I probably used similarly run-on sentences like that too. Well, they had not been expecting an answer like that. Awkward. Then I asked if she knew where she would go if she died. (At this point Chris split and went to talk to Grandpa, who had been listening from the other room. Thank You God for letting him come with me!) Grandma's reply was, "Heaven, I hope." So I probed a bit to see the reasoning behind her answer. She said it was because she believed; she agreed it didn't have anything to do with earning her salvation. I have to believe that God didn't want me to do any further persuading, because He didn't lead me to. But we did get into a honest conversation about church and such.  Meanwhile, Chris was talking to Grandpa in the other room. At first, Grandpa was like, "I'd rather not talk about it". But then Chris was just sitting there, not talking, so Grandpa started talking to break the silence. :) They talked about why bad things happen and I don't know what else.
In the end, no conversion happened there that day. But because we went over there, God was brought to the forefront their minds yet again, and they know that their eternal destiny is important to us.

It's funny, I almost didn't go to Blaze this year. After all, I already knew that I should share the gospel, and I already know how. Loud music isn't really my thing, it's geared for public-schooled people (btw that was a bad heart attitude on my part... better now), I'm really too old for it, etc etc. But I ended up going anyway. And I'm glad I did.  Jesus saves. The harvest is already white, but the laborers are few. Here am I, Lord, send me.

Psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs... but mostly hymns.

A month or two ago, our church gave away all the hymnals to whoever wanted one. Now lest you think that our church doesn't sing hymns: that isn't true. Most weeks we sing a couple familiar ones. It kind of depends on who's on the worship team that week. And because we have the projector screen, the hymnals just aren't needed anymore. As it turns out, I had been wanting (praying for) a psalter or a hymnal for a long time (they don't exactly stock them at the library), so I was delighted to take a copy. And it's been such a blessing to me. As it turns out, it is the exact same hymnal that my other church used to use, and I knew quite a few of the songs in it.

My favorite way to use it is to just go through it and play the songs on the the violin while taking in the lyrics. Songs I knew, songs that looked familiar, songs that I'd never heard before. Good practice for my violin and my music-reading, but the songs themselves were the real treasures. Did you know there are songs about how to be holy? ("Take Time To Be Holy") There are songs on prayer, and missions, and service, and pretty much every aspect of the Christian life. Why don't we hear these songs anymore? There are songs of peace, security, and comforting. There are songs about God's majesty, and lots of songs about Jesus' incredible sacrifice. And then of course there are the Christmas songs. :) But I'll leave you with this one.

Come, all Christians, be committed
To the service of the lord;
Make your lives for him more fitted,
Tune your hearts with one accord.
Come into His courts with gladness,
Each his sacred vows renew,
Turn away from sin and sadness,
Be transformed with life anew.

Of your time and talents give ye,
They are gifts from God above;
To be used by Christians freely
To proclaim His wondrous love.
Come again to serve the Savior,
Tithes and off'rings with you bring.
In your work, with Him find favor,
And with joy His praises sing.

God's command to love each other
Is required of every one;
Showing mercy to one another
Mirrors His redemptive plan.
In compassion He has given
Of His love that is divine;
On the cross sins were forgiven;
Joy and peace are fully thine.

Come in praise and adoration,
All who in Christ's name believe;
Worship Him with consecration,
Grace and love you will receive.
For His grace give Him the glory,
For the Spirit and the Word,
And repeat the gospel story
Till mankind His name has heard.

"Come All Christians, Be Committed" Words by Eva B. Lloyd

Aslan is on the move...

The first week of March is my favorite time of the whole year! At least weather-wise. It's that first hint of warmth after winter... the wondrous sunshine... the bright blue sky! It's when you realize you didn't have to wear your coat and gloves after all... when 40 degrees Fahrenheit actually feels great! But the air is still brisk and so deliciously fresh that you breathe deeply for the joy of it. It's the perfect weather for exercising. Maybe everything's not green yet, but that's all right. It'll come, and I'll enjoy that too. But this first week of March, that point where you realize that winter is capitulating to spring, this is glorious.

A blog that is way more important and meaningful than mine.

Today, across the ocean, in the African country of Uganda, lives a 21-year-old young lady named Katie. Jesus called her to leave her comfortable life in the USA and she obeyed. Now she is a single mother to 14 adopted African girls and pours herself out for hundreds of other children there. Her life is not easy at all, but she has such tremendous JOY. She is living out the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And... she has a blog. It's inspiring and fantastic, but very challenging. So consider yourself warned. But read it anyway.

 The Journey 

Illinois's First Mountain Range!

What do you get when you put together: 1 fresh snowfall of great packing snow + 1 morning with no pressing time commitments + 2 girls itching to build something really cool? Answer: Snow cones?

 

Valerie and I have been wanting to build something (reliving the good old days) for the past two years, but we never had the "perfect snow". We also discovered that it is hard to build giant forts and such without the boys. (Good packing snow is heavy!) So we did our own thing. It took about two hours to make 22 cones and we were too tired to do the other side of the driveway. ("Tomorrow", we said.) Of course the next day it was colder and the snow was horrible for packing!

Project Proverbs 365 - The Blog!

I started a new blog! Don't worry, my little readership, it won't replace this one. In fact, it isn't about what I have to say at all. It's simply a directory of all the Proverbs I'm memorizing, one a day. I think it will be a useful index, and typing them in will be a nice reinforcement. (Speaking of typing them in, I should mention that I am not caught up to today's verse yet. Hopefully that will not remain the case for long.) Though it was made mainly for my personal benefit, and I do not expect a horde of followers, I thought I'd make a mention of it.

http://www.projectproverbs365.blogspot.com

As our pastor says, "May the Lord add His blessing to the reading of His Word." Amen.