Revolution Camp. woohoo! =p

Three days. One weekend. One revolutionary camp. The beginning of a new chapter. One step of clarity. Absolutely mindblowing. Absolutely ballistic.

And the adjectives could go on and on. But no words can ever describe the way God moved, the way this camp has surpassed the level that was set last year. For this is a new season, a year of increase, and our God is a God of ever-increasing abundance, who only ever wants to pour out more and more of His Spirit, of His blessing, of His love.

And no, this isn't gonna be a blog entry describing camp. I'm too lazy for that. =p I'm just gonna share what was preached, and what was spoken during the 4 sessions we had.

Session 1: Holy and happy
Ps James Murray

Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.

Hebrews 12:14

- God is saying that ALL of us need to be holy
- Stop having the misconception that holiness is something we as humans can never attain
- Some of us think that holiness is a burden you have to push around with you for the rest of your life, that it's something as burdensome as having to push your mother in law around in a wheelchair while everyone else is out having fun i.e. we tend to think that being holy means having to lead a boring, boring life
- Some of us even envy sinners, thinking that they're the ones having all the fun and enjoying life, while we, as little perfect Christians, are stuck being prissy and uptight
- If that is you, realise that what the world is saying is "Haha, I've got a bmx, you've got a Hummer"; and you're actually envying the world for that???
- Holiness is being full of it
- Remember that temptation is a voice in your life that will never go away. Even Jesus got tempted, why do you think you won't?
- The only two things that temptation says:
"once won't hurt"
"you've already done it once, messed up once. might as well do it again"
- The reason that being full of "it" enables you to be holy, is that when you give yourself wholly to God, you'll be so full that there's no room for anything else
- Many of us don't dare to trust God with everything, and therefore give pieces of our life away to other people/to things that will ultimately leave us empty. (note that the satisfaction will be there for a moment, but emtpiness will always sink back in)
- Remember that while you try to handle holiness, grace is handling you, because His grace is sufficient. When you screw up, grace is there to stand in the gap for you.

Session 2: More than knowledge
Ps James Murray

Taste and see that the Lord is good;
blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him

Psalm 34:8

• Our whole life is full of experiences (things that we’ll never forget)
• An experience can be described but can never be fully explained
• Most people go through their Christian life hearing and learning/knowing about God’s love, but how many have fully experienced it?
• Knowledge is important, but it’s only the beginning

And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge

Ephesians 3:17-18

• A touch of heaven surpasses all knowledge and explanation
• Your role is not to explain to anyone the extent and depth of God’s love, but to help bring them to a place where they can experience it for themselves
• You can be defeated in a debate, but an experience is something that no one can ever talk you out of

When’s the last time you got a touch from God?
When’s the last time you felt Him move so powerfully in your life?
When’s the last time you felt His Presence so tangibly, so strongly?

Session 3: Whispers - hearing the voice of God
Ps Corey Turner

¹ The boy Samuel ministered before the LORD under Eli. In those days the word of the LORD was rare; there were not many visions.

² One night Eli, whose eyes were becoming so weak that he could barely see, was lying down in his usual place. ³ The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the LORD, where the ark of God was. ⁴ Then the LORD called Samuel.
Samuel answered, "Here I am." ⁵ And he ran to Eli and said, "Here I am; you called me."
But Eli said, "I did not call; go back and lie down." So he went and lay down.

⁶ Again the LORD called, "Samuel!" And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, "Here I am; you called me."
"My son," Eli said, "I did not call; go back and lie down."

⁷ Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD : The word of the LORD had not yet been revealed to him.

⁸ The LORD called Samuel a third time, and Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, "Here I am; you called me."
Then Eli realized that the LORD was calling the boy. ⁹ So Eli told Samuel, "Go and lie down, and if he calls you, say, 'Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.' " So Samuel went and lay down in his place.

¹⁰ The LORD came and stood there, calling as at the other times, "Samuel! Samuel!"
Then Samuel said, "Speak, for your servant is listening."

1 Samuel 3:1-10

• Note that Samuel was lying in the temple of the Lord
• If being physically deaf makes it difficult for us to relate to people and hinder us in what we can do, think about the consequences of not being able to hear in the supernatural - not hearing those whispers from God and having a heart that is hardened results in a spiritual walk that is dry and barren
• Our lives are shaped by our responses to what God whispers to us
• Remember that we are communicators, just as the Godhead is in perfect communion and covenant communication

The "doctrine of revelation"

• A fundamental doctrine of Christianity, which asserts that God has chosen to reveal Himself to His creation
• Remember that you DID NOT find God. God was NOT lost! God did not need any finding!
• All revelation and communication was initiated by God

1) General revelation (available to ALL)

- Through creation

• Rom 1:19-20 - "...what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world, God's invisible qualities - His eternal power and divine anture - have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse"
• Intelligent design implies and intelligent designer

- Through our conscience

• An inward knowledge of good and evil
• Before Adam and Eve ate the fruit, they were in he state of sinless perfection, where they knew only good
• Rom 2:14-15: "Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them."

- Through human history

• Acts 17:26: "From one man He made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live."

2) Special revelation: communication from God available to some

- Through miracles

- Through prophecy

- Through Jesus

• Jesus is the Word (John 1:14)
• God came out of His comfort zone to relate to us, by becoming flesh and blood
• Application: stop being wierd, diconnected and super-spiritual. Start being out there, be real, engage, because there's a world out there asking how you are relevant to them. Jesus was REAL. Jesus was LOVED by sinners. Be flesh to the world!

- Through Scripture, the Word of Life

• Stop equalizing personal revelation with revelation from Scripture
• Remember that the majority of what you hear from God will be from the Bible
• If you operate by your own revelation -> own ideology -> half truths -> cult
• The Bible is completely the Word of God, but you need to interpret it right, live it, and embrace it. Read more of it; it's where all the power of God in your life comes from, not from some other Christian book written by some other person
• Stop feeding on spiritual milk and move into the meat of God's Word and live it out

• Only 3 voices in your life: God, devil, your own
• All you need to do is check your motives to know if it's from God or you.
• And the devil isn't gonna be the one telling you to do more good, to serve more etc, so it isn't that hard to figure out!
• Everything is to lead us to a personal relationship, through personal experience
• God already knows everything that you're thinking, but so often we talk and ask so much that we forget to hear what He has to say
• In 1 Sam, the reason or God's voice being rare was because all the leaders were so busy doing. You won't hear if you don't position yourself
• Remember that God is hiding your call FOR you, not FROM you
• Do you honestly expect God to speak if you only go to Him for guidance rather than a relationship? Stop treating Him as a genie in a bottle if you want Him to move specifically in your life

4 points on hearing God's whispers

1) When God's voice is distant, you're the one who's moved away from Him, not the other way round

• It's time to crawl back into the prayer closet
• Take responsiblity for your own spiritual walk and stop waiting for another sermon, another pep-me-up

2) Don't despise the Eli in your life. You'll need them one day

• If you were fit to lead, God would've called you. But guess what? He didn't! He put that person there to lead and guide you

3) Needs a willingness to obey

• God sometimes refrains from revealing things because we aren't ready to receive it
• He'll reveal enough to let you know just the next step to take
• Remember that fruitfulness comes from obedience and remaining in Christ
• Stop asking God to reveal more if you haven't already obeyed what He has already revealed and asked you to do!

4) Stop looking for God to only speak in the spectacular

• Life ain't gonna be exciting all the time! =p
• If you think God only speaks in the spectacular, you'll miss 90% of what God is speaking
• Remember 1 Kings 19: the wind, earthquake, and fire. Wow! But it wasn't God. God came in the still small voice and spoke to Elisha, and this set up his entire ministry
• God mainly speaks in the mundane and routine of your life

Session 4: Sexuality
Ps Corey Turner

- You need to understand your sexuality from God's perspective

¹²"Everything is permissible for me"—but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible for me"—but I will not be mastered by anything. ¹³"Food for the stomach and the stomach for food"—but God will destroy them both. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. ¹⁴By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also. ¹⁵Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! ¹⁶Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, "The two will become one flesh."¹⁷But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with him in spirit.

¹⁸Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. ¹⁹Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; ²⁰you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.

1 Co 6:12-20

-We should only be mastered by the Holy Spirit

- Note in v19, that we are not our own. We belong to God, as He has bought us with His life

- When animals mate, there is nothing more than pure instinct. They do not have a spirit

- Yet the world thinks that we can't stop ourselves from having sex because that's what we were programmed to be; that we can't transcend our physical instinct
- eg. schoolies week - full vent to those 'deep dark primal instincts'

- Who decided that we can't restrain ourselves?
- Society's world view is not the voice of realism, it's the voice of despair

- The other extreme of human instinct is angel impulse

• Just as destructive and negative
• The "just don't, just don't" mentality
• Fails to address that sexuality is an important part of our life
• Leads to sexual indulgences and sexual dysfunction

- There needs to be a balanced, God-centred example of the right temperature and level of intimacy and affection

- To act like an angel is to reject your sexuality

- Paul in the passage was trying to elevate our understanding of our sexuality - that it is connected to our spirituality

• Paul is challenging the dominant world view at that time by saying that our body is a temple i.e. sacred
• renewing the Corinthian's ideologies - that God is involved in our sexuality
• sex is meant for an appropriate time/moment

- Genesis: the earth was a wild wasteland before man set upon it

• every day that passed led to a departure from chaos and disorder
• God made Man His crowning glory
• an angel can manifest in physical form for a time, but is only a spirit. Animals are physical beings without spirit. If we act like either, we are not acting the way God intended, for we were made in God's image with body and spirit. So stop acting like an angel, cos you ain't one!

- Often, the church thinks that something's too difficult to understnad and so just prohibits them. Too often, the world only knows us by what we are against, not what we are for

- Paul is saying that if God created something, it is not to be denied: God created sex for our enjoyment, but Satan came to use it to destroy that which was pure

- Because God is holy, sex is holy

- It isn't a question of how far, but it's a question of the right time - we are all capable of self restraint

- God never intended any guilt to be attached to sexuality

- 1Co6 tells us that sexual sin is different from other sin and carries different consequences

• you are involving Jesus in it because He lives in your body
• but Jesus is holy and pure, and therefore cannot be there -> hence He will distance Himself
• therefore sex outside what God intended makes us feel more disconnected, alone, meaningless, further away from God than ever
  

- When you sleep with someone, you're with them as one in spirit

- Sexual sin therefore doesn't only require forgiveness, it requires healing

- Understanding sexuality is an understanding of relationships

As leaders, stop justifying and excusing your sin. How you relate, how you act, acts as the litmus test for others to see. We'll never be healed and whole until God is in the centre of all relationships.

to ponder on

Christian right causing rest of us to lose faith
Oct. 25, 2007
from: The Lariat Online

I believe it was Gandhi that once said, "I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ."

I've always thought about those words and what they meant to me in my own experiences with other Christians.

Then when I read a survey by the Barna Group, a Christian research organization, my worst suspicions were confirmed.

The survey was about how young people view Christianity, and it showed that among 16-29-year-olds, young people have never been more critical and skeptical of Christianity.

When asked to choose their perceptions of Christians from a list of 10 positive and 10 negative, nine out of the top 12 perceptions were negative.

The survey cited feelings of disengagement and disillusionment among young people as a primary reason for this.

Whereas a decade ago, the majority of non-Christians had a favorable view of Christians, that rate now sits at 16 percent.

Which group draws most of the ire from non-Christians?

Well, if you are the average Baylor student, you need only look in the mirror -- only 3 percent of people expressed positive views of evangelicals.

But don't use this as an excuse to get all high and mighty and cry about how our society is hostile toward Christianity, and that increased persecution is a sign of the end times and that if prayer would not have ever been taken out of schools and blah blah blah... .

Just consider this: Half of young Christians themselves echoed the same sentiments -- that they "perceive Christianity to be judgmental, hypocritical and too political."

I often find myself within this camp.

Simply put, I think the church as an institution, our leaders -- perhaps even some of our parents -- have failed us.

Over the past few decades, while mainline Protestantism was growing out of touch with modernity, evangelicals became too radicalized and began to turn many people off. Suddenly, seeking people were forced to choose. Well, many young people have chosen now, and they choose neither.

Respondents to this poll gave deeply intimate stories of experiences that have turned them off to Christianity -- not broad, sweeping generalizations. Finally, there is statistical evidence for what we have already known all along but were just afraid to admit to ourselves.

This shouldn't be too surprising. Yes, we live in a post-modern society, and it shouldn't be a shock that young people are so detached.

But supposing you are a Christian, the fact of the matter is that what's being done in our name (particularly by the Christian far right) is killing Christianity. Since they are often the people who hijack the dialogue and speak loudest, they are the ones the public most often sees.

Consider this a plea to those so-called Christians. The next time you malevolently condemn homosexuals, try to get creationism into classrooms or join the cries for war, just remember: The rest of us are watching.

For the rest of us, we should make it a fundamental aspect of our faith to oppose these markedly un-Christian actions that turn people off to Christianity.

It's good to know the observations of someone outside the faith. We must always be looking for the plank in our own eye, before we look for the splinter in others.

It helps us to take inventory of ourselves and learn what we can be doing better to let the world know what we are really about.

Gandhi also said that what passes as Christianity these days is a negation of the Sermon on the Mount.

I think he was right.

Brad Briggs is a senior journalism major from Mesquite.

Deuteronomy 33:12

"Rest" is probably not something many of us are getting enough of,

especially this busy time of the year.

--
Deut 33:12

About Benjamin he said:

"Let the beloved of the LORD rest secure in him,

for he shields him all day long,

and the one the LORD loves

rests between His shoulders."

--

-Very quickly want to share:

3 take home messages from the verse above:

1. God shields us "all day long"

(even whilst rushing AMS deadlines, assignments, and exam prep!)

2. We can rest secure in Him, as His beloved.

3. Our position in God: "Between His shoulders" (like a Daddy giving his kid a PIGGY BACK ride!^^)