Post YEC 2012 (Youth Evangelism Conference)

So, I was dropped off in Canton, TX for The Rabe Family Reunion while the rest of my students went on home to Bevil Oaks, TX. I’ve never experienced such separation anxiety before. Not only was I missing a great time of fellowship annoying the cool kids with my “to legit” persona, I was flooded with fears of them losing sight of decisions they had made without one of my powerful reminders as they head home from the church. Or perhaps they would let the whole thing fade into a simple social event if I don’t walk through the sermons again and encourage them with scripture. I was not there when they arrived home and I will not be attending this Sunday’s services at FBC Bevil Oaks because of the reunion. I’m not there.

But I do know one who is altogether far more holy, awesome, amazing, righteous and loving than I and He is there. Jesus is there! The Holy Spirit is drawing these students closer and closer to Christ and to life more abundant. My anxiety is quickly put to rest knowing that Jesus is the wonderful counselor. He’ll keep them and grow them if they have called on Him to be their Savior. Praise God for such incredible and loving care.

I am not sure what the future holds for these students, but God does. I am not sure of the sincerity of their hearts, but I know that the Holy Spirit will give evidence to this fact. It is so encouraging to know that God works in us. That He is not a distant deity without interest in our affairs, but He is God with us, God for us, and God in us. How awesome!

YEC 2012 thoughts

I’m in the Blue Cypress Hotel on the last morning of YEC 2012 in Arlington and I am praying that on this last day students would take a step of faith and trust God with 100% of themselves.  I know for myself that being Sold Out for Christ is the only way to attain the abundant life Jesus mentions in John 10:10. Anything less results in a double minded man or woman that is turn down continually by the flesh they cling too. 

In the midst of this desire for the students, I am prompted with our own “Fill the Chairs Campaign” in which students seek to tell everyone they can about Jesus, filling the empty chairs that are added to our youth room every week. What a daunting task to see another empty chair added every week regardless of whether they have filled it or not. But what a powerful image of our daily walk and the blunt reality that those empty chairs represent a real person, stuck in a bottomless pit of muck and mire with no hope of escape unless we introduce them to Jesus. He’s the only one strong enough to pull them from such a place and we should know this so well. We should know because we too were once stuck in the pit without hope until someone introduced us.

What a poor example of love it is to think that we were pulled from the depths of sin and upon our stepping on the solid rock we walk away knowing others are still trapped. How could we be so cold, so selfish?

I am beyond convicted that I have been too complacent in evangelism, too lazy in my pursuit of Jesus, too distracted by the flashing lights of sin. I have been like a moth to a flame. I am being burned by the desires of the flesh.

But that is the past and like all those in Christ, through confession and repentance, Jesus has removed that shame and replaced it with a genuine love for those around me. I too was with them but now I become, “all things to all people that we [I] might save some.”

May God continually shake me from the lullaby of sin to be awake and ready for God’s purposes.

This may be jumbled but its early and I have been up with teenage boys far too long.     

Guns and Moses

In Numbers 21 God sends fiery serpents to draw His people into repentance for their sins. After being bitten, in order to survive they had to look to a fiery serpent mounted on a pole and lifted up above the people. It was their sin that led to death, but by hanging the image of sin (the serpent) on a pole and lifting it up for all to come face to face with their sin, they were spared. John 3:14 references this passage and associates it with Christ being raised up on the cross.  In Christ our sins were nailed to the cross. They were put to death in His body and we are now free from the hold of sin and its deadly consequences. But much of the Christian population is so focused on sins that we fail to seek the Risen Savior. He's not dead. He's alive and we are charged to live like Him. We can't simply be identified as Christians by what we don't do. We must be seen in pursuit of Christ and His righteousness.  

If you were at a gun range and doing some practice shooting, what would be going through your head as you fired the gun? I’ve gone shooting several times and I know that for myself, I have this over thought out ritual of aiming and firing. Take aim and Fire. I’m not really being serious about its complexity, but why is following Christ any different?

            Why is it that when it comes to Christ we focus on missing the mark (sin) instead of hitting the mark? I can’t imagine coming to the firing line with the idea in my head, “Ok, don’t shoot here, or there, or there, or there, or over there, and definitely not there.” I’m going to be so exhausted, that by the time I’m done labeling all the wrong things to shoot, I will have lost the enjoyment of hitting the target all together. 

           

          If you live life in this fashion, I can imagine that Following Christ is a tedious, boring and fruitless experience. Most of your time will be spent analyzing everything but Jesus. You’ll have your eyes on all the non-targets, when they should be on Christ. And the reality of the Gospel is that if you seek Jesus alone, everything else will disappear and you won’t be able to miss.

That’s what it means when you read in Galatians 5:16-17,

“But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.”

If we have Christ as our aim nothing else will matter, nothing else will come into focus. It will be Jesus at the center and there will be no provision for the flesh. (Romans 13:14) 

I am not trying to diminish sin, either the reality of it or its ability to enslave. And yes we are to abstain from sin, but simply abstaining without a mind to glorify God in actively pursuing righteousness is worthless. I am illustrating that no one walks to the firing line, considers all the wrong targets before shooting. The key is to simply take aim and fire. Ignore the fleshly temptations that swirl around, ignore the calls from those on the wide road, and take aim at Christ and follow Him.