Thursday, July 12, 2007

francis chan

So I love this guy... he's an amazing preacher full of passion and a love for the Lord that's contagious. I didn't realize I could download his weekly sermons so when I was just waiting for LIfE to happen so I could download his messages from there. LIfE is a Christian and Missionary Alliance (the denomination I belong to) youth event every 3yrs. So anyway....

I was listening to his first message this afternoon and I love his bluntness and just calling it as it is. One of the things he questioned was... (and I'm simply summarizing not quoting) 'How many of you are really for real in your relationship with the Lord? How many of you are really pursuing your relationship with the Lord? Or how many of you think you have a relatioship because your parents do?' That's a great question not just for youth but for everyone to ask themselves on a regular basis because it's so easy to fall into a routine or get caught up in the daily aspects of life and forget that our relationship with the Lord takes work like any relationship with a person. It takes time, it takes pursuing God to learn more about Him and draw closer to God.

And he then he went on to ask something that has stuck with me and really made me think. He said, 'If you were to leave LIfE (the conferene) and all your friends and family decided to totally walk away from God... what would you do?' If everyone you are close to walked away from the Lord... what would you do?' He asked that question because God wants a relationship with you.. it's not you and your parents/friends, etc... it's you. And individual thing... you pursuing God. You can't depend on your family, your friends... you can't blame how your parents/friends have acted, etc.... God will ask YOU... 'Did you pursue me?'

What a powerful, thought-provoking question... we probably know what we'd hope we'd do but if you really think about it... be honest with yourself.... what would you do?

Can't wait till nap time tomorrow to hear what he has to say next!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I saw that it's your birthday!! (at TDC, on the front page under "today's birthdays" LOL). Hope you have a great day today!!!

You pose an excellent question. It's summer break, so I'm not in our women's bible study at the present moment and I find that when I'm not in an organized study, it's "harder" to find time for God (that's so sad). I think mainly because I like the way that an organized study strings the days together, so I'm building on what I learned yesterday. Thanks for that thought, it made me really think about that question.