Relatively Hot

When it is snowing outside and I make it to my apartment, it is relatively hot.  I do not mean to say that it is pretty hot in my apartment, because my roommates and I decided to not turn on the heat all winter in order to save money.  What I mean is relative to the snow outside my 40ish degree apartment is hot.  This is a obvious statement but it can be lost in translation when applied to spiritual matters.  I can seem relatively hot and on fire for God when surrounded by new and not-yet-Christians, even if I am experiencing a low in my walk with the lord. 

This can be a dangerous reality feeding into a "Pharisee" type of mind set or cynical feelings towards others.  That is why it is really great to challenge yourself by having deep conversations with the strong Christians that you know.  Obviously, the righteous road is narrow, so trapping yourself in a Christian bubble will not give you the freedom to live out the Great Commission Jesus gave in Matthew 28, to make disciples, so it is also important to share your faith with those who do not already know Jesus.  However, the witnessing aspect of the training weekend can be a blog for another time provided it is a "Luke 10" type of situation, not a "Matthew 6," if you catch my draft.  This is about the uplifting time I had bonding with my fellow missionaries in PA.

I believe Mission training was just a small sample of the great things to come this summer with World Harvest Missions.  The folks running everything set up great organizational things and the care and planning that went into the logistics of the whole weekend was clear.  Even with all that working for the training the best part of the weekend was hands down the interactions I had with other 20-some-year-old college students that had a real heart for God.  Not only did they have a spirit for God but they also had willingness to take bold steps down the adventurous path laid by the hands of the creator of all good things!  Anyone who left the Christian faith out of boredom never understood what Christ did or what His mission is!

The renewing atmosphere can hardly be put into words, it was like being in a room filled with die hard ECU (insert favorite team) fans as they are reminiscing over the previous night's overtime win.  Only instead of fans, we were members, and instead of reminiscing, we were equipping.  Members of the most high God passionately and excitedly being equipped for His missions He called each one of us to overseas.  We would be joking around about what kind of orange sour cream looking substance we trustingly were spreading over our bagel, and then... As if as natural as breathing, Jesus' name would fly across one of our lips.  It would not enter the room with the silence that can proceed the utterance of the most powerful name in everyday life.  No, there was no amplified heart beats as His name was reverently praised.  This time, it might have been something like how diversely and personally Jesus our savior works.  After adoration was verbalized, the conversation could easily flow back to the breakfast spread, or it could transform into this deep relevant and truthful proclamation of Jesus' attributes.

Being surrounded by this kind of community reminded me of the one I have only read about in Acts.  Granted no one sold property to meet a need of another brother, but I could see a glimpse of how mustard-seed faith could blossom into a martyr's dying act of joyful obedience (Acts 7).

The ability to pick any one of my fellow brothers or sisters in Christ and have an educated discussion about the Bible, and the drive to apply what we know/learn, was amazing.  This was a wakeup call for me about what being on fire for God feels like.  My concluding note is this: do not be quick to be proud because you are relatively godly. That is like saying that my apartment is hot because it’s colder outside.  God is leading His people in every cultural to some amazing things!  Of course we could take this a step further and compare my apartment to the sun , there is really no comparison, just like when our, as humans, good deeds are compared to God’s righteousness.   

For those who do not know, the training I was referring to was preparing me to go to Ireland for two months on full time missions.  More information about my missions can be found on my last post "Go and make disciples in Ireland."