| Conferences and Thoughts (editted) |
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Let me first of all say WOW. What an awesome weekend. On Saturday, I returned with several of the men from the 2007 Honorbound Conference. I will say it again WOW. It was a powerful weekend full of timely messages that impacted straight to the heart. The theme of the weekend was"Leave a Legacy". I may share later on some of the messages, but first I wanted to present something that has been on my heart.
I am sure that many of you have been to conferences and large events with hundreds or thousands of people there. This could be a youth camp, a minister's conference, a women/men conference, or even a christian concert. Most of the people that I know of (even myself), when they go to an event they get pumped up. I mean they are totally revved up and ready to go.
They are like that car on the starting line of a race. Toward the end of the conference, you can hear the cars revving up thier engines. Excitement fills the air. People stand to thier feet as the announcer gets ready to release the cars for the race. And then all of the sudden....BOOM....the race begins. And each car is off on thier own....to run thier own race.
This is the same as a man/woman leaving a conference/camp. We are fueled up and ready to go...and when we get home....its like running our race. But as those of us who watch racing now and then knows, the race does not goes exactly as planned. The cars take off...but all of a sudden some may have a blowout before they finish the first lap. Others make it half way through the race and then run out of fuel. Others make it toward the end of the race, but then hits the wall and crashes. Only few of the many who started the race will finish....but WHY?
Why is it that only few of the men and women who gets refueled during a high impact conference actually finish the race that we call life? Why is it that as soon as we get started we have a blowout? Why is it that some of us runs into a wall? WHY....WHY...WHY!!!???....my soul screams out this question.
This is because some people do not think that the same power that was at the camp or the conference could be in thier own life let alone thier church. So they do not seek after the power.
Do we not serve the same God at home or at church than we do at the conference?
Do we not seek after the same presence of God?
Are we filled with a different Holy Spirit?
No...for it is the same God we worship at home and at church and at the conferences. So why do we not pray, worship, and seek God with the same enthusiasm as in a conference when we are at church...or when we are alone in our houses?
We long for revival. We long for our youth to be saved and on fire. We long....we long...we long.....but we do not let this desire to draw us closer to God. And even though on the inside we may long for more and more on the outside no one can tell. For we hide the fire inside, where it will slowly fade and eventually vanish until the next conference.
How much fire has been quenched because we do not continue to seek after God with passion and the fervent prayers? How can we expect God to move and in the hearts of the men and women we interact with each and everyday, when we do not allow this fire to grow within us until it consumes us?
The Bible says:
5:19 Quench not the Spirit.
So why do we constently allow the spirit and fire within us to be quenched when we get home?
There is no longer any room in the world for a merely external form of Christianity, based upon custom. The world is entering upon a period of catastrophe and crisis when we are being forced to take sides, and in which a higher and more intense spiritual life will be demanded of Christians.
- Nikolai A. Berdyaev - (1874-1948)
It is time for us to get out of this place, where we go get fired up at a conference and then come home and the fire dies. It is time for us to begin seeking God with such fervant prayers and enthusiasm in our own private times with God and then take that passion into our churches. It is time for us to refuel ourselves with the power of the Holy Spirit each and every single day. And when we do...the conferences and camps we attend will not be the only highlight of the year, but the salvations of the lost will supercede what our hearts and minds could imagine. Just imagine the news being overflowed with stories of salvations instead of trauma. You may say that its not possible. Well I say that all things are possible with God. He saved you didn't he?
Your friend....
Jeremy
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