Day 1 of the FEAST= What does it mean to sit at the table?

Who are you to sit at the King’s table and eat? What gives you the right to be here?

Because you are a prince or princess of the King!

Have you ever had a meal with someone you didn’t know very well? I have. Sometimes it is painful, because we don’t know what to say or how to start a conversation. But I remind myself that if I stay long enough and make attempts at conversation - sometime soon it will not be so hard - the person will no longer be a stranger, but a friend.

Maybe that is what it will feel like to you as we sit at the table and FEAST. Take your time. You belong here with Christ and with your hungry travelers. May I suggest that this first day is spent reflecting on why we have a place at the table and who we are to the people seated around us.

John 1:12 I am a child of God.

John 15:15 I am Jesus’ chosen friend

Rom. 5:1 I am holy and acceptable to God

1 Cor. 3:16 I am united to the Lord and am one spirit with Him

1 Cor. 6:19,20 I have been bought with a price. I belong to God

1 Cor. 12:27 I am a part of Christ’s Body, part of His family

Eph. 1:1 I am a saint, a holy one

Eph. 1:5 I have been adopted as God’s child

Col. 1:14 I have been bought back and forgiven of all my sins

Col. 2:10 I am complete in Christ

Lord, I sit here reminding myself that I belong. That You desire my presence at Your table. I look forward to the time when I can sit in Your presence, completely silent (no words) and completely comfortable, because we are that close.

COME JOIN THE F.E.A.S.T.

Are you hungry for God? Do you desire to be satiated by His presence and His love? Then I invite you to come join the F.E.A.S.T.  From March 1 to April 9 we will be feasting together around God’s bountiful table (This blog site). Here is a sampling of the menu.

F=Fast. A fast usually refers to abstaining from food, but we will be using it to abstain from different things. Fasting tends to reveal the things that control us. It can also be a means of worshipping. As you fast from the item listed for the particular day - notice how often it enters your mind or crops into your day. This may be an area that you need to bring before the Lord for help.

{1 Samuel 7 - Read how Samuel and the people of Israel fasted and put away the things that were keeping them from God and how God came and miraculously helped them.}

E=Encourage. A type of encouragement will be suggested each day. This will be something you can easily do. Be creative. You can call someone up, write a note, share with a family member, neighbor, or coworker.

{My beloved friends, let us continue to love each other since love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God. 1 John 4:7; Message Bible}

A=Admit. Confession is vital to knowing God’s power. You will be asked that day if the item listed is an area that you need His work in. You can then bring the area to God in prayer - You won’t want to pass this section by.

{If we claim that we’re free of sin, we’re only fooling ourselves. A claim like that is errant nonsense. On the other hand, if we admit our sins—make a clean breast of them—he won’t let us down; he’ll be true to himself. 1 John 1:8; Message Bible}

S=Scripture. To know God you must read His love letter to you. A short passage of scripture will be given each day to read.

{Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives. Colossians 3:16, NLT}

T=Trust or Thankfulness. Each day something to trust or thank God for will be listed. Build your trust in God. Know that He is All-Powerful and has your best in mind. Also, thank Him for His goodness.

{Oh, the joys of those who trust the Lord. Psalms 40:4; NLT. Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for men. Psalms 107:21; NIV}

I’m looking forward to FEASTING together.

{NLT=New Living Translation Bible; NIV=New International Version Bible}

Past the point of no return?

I know, the title of the post is from an opera, but it aptly describes something I’ve been thinking about recently from a seminar at the summit. (I won’t name the seminar or the presenter as I don’t want to get him or her in trouble if I misrepresent the general point of the seminar.)

The point came up about the difficulties that many young adults face in worshiping/getting involved in “traditional” Adventist congregations; the speaker talked about his/her experiences of listening to complaints that young adults direct to him/her about their situation(s).

The speaker’s advice? Quite complaining. If you are in your 20-30’s and have a college degree you should spend your energy/education/experience in planting a new church. The general point was that traditional Adventist congregations won’t change to become young adult friendly institutions; they are set in their ways. If you’re a young adult, your energy is better spent in starting something new.

I want to be clear; the speaker was not advocating a mass exodus/revolt, but stated such an endeavor should take place with the blessings of the pastor of a particular congregation that the young adults is already attending and the conference.

Anyway, for some reason, this exchange has been on my mind the past few days.

What do you think? What challenges do you face as a young adult at your local church? Do you have positive or frustrating experiences? What do you like/wish would change? The music? The teaching? The programming? The people?

If you are a pastor, would you give your blessings to such an endeavor?

Are things really “past the point of no return” for most Adventist congregations when it comes to ministering to young adults?

The 18-35 demographic, supposedly, is the most coveted demographic for advertisers, business, and I would imagine, the local congregation. Is leaving and doing our own thing, for other’s in that same demographic, the best option for both us and the local church?

(I know I’ve asked a string of questions. I’d love to hear your thoughts on any one of them!)

SMOKE is in the Air

Smoke from Ignition.

Smoke from the prayer that surrounded Ignition and the Youth/Young Adult Summit.

The smoke hasn’t settled for me yet.  I hope it never does.

Infact, I hope that this is a fortaste of great things to come for young adult equipping, ministering, and worshipping together.

I realize I have much more to learn from those on this journey to the heart of God.

Hope is in the air for this church that I care so much about and who gave me a foundation to understand God.  I’m excited to see how this fire of spiritual revival will spread.  I pray that the sky will continue to be darkened from the smoke of ignition (worshipping, equipping, and discipling).

Hope is in the air.

Ignition Ambition - prayers for James and Allan

I am still buzzing after last weekends experience.  The Spirit of Jesus is stirring in the hearts of young adults from all over this nation.  I am wondering if next years event will be called IGNITED as the ignition has been turned on and we are on the move!

While I have found both of these men to turn away from public praise, I want to take this time to give a huge SHOT OUT to James Black and A. Allan Martin.  I thank God for James because under his leadership as the NAD’s Youth/Young Adult Ministry Director he recognized the need to develop young adult ministry in the NAD.  Allan was a great choice as he not only has a legacy with young adult ministry, but he is passionate about seeing effective ministry’s develop so that by the time his daughter is a young adult the church will be thriving.  Would you join me in saying a word of prayer for these two leaders.  Take a moment to write a word of encouragement and a word of prayer on their behalf.

 

Jesus, I thank you for men like James Black and Allan Martin who are sticking their necks out for young adult ministry.  Truly Your presence has Ignited a passion in them.  We lift them up to you today asking you to continue to protect both them and their families.  Additionally we ask that you will continue to bless them with discernment to know Your will and Your power to carry it out.  Amen.

Keep up the stellar work gentlemen!  Prayers ascend in your behalf!mwg   

Quotable Quotes about IGNITION

IGNITIONites:

We’re putting together a feature article about IGNITION, and would love to include a quote from you. Would you post your 1-2 sentence comment here to this question:

What was your experience of IGNITION like? What impact did it make on you?

Then provide your name, age, profession/major.  Thanks!

Evaluation and Photos

Over 200 photos have been posted at the NAD webpage, along with an evaluation form.

A Journey of Prayer

This type of event always becomes very personal to me and really is a “God Encounter”. It seems that whatever challenge I am going through in my personal spiritual life God meets me there and brings me just a step closer to him. This was no exception. As I stumbled to the prayer room at 4am on Sabbath morning I felt frustrated. My deepest and most real desire is to KNOW God more fully and to pursue him in my life yet I feel like I am “looking through a glass darkly”. I just can’t figure out what to do to get it clear. In my sleepy mind I hoped that the prayer room would somehow work some magic so that my eyes would be open. Maybe this time I would taste again what it was like to be in God’s presence and how to carry that into my mundane life.

As I read and prayed over the prayers on the walls I felt like I was amidst a chorus of people praying the same prayer in my heart: “God reveal yourself to me” “God show me direction in my life” “God I want to see you work”. Somehow I felt like it was adding to my own angst and I found myself in tears just asking God to answer these prayers as well as my own unexplainable desire. I attempted to express my feelings in a crude drawing of a tall gray wall dividing me on one side from everything beautiful on the other – love, sunshine, green grass, & flowers – the blessings of God.

These feelings led me to the prayer rugs where the words on the wall encouraged me to unroll myself in surrender before God in the same way as I unroll the rug and kneel on it. What a beautiful picture of surrender! As I huddled on the rug in the dark of a blanket covering me, I admitted to God that I felt very dark and separated from him. Although I wanted to surrender and prayed those words I didn’t really feel it in my heart but know that sometimes I must just say the words even when I don’t FEEL it. I sat there in my darkness for a few minutes waiting – and I heard God speak to me specifically. He said “come to the cross, I’m waiting right here for you.” I was a little startled because I realized I had subconsciously been avoiding the cross in the corner of the room. I thought it looked nice (I had helped set it up) but for some reason had skirted around it in this journey. I moved to the cross and just reflected on Jesus’ sacrifice and prayed that it would become part of me as I ate the cracker and drank the juice.

I would like to say that something miraculous happened at the base of that cross; it would be so exciting to tell you that my hunger for God was been satisfied, but it hasn’t. No bells went off or choirs sang. Somehow though it was a glimpse of Him and a very personal reminder that He hears my prayer and that the God of the Universe met me in that room.

The Birds and the Bees

“Jay you seriously dint understand what that meant?” - My friends were staring into me as they asked the question, when I referred to the title of this post. After they explained to me what ‘it’ meant, I had to tell them how growing up in India parents never spoke on such ‘taboo’ topics. Forget parents, I would have never dreamt of the Adventist Church I’ve grown-up and grown-into would ever have such a forum for Human Sexuality.

Human Sexuality 101 was one topic that I sure was interested to check out among the numerous other seminars the church had to offer last weekend. Even though I was just in time to make it to the workshop, I was stunned to talk about topics like “How did you learn about sexuality?”, “How does your childhood or experiences frame/inform your current sexual perspective?” with strangers in Christ. But it was the story of the guy sitting next to me, who happened to struggle with pornography for 3 decades that brought me back to the hypocritical state our church was in, and stating the church I also include myself and my denial. The mask we seem to so gladly wear, and pronounce “No, this can’t be”, “Not in my church, everyone is a saint”. This whole idea clicked to me, anything that has to do with changing the mind with a challenge.

Adrienne along with Matthew brought out one of the most important yet, seldom spoken subjects in a move gullible way. Human Sexuality, the complications, the addictions, the things we talk about and that we don’t talk about seem all so neatly tucked under. Some may say this can’t just change over night while I may agree with them, my challenge to them would be, “Are you willing to try?”. Try God.

He Found Peace @ Ignition

Before leaving for Dallas, we’d been praying about his grandfather. Over the holiday break he underwent quadruple bypass surgery and by now things were looking up. Only, he recently developed an infection, and Saturday night in Dallas my friend received a text stating his grandfather had 3-5 months left.

Just the night before, we’d paid a visit to the cross. We all had index cards and on them we wrote things standing in between us and God. We took the index cards and tore them to pieces scattered at the foot of the cross. While the experience was personally freeing, I didn’t realize my friend was leaving his grandfather there. Sunday morning he told me what he’d done, and how he was at peace - God could do whatever He saw fit.

So last night when my friend phoned and said, “I’m really glad I went to that thing this past weekend” I smiled at God’s incredible timing. The doctors say his grandfather’s expiration date is closer than they’d thought and within a week he may be gone.

He’d been angry and unable to really speak about losing his grandfather, but now he’s swapped all the frustration out for perfect peace.  What we took away from Ignition is just as sweet as what we left behind.