Post date: Sep 10, 2012 1:50:04 AM
Today was a pretty cool day. We started out this morning with some praise and worship and then a session on living a spirit filled life. I thought this session was absolutely awesome and really a good session for me personally. It is so important for followers of Christ to be full, led and empowered by the Holy Spirit. Tiffany and I also read Forgotten God by Frances Chan within the last year and the Holy Spirit is such an overlooked part of our walk with Christ. But, as mentioned today, it is such a vital part of our walk, if not the most vital.
Without being filled, led and empowered by the Holy Spirit we become joy-less, legalistic Christians. A great exercise, first explained by Bill Bright (founder of Campus Crusade), is spiritual breathing. To exhale is to confess our sin. To call sin what it is and acknowledge it as sin. And then to inhale, which is asking God to fill us with His Holy Spirit.
You may have heard the difference in grace and mercy described before: grace is receiving what we do not deserve and mercy is not receiving what we do deserve. Well today I heard another great explenation of some biblical terms. To grieve the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:30) is to do something that we ought not to do. And to quench the Spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:19) is to not do something that He wants us to do.
Another really awesome point is that when we ask the Holy Spirit to fill and empower us we then move forward by faith in the power of God. It does not matter if we feel like the Holy Spirit filled and empowered us. What mater is that God says that if we ask, He will fill us. So we can confidently move forward knowing God has honored His word.
(a cool illustration of the Christian life is a train: Truth is the engine, faith is the coal car and emotion is the caboose)
Sorry for the length... we then had a session on sharing our faith and using the four spiritual laws tool in order to do so. And then we went out and did it. I met a guy named Jason at the Fudge Factory who is a believer and I asked him if I could remember anything in my prayers for him. He is just getting started on his own in life and knows God has bigger plans for his talents, but he needs some direction and discernment. He also mentioned living paycheck to paycheck. I told him I would pray for him and that I would also send him some info and materials on some budgeting stuff (since this is my passion after all). It was cool how the Lord led me to someone with a financial type prayer request and to be able to get his e-mail and encourage him. (I did actually get a free 1/2 lb of fudge out of the conversation too!) Jason was an awesome guy and I really enjoyed my conversation with him.
Tomorrow we are heading to the world headquarters for Campus Crusade for Christ International. It will be filled with some benefits and financial type information, but also we get to tour the facilities of our headquarters. I hear it's one of the best days (but that seems to be a trend...)