Encounter 2010
Encounter 2010 is coming: Saturday, October 9 – 7:00PM (Doors open at 6:30PM) @ the Lincoln Theatre in Marion, Virginia. Tickets are $5 and all proceeds support local missions (Project Crossroads) and foreign missions (Encounter Asia 2011). This is our new promo video! Please check it out and hope to see you there!
Unity – Can It Happen?
A.W. Tozer on Unity: “Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So one hundred worshipers together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be were they to become “unity” conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship. – A.W. Tozer
Before He was crucified, Jesus prayed that we would be one, as He and His Father are one. (John 17) God longs for us to be in unity with Him through Christ and to live in unity with one another. With so many differences in personalities, cultures, denominations, worship styles and preferences I’ve often wondered if it is even possible. Scripture and history reveal the power of a unified church, and my hunger for revival has led me to pursue this goal with passion. Sometimes the results have seemed good. Sometimes not so much. The older I get, however, the more I realize that genuine unity can only flow from hearts who are drawn together by a passion greater than personality, greater than culture, greater than denomination or personal preference. It is passion for Christ. The impossible task of unity becomes possible in the presence of Jesus.
This is one of the major values of Encounter Generation. I don’t want unity through an event or program. I long for unity that naturally develops through passionate worship of Jesus Christ. Tozer is onto something genuine and true. I hope that my life and Encounter captures that. I hope you and your church and community do as well.
Is Your God Too Small?
This Week on Christian Leader Thursdays: C.S. Lewis
In the fantastic book Prince Caspian, from the Narnia series by C.S. Lewis, Aslan tells Lucy, “Every year you grow, you will find Me bigger.” That may be my favorite line ever.
J.B. Phillips wrote a book called, Your God Is Too Small. I have to confess…I have not read it. But the title intrigues me. There is a tendency in me to settle for where I am in my relationship with God. The problem with settling is that it limits my picture of God to what I have known of Him so far. My ability to trust Him is based on that picture I have of Him, and all the while, God is saying, “You’ve just scratched the surface. Your God is too small. I AM so much bigger than you know!”
But Jesus is so patient with us. Though our tendency is to settle, God utilizes everything: His word, creation, blessings and perhaps most of all through our trials, to reveal His greatness in our lives. That’s why, even after Job had lived through a hell most of us can barely imagine, he responded to God, “My ears had heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you.” God is not satisfied with a picture of who He is in our hearts and minds that is not in line with the greatness of Who He is in reality. Our journey with Christ is a lifetime of discovering how BIG our God is, and a lifetime is not enough!
In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul wrote, “I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.” (Eph. 1:17) If God won’t settle for a small picture of Who He is, I sure can’t afford to settle. That may be the greatest adventure of life: Discovering daily how big our God is, through our trials, through our blessings and through hosts of other ways in which He reveals Himself.
As Paul sat in prison for preaching the truth of Jesus Christ, in chains he wrote these amazing words: “But Christ has shown me that what I once thought was valuable is worthless. Nothing is as wonderful as knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. I have given up everything else and count it all as garbage. All I want is Christ and to know that I belong to him. I could not make myself acceptable to God by obeying the Law of Moses. God accepted me simply because of my faith in Christ. All I want is to know Christ and the power that raised him to life.” (Philippians 3:7-10)
So keep growing. Lucy received some wise words: “Every year you grow, you will find Me bigger.”
How has God revealed Himself to be BIG in your life? How are you continuing to grow?
