But in all seriousness this small gathering of believers possessed a richness and depth that far exceeded my initial aspirations for the group. Our task was simple really, and something I shared with them the first week: to fall more in love with Christ. Our method was two fold: first, sharing openly experiences from our week in which we saw his life take flesh, instances where we witnessed a need for Jesus' presence and power. And second, we dove into the Word in search of portraits of Jesus' life, snapshots detailing his heart and his character, the way he responded to people and certain situations. We were looking for anything and everything that might enable us to know Christ more intimately. And oh how the Lord revealed himself to us in new ways! It should come as no surprise that he is always surpassing even our highest hopes.
Beneath this seemingly ordinary "Bible study" lies a reason, maybe you could even call it a desire, that I shared both with my youth group and these college students often this summer. And it stems from the Nouwen quote I shared a month or so back. I told them that this world doesn't need any more really nice people, that there are enough sweet girls and good guys out there. What this world needs more than anything is Godly men and women who intimately know the heart of God, who embody the Spirit of Christ, and are passionatetly and consistently living this out in their world.
Lord help us know you better and more fully. Help us smell, speak, react, pray, and live like Christ so this world might know him.
- - - - - - -
pic of the day:
No comments:
Post a Comment