True Worship=Adoration+Obedience

Making Jesus Lord of your life:
"I submit myself wholeheartedly to Jesus as Messiah and Lord of every area of my life.
Lord of my spirit and all my spiritual awareness and worship.
Lord of my mind, my attitudes, my thinking, my beliefs, and my imagination.
Lord of my emotions and my expression of my feelings.
Lord of my will and all my decisions.
Lord of my body, my physical health, my exercise, ...my diet, my rest and my appearance.
Lord of my sexuality and its expression.
Lord of my family and all my relationships.
Lord of my paid work and my voluntary service.
Lord of my material good and my perceived needs.
Lord of my finances.
Lord of my plans, my ambitions and my future.
Jesus thank you that you laid down your life and suffered in my place to free me from the consequences of my sin, iniquity and rebellion; I am now free to love, worship and obey you with all my heart, soul, mind and strength.
Jesus you are my Lord and I willingly submit to completely to you today and forever. Amen."

 

We prayed this in lectures the other day. Our topic? Worship. When you hear that word most probably think of singing but that is only a small part of the meaning. True worship is to adore and obey someone or something; and everybody is created to worship. Sometimes what we choose to worship is far from the true God, our Creator. People choose to worship other gods and idols made out of stone, but idols can also have other forms: money, education, relationships, security, power, comfort, and success (etc). Everything listed are good things until they take the place of God in our lives. Ask yourself this question: What does my mind wander to effortlessly? The true God of your heart is what your mind goes to effortlessly every time you let your mind wander. *BAM* I don't know about you but that convicted me. I am not saying you have to think about God every single minute of the day and that its bad to daydream.; because it isn't. God gave us the ability to daydream but if we think about one thing constantly that thing is becoming an idol. Heavy stuff and this was just the first section of day 1.

 

Day 2: Our speaker (whos name is Jason from Australia) gave us this analogy: A father is out mowing the lawn and his little boy wants to help push the lawn mower. The dad lets his son "help" him push it although it makes the job take longer. After the mowing was done the son runs into the house and tells his mom "Mommy I did it! I mowed the lawn!" So why did the father let his son help? He did that so he could have a sweet moment this child; to have intimacy. That is how God is with us. We go out to do missions or do something for God like the little kid "helping" his daddy push the lawn mower and at the end we say "Look God I mowed the lawn". The point is that God doesn't NEED us to do missions and share the gospel, He WANTS us to "help" him do missions and share the gospel. God wants to have those sweet moments; to have intimacy. God doesn't want to see the back of your head. He wants to hold your hand and lead you, looking into your eyes.

 

The root of all of this: Worship is obedience. Those who go out from the presence of God into the world are the ones that change the world.

 

So yeah I have been floored numerous times in the last 2 days. And what I am sharing is just scratching the surface.

 

Beyond being floored this is what's been happening here:

-We had our last Lights In the Community today (the school we go to weekly and have a small after school program with the kids). Finishing that made us realize that lecture phase is nearly over!

-Only 3 weeks and 3 days until we leave for Cambodia which means I am almost done with the lecture phase!

-We are having a fundraiser next weekend for outreach

-We are starting to learn the dances we will be performing on outreach at morning exercises

 

Prayer:

-Team Unity!

-Funds for outreach to come in for those who are lacking the funds