At New Wine LSE 2011, Venue 2's morning speaker for the week was a new leader of a church in Long Beach, Darren Rouanzoin. Aged only 26 God has done amazing things through him and my blog post is just a way of sharing what I have learnt this week.
Starting off on Sunday morning he discussed the Jewish education system and how by the age of 10 all Jewish children know the Torah (first 5 books of the Old Testament) by heart. At 10, those that were chosen carried on their education and at 14 those that were selected again went to rabbis to carry on learning, with the idea that they would be rabbis in the future. They would leave their families and homes to continue learning and dedicating their lives to God.
When Jesus selected the disciples and asked them to follow Him, I am always amazed that they simply left their homes and family to be with Jesus, would I have done the same? They belonged to a culture that was used to this but they had not been selected by the rabbis to continue their learning; Jesus was looking for a different kind of person, a heart that would simply follow and listen. They do not know or realise who He is until Mark 8 where Peter is asked by Jesus; they simply follow Him.
In Acts 4:13 the people around Peter and John had noticed that they 'had been with Jesus' and in Mark 3:13 onwards the calling of the disciples involved just that: we are called to 'be with Him' and then 'sent out'. Its so important that its done in that order but what does 'being with Jesus' require or mean? I think they tried to listen to His teaching and observed what He did and how He acted with strangers. They got it wrong a few times but they always tried. They spent time with Jesus and it was obvious to others, even when Jesus had ascended.
I hope that it is obvious when I spend time with Jesus and that I won't just keep my learning, and what I see, to myself. I have found this a very challenging thought this week especially as I was prompted again to act during this morning's sermon at my church. Although I definitely don't keep my faith to myself as I'm always harping on about church at the school where I work, I haven't really shown and done all I could to share my faith and what it means. I also attended a seminar about Jesus in the workplace while at New Wine and felt God was asking me to start a prayer group with the two other Christians that work at my school and show my faith through more acts of kindness. I could easily bake a cake and take it to work or make people cups of tea. It reminded me that focusing on the negative things that have happened to me at work really doesn't help and I thought back to the things I did do at a previous school I worked at. I was so known for my making tea for everyone that my leaving present was a cup and saucer plant pot! This is how I should be now not just when things are going well. Well the challenge begins!
Sunday, 31 July 2011
Saturday, 30 July 2011
Sung Worship
I've just got back from New Wine LSE 2011 and had an amazing week; such an emotional rollarcoaster but also learnt so much about myself and God. I started the week in one place and ended in a completely different place (metaphorically speaking of course!) and wanted to share some of what I had learnt.
I attended Venue 2 in the mornings and Venue 1 in the evenings, partly to see the difference and as I was the only member of my church group going to Venue 2 I didn't want to be a loner all the time! I loved Venue 2 in the morning, was really able to let go of a lot of rubbish in my life, and loved worshipping there. Being on my own I could completely let go and not worry what people thought of me as I knew I wouldn't see them again after the week was up! The difference in worship music was only slight and I started analysing it in more detail as I kept crying in the mornings and not the evenings and wondered if I was going slightly mad!
The difference I found was that the music in Venue 1 was designed to worship God for who and what He is and I was able to really think about how amazing God is and how worthy of praise. I know that this is the primary purpose of worship: to give everything to God, to praise Him and not search for anything in return. But in Venue 2 the music was designed to worship God for what He has done. Now this is what upset me, what made me think so many times in the morning: I was so grateful to God for forgiving me, for holding on to me, for saving me and always being there to protect and guide me, I became a blumbering wreck every morning!
Is this ok in worship? To see that difference it made me wonder: should I be praising God for who He is rather than concentrating on what He has done for me?
I came to the conclusion that God knows me, that He is happy when I worship Him and there must be patterns and waves in worship so that it reflects our changing seasons too. God is constant and faithful, we are definitely not and sometimes our worship reflects our issues and gratitude rather than simply worshipping God for who He is. My worship this week in Venue 2 reflected how much I need God and how important He is in my life; giving myself to God completely meant letting go and relying on Him, it meant coming to Him humbly, knowing that I was weak, pathetic and so needed Him.
I attended Venue 2 in the mornings and Venue 1 in the evenings, partly to see the difference and as I was the only member of my church group going to Venue 2 I didn't want to be a loner all the time! I loved Venue 2 in the morning, was really able to let go of a lot of rubbish in my life, and loved worshipping there. Being on my own I could completely let go and not worry what people thought of me as I knew I wouldn't see them again after the week was up! The difference in worship music was only slight and I started analysing it in more detail as I kept crying in the mornings and not the evenings and wondered if I was going slightly mad!
The difference I found was that the music in Venue 1 was designed to worship God for who and what He is and I was able to really think about how amazing God is and how worthy of praise. I know that this is the primary purpose of worship: to give everything to God, to praise Him and not search for anything in return. But in Venue 2 the music was designed to worship God for what He has done. Now this is what upset me, what made me think so many times in the morning: I was so grateful to God for forgiving me, for holding on to me, for saving me and always being there to protect and guide me, I became a blumbering wreck every morning!
Is this ok in worship? To see that difference it made me wonder: should I be praising God for who He is rather than concentrating on what He has done for me?
I came to the conclusion that God knows me, that He is happy when I worship Him and there must be patterns and waves in worship so that it reflects our changing seasons too. God is constant and faithful, we are definitely not and sometimes our worship reflects our issues and gratitude rather than simply worshipping God for who He is. My worship this week in Venue 2 reflected how much I need God and how important He is in my life; giving myself to God completely meant letting go and relying on Him, it meant coming to Him humbly, knowing that I was weak, pathetic and so needed Him.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)