Wanted to write about a subject today I have wrestled through in my own life and in some ways I still am. I am focusing on college age students in this entry, mainly because well...that's where my heart is. I think there is a nugget for each person of each age group.
I have been prayerful in the way I have wanted to share because in the end, I want to offer an invitation. One that I keep hearing from the voice of the Father. If there is one thing I have learned about Him it is that He loves to invite.
Real Sugar
I am a hot tea drinker. Not a real serious one, but whenever it hits me...well, I need it.
Blueberry, Earl Grey, Mango, Apple...I'll try it. I'm also a sweetner. One cup of tea, oh maybe six sugars.
What? I'm from the South.
But I want the real stuff. I have friends who use all sorts of artifical sweetner and I'm not judging. I just can't do it. This Southern girl cannot bring herself to put something that is not authentic into my tea. Changes the whole taste. It looks like tea and smells like tea, but if it isn't real sugar I'd rather drink water.
Over the past few months I have begun to learn about authenticity. I have an insatiable hunger for what is real. Tea is the tip of the iceberg. I like real everything.
Real people, real homemade dinners, real scenery...just real. I think we can all agree that there is something of value in what is real.
A real diamond is worth far more a cubic zirconium. Because the real diamond is worth something more. It is rare.
One of these things is not like the other...
What the is problem with a cubic zirconium? The problem is that is looks the same. Distinguishing a real diamond from a cubic zirconium takes a jeweler or a microscope. It is a counterfeit.
What is the definition of a counterfeit?
A counterfeit is: made in exact imitation of something valuable or important with the intention to deceive or defraud.
Now we are close to the meat of what I want to communicate...
In our Christian faith we want to reach people (hopefully!). There is a signficant gap of people between the ages 18-35 in our Church doors so if we are paying attention naturally our hearts are to reach this age group.
We want to offer something! In our sincere attempt to reach them we ask ourselves,
"What are young people doing these days?"
Let's do that! We invite in a hip band, watch the lastest T.V. shows and make references, wear brand names, drink brand name drinks...and you fill in the blank.
It is an attempt. A sincere heart felt attempt.
Now hear me out, I'm not against any of the things that I just mentioned. I like hip bands just as much as the next guy.
What I am saying is that I fear somehow in all of the effort to reach the next generation as a church we have failed to offer the only thing that will satisfy: intimacy with Jesus.
We may look, smell, and seem relevant and comfortable. Entertained and dressed up. Looking like the world. Packaged perfectly.The lastest techonlogy.
And still lack the presence of God....
We don't need just another gathering. We need the presence of God. We need the power of God to return to the church.
This is not a rebuke, it is an invitation.
Voices...
What the church and the next generation really needs is to develop a voice.
For example, John the Baptist.
"3 A voice of one calling:
'In the wilderness prepare
the way for the Lord;
make straight in the desert
a highway for our God.
4 Every valley shall be raised up,
every mountain and hill made low;
the rough ground shall become level,
the rugged places a plain.
5 And the glory of the Lord will be revealed,
and all people will see it together.
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.'"
John the Baptist spent most of his life in the desert being prepared to be a voice. He literally pointed the way to Jesus. John wasn't bought by the praises of men and he wasn't concerned about being relevant. He lived and spoke by the Spirit of the Lord. How was he able to that?
He cultivated intimacy with God.
That was what made him relevant.
John learned the value of the secret place. The value of his relationship with the Lord. The value of intimacy with God away from the eyes men. When the moment came, John's mouth was full. Not of dressed up eloquence, but with powerful revelation.
"And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power. "
1 Corinthians 2:1-5
Only men and women who have spent time getting to know their God can offer that kind of substance. They cannot be bought by man's opinion or popularity.
They have heard the Father speak over them, "You are my beloved son in whom I am well pleased."
That kind of identity cannot be manufactured of produced. It is birthed out of revelation of who Jesus is in His fullness and His passion as a Bridegroom for His Bride.
We are not training a generation to be movers and shakers in the kingdom of God by entertaining their minds with culture when they can be captivated by the beauty of an eternal Creator.
The next generation is powerful. They will cling to something. The question is will it be counterfeit or real? Will they be echos of the culture or voices of God? Will they influence with the wisdom of man or out of the counsel of the Lord?
If we embrace intimacy with God, when we lead we will do it from the wisdom of God. The fruit we bear will last. We will model for the next generation well. We will have something to pass on.
Sitting at His feet, we will receive. Encoutering Him will produce lasting change. It will turn Sauls into Pauls. Denying Peters into fierce proclaimers. A doubting Thomas into a believer.
And no man can do that.
Only the Savior.
Practicing being a voice,
Stephaine
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