I was reading in Romans 4-6 this morning and was reminded of God's beautiful gift to us. Chapter 3 is all about judgment, and then chapter 4 uses the life of Abraham to show that his faith was counted as righteousness in God's sight. It is by faith that we are justified through Jesus Christ. In sending His son, God was reconciling us to Himself. It's just nice to be reminded of the fact that our Majestic, Mighty, All-powerful, Radiant, and All-Surpassing God desires closeness with us. Sending His beautiful and perfect son to die for the ungodly, that He might be able to love us more closely and commune with us again someday in the way that He originally created us, by His side.

The Body of Christ

Over the past semester I have realized all the opportunities that I never took advantage of in Nashville. I lived there the first 18 years of my life, and yet I felt so unappreciative and unaware at the riches in front of me. This past semester I have read about churches, movements, houses of prayer, etc. in Nashville through newspaper and internet articles that I have been dying to visit. I never even knew they existed. So this past Sunday While visiting over the holiday) I went to 3 church services. I started at Fellowship Bible, a church I went to in high school, and it was a really sweet and intimate service. It was 8:00 in the morning on the 1st of January so it was a small crowd, but the message was impacting and communion was so personal. In the still of the morning, a small crowd, in a huge sanctuary, worshiping the Lord and welcoming in the new year. It was such a picture of purity, genuine desire, and peaceful worship.

Next I visited Mount Zion Baptist Church in Antioch. I read an article about the pastors teaching style and how he is a very charismatic speaker that talks with a lightness of spirit yet a strength of conviction. I was one of three white people in a massive sanctuary with 300 plus gospel voiced, "amen" yelling believers that had so much joy, I couldn't help but laugh and sing as we clapped and shifted side to side with the rhythm of the worship music. It was a very different style of worship than I had experienced. I am used to very contemporary worship styles but this was contemporary in a different light. In a traditional Catholic mass there are times to stand and times to sit, but at Mt. Zion you stood when you agreed with what was said! The pastor would say please be seated, but three sentences later, the whole congregation was on their feet saying "glory glory" or "Amen brother"! It was amazing! It was electrifying! The joy of the Lord was there and no one doubted that we were all sitting in the presence of the Lord! It was an image of power, joyous exaltation, and unhinged devotion to the Lord.

Thirdly, I went to a night service at Crosspoint's Nashville Campus. The pastor shared that in the year 2011, over 300 people had committed their lives to the Lord for the first time and that they had a huge problem with attendance....there were too many people coming to church and they are on the verge of expansion! What a fantastic issue! Crosspoint has 5 campuses in the city and neighboring cities in Nashville and are about to launch a sixth in Brentwood. The congregation was ecstatic! We cheered and clapped for the Lord and his faithfulness! The message was given by the shepherding pastor who is very involved in the people and community of the church. He talked about change, connection, and growth for the church. The worship was of the contemporary style and the pastors all have the same hipster style. Literally. The thing I love about the pastors is that they seem so human. If they were walking down the street, I might mistaken one for a grad student, or an artist. They don't put on a show and they don't hid from difficult topics. They are very free in their speaking and very powerful in their word choice and stories. It was a picture of fruitfulness, honesty, and true affection.

These churches, all extremely different in their approach to teaching, worship, even how to take up offering, all have very important messages to give. They pursue the congregation differently, They have experienced the Lord differently, and they teach on very different topics. These three separate pictures all very divinely preach the same message. Though they differ almost 100% on the surface, they all live and breathe for Jesus, they all carry the gospel message with conviction, and they all desire to bring glory and honor to the name of Jesus Christ. Some people see denominations as confusing and divisive, and in some occasions they may be. But, I think God knew what He was doing when He allowed that to happen. These three churches all represent different qualities and characteristics of God. In His sovereignty, God allows many different churches to foster all different types of people, His unique children, not one like the other. There is beauty in the idea that such different churches and such different people all come together in the sight of God to represent the Church, the body of Christ.

A simple night at Starbucks

Ok so this was the story that inspired this blog. I recently got back from a Christmas conference with Campus Crusade for Christ where I got the opportunity to participate in "faith experiences". These were various ways of doing the Lords work. One day we bagged food for people in Haiti. Another day we spent time online, talking to our friends back on campus and allowing the Lord to bring up conversations about Himself or just foster a friendship in which we can be loving and supportive. The third "faith experience" was just raw evangelism. We went out on the 16th Street Mall in Denver and allowed the Lord to lead us to someone to witness to. It was an eye-opening experience to say the least. Something the Lord revealed to me was ease in which we evangelized. I mean, we just walked up to a family, started talking, and twenty minutes later we were praying with them. Crazy right? or Sovereign?

So, tonight I went to go see Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader with my mom and we took separate cars so I could go chill at Starbucks afterwards. I mean I was just going to grab some coffee and go over notes I had taken from the conference, but then the Lord led me to sit down across from Gia. I was looking through my journal when Gia, a haggard-looking woman most likely in her 40's with a large suitcase, asked me if I wanted a cross necklace that someone had left behind. She said she didn't need it and wondered if I wanted it. Ok, so at this point I felt like the Lord was placing an opportunity in my life. and so, I leapt. I told her that I didn't need it but it definitely was beautiful. I asked her why she didn't want it and she told me she was a Christian but didn't want to keep it. I told her I was a believer as well but didn't really have use for the necklace so I turned it into the cashier. I felt a bit awkward returning to my seat because I noticed that Gia looked tired and had a suitcase with her, but didn't know how to just start a conversation. So I returned to my journal. However, the Lord wasn't quite done.
Gia leaned forward a few seconds later and asked me if I was going into ministry. I kind of giggled to myself and then went to sit beside her. I told her that I was studying Religion Studies and Spanish but thought that I'd probably go into the work force and minister in that atmosphere rather than working directly in the church. I then asked her about her life and what she had been doing recently. She told me that her house had been embezzled and her husband left with the money. She said that she had some temporary work opportunities like cleaning a local church, yard work, and other similar things but it was always short term. Work would come for a couple of days and then positions would get filled or they wouldn't need her anymore. She had been staying at the Red Roof Inn and the Hampton Inn about once a week where she would sleep, but usually she stayed awake through the night at Fed Ex where she did personal studies. She is currently working on a theory that music and poetry can be a venue of achieving hope and self-forgiveness in children. She quoted Freud and another psychologist and said this had been a project of hers for a while. She seemed a bit scatter brained throughout the conversation but I took it for sleep deprivation.
Anyhow, we talked for a good 15 minutes or so and the Lord had been pressing upon my heart a desire to help her so I offered to buy her some groceries. We put her suitcase in my trunk and headed a couple blocks away to Kroger. You know, it's really interesting to go shopping with someone who has been living in homelessness for some time. She was extremely minimalistic and bought very little. She was very concerned about prices and bought only enough cover two days tops. She mentioned earlier that she has always been very centered on a nutritious lifestyle. She is use to getting vouchers in the morning that have a value of about ten dollars and that lasts a day. I was very surprised that she didn't buy more groceries since I was paying, but she was concerned about not spending a lot and she was also taking into account the fact that groceries were more to carry around. She was already lugging around her suitcase and briefcase so I guess after months of pulling and pushing around her belongings, she has become accustomed to holding on to as little as possible.
After checking out, I dropped her off at Fed Ex which stays open 24 hours and she showed me the desk that she usually sits at each night. She gave me a copy of her resume and asked me if I would tell people about her in hopes that someone would want to give her a more permanent work or even pay for a night in a hotel so that she could sleep. I told her that I would talk to some of my friends, but it's hard because I'm leaving town monday and don't know what I can do before then.
Immediately after I got back in my car to leave, I called my sister, Caroline, who works with mentally handicap homeless people every day. She works with an organization that aids the homeless community find housing in Knoxville. Her organization also provides counseling and helps to find work for all of the community that they reach. Basically, she knows her stuff when it comes to talking to the homeless and knowing how to reach out to them in the most effective and helpful way. She encouraged me not to pay for a night in a hotel or anything like that, but to befriend Gia. At first I was all 'gun hoe' for getting money and setting her up for a night or two. However, my sister said that a night or two would not be helpful in the grand scheme of things. Caroline gave me a list of places where the homeless can stay in Nashville for free and get free meals. I still felt like the Lord was calling me to de more, so Caroline gave me the idea of just showing up the tomorrow morning and buying Gia breakfast and listening to her. Just by listening, I am offering relief and comfort. By getting to know her, I can learn how to sufficiently pray for my new friend and it will be a way of displaying the Lords love. Giving money can seem like a great solution, but what homeless people really need is someone that will honestly give a care. I hope that the Lord will bless Gia with a means of finding rest and food, but something that I can offer is my time. So maybe I'll have another story tomorrow morning, but for right now, I pray that the Lord will delight in His daughter, Gia, tonight and give her a supernatural sense of rest that could only come from Him. And I pray that she will attribute it to His genuine love and admiration for her.