How to summarize what we all learned?! I could go on about it for days!
He started by talking about how valuable we are. When Jesus looks at you, He sees you as equal in value to himself, because He paid that price for you. If there were a price tag around your neck, it would say "The blood of God", and that means that that is your worth. No matter what you have done. We are the crown jewel of God. When He created the world, He spoke everything into being. Except man. Man, he created with His hands. And He breathed life into us. He created us to have relationship with us. He didn't die for what we do for Him, He died for you. Even if you live your entire life not doing anything for God, He still loves you and is proud of you and thinks that you are worth it. He loves you because He loves you because He loves you. God can be disappointed in what happened. But He will never be disappointed in you. Ever. Basically, as Troy said, if you dressed up as a clown and went out and killed people, then gave your life to God, He would forgive you and love you. If you are a serial killer clown, God will love you anyway, simply because He loves you for you and not for your actions. But, Troy told us, don't become a serial killer clown.
Good piece of advice :)
Another thing that Troy really emphasized was that if we want to see change in this world, we must act. We are the change. Normally, when you hear that, it seems overwhelming and impossible. I mean, come on. I'm just one person. I don't have amazing resources. How on earth am I supposed to change the world?! But Troy made it sound so possible. It starts, he said, with right now. Each everyday deed is the beginning. It says in the Bible that Christ is the head, and we are the body.
Often, we will point at the poverty in Africa or other places in the world and say "Why does God allow that? Why doesn't He do something?!" Yet we are God's body. God isn't allowing it, we are! Christ is the head, but a head cannot move without the rest of the body! Rather than praying "God, you", we need to pray "God, what do you want me to do?". We are it. We are God's plan. If we give ourselves and our lives over to God, He will use you. Whatever you give, He will use. If you allow Him to, He will give you the opportunity to make a difference and make a change. Like Troy pointed out, many of the people that God used in the Bible were not really that amazing of people. And they had little- Moses had a stick. The boy had some bread and fish. Yet God used them.God uses what you have. So while you may think that you have nothing that could be used, God can use it and make something of it. All you need is to be ready and willing. God looks at the present, not the future. In the same way, He wants us to dwell in the now. If you look at changing the world as something big that will happen in the future, it will never happen. But if you look at what you can do today, it is so much easier!
God uses the ordinary to do extraordinary things. If you give God your whole heart, then an infinite God has infinite possibilities. He will speak to you about what you can do with your life within the limits of what you are offering Him. If you say "God, I want to serve you. But I want to stay here and work in this industry," then He will use you where you are. But if you say "God, I want to serve you wherever and however you want to use me," then He can use you in ways that you might never even have imagined!
We are not lacking the resources needed to change the world. We are not lacking the knowledge. We have everything we need. It is ignorance that keeps use from doing it. Ignorance, because we believe that we can't do anything. That what little we can do won't make a difference. This is what Satan wants, because it keeps us from taking that first step of action! We have a powerful, mighty God. He is infinite. All He needs is for us to step up and say "Here I am, God. I don't have anything except a willingness to do whatever You tell me. So do what you wish." God can do anything. By saying this, we are, as I said before, giving an infinite God infinite possibilities. At one point, Troy asked us if he took a picture of the night sky, would we be able to count all the visible stars? We said no. "That's wrong," Troy told us, "It is possible. It has been done. We can count the visible stars; it takes awhile, but it can be done. So how are we going to try things that are only possible through God if we don't even believe that possible things are possible?" We need to do the possible- God will do the impossible. Jesus doesn't say "Go there", He says "Follow me there".
The moment you decide that you are going to fight is the moment that you are free. Satan no longer has any hold on you. And he does not want you to know that.
Our purpose in life is relationship. That's why God created us- for relationship with Him! Adam and Eve walked and talked with God in the Garden of Eden. That was their purpose. The Fall did not change God's plan for us; it did not change our destiny. We all know the children't song "Jesus loves me, this I know". You can't move on from this. This is reality. If you know anything, know this! Don't graduate from this reality! God wants a relationship with you. This is your identity and your destiny!
We are here to love and be loved. Love will compel you where duty will not. The acts that we do for God shouldn't be done out of a feeling of duty, but out of love for Him and for His people. We need to practice love! We need to also accept God's love for us. Sometimes, we want to say "God, I'm not worthy of Your love." To that, God will reply "Yes, you are." Because He loves us no matter what. If we then say "No, really, I'm not worthy," we are basically saying that we know better than God. But we don't. Don't ever doubt God's love for you, because it is real and it is unconditional and it is forever.
Love can change the world. We really think it should be more complicated, but it isn't. If we just begin to love the way Christ loved, we will see a difference! If we did this, the world would start to come to us. They will see that something is different, and they will want to know why. As Bono said, "'Love your neighbour' wasn't a piece of advice, it was a command."
Don't do something and then ask God to bless it. I mean, maybe He will. But if you truly want to follow God, find what He is blessing and go do that.
Being a Christian is an adventure!
That is a VERY short summary of what we all learned and talked about last week. There is so much more that I could say! I honestly wish that you could all just hear what Troy has to say! But this will have to do for now... when I get home, if you would like to read my notes, which contains so much more than this, just ask me! I will let you read them!
Blessings,
Katie :)
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