A Voice Was Heard

... God does not change.
... We need to.

Losing your sense of security to God is what I wrote of last time. Your sense of comfort, God will shake you from it, because before we meet wih God we are all slaves to sin and Jesus sets us free. But even though I gave my life to Him many years ago, there are still many things I need to let go of. Part of becoming an adult is learning to make responsible choices, to start living entirely independently. Having been financially dependent all my life, never having had a real job except for youth work and a bit of manual labour, I find myself in a quite difficult position when it comes to making that choice. There are of course, other factors which hinder me, not having a stable base anywhere in the world. I would not mind to keep studying, but I have to change my area of study, move on into something which I can appreciate more, even though economics is fascinating in some parts. The thing is, I don't know what I want to study for the moment, but I do know one thing.

Last week-end, five youth workers went from Canterbury to Sherwood Forest (yes, Robin Hood's woods!). In that place was held a conference on Christian Youth Work hosted by Newfrontiers. Over 400 other youth workers were there, easily. They didn't learn the five steps to becoming a better youth worker, nor the formula for increasing the numbers in their youth groups. Their attention was brought to the focus of their work, which is very often the way youth work starts out, then is lost to a prioritisation of other goals. This focus is Jesus. I don't know if all who read this will understand, so I will explain: the size of the youth group one is leading does not matter; its level of "coolness" does not matter; what matters is that what we are bringing into the meetings is Jesus; how do we do that? By preaching the gospel. The other things will follow; we could have the best venue for fun events and have a hundred teenagers coming to these meetings, but if we do not teach Jesus, our work means nothing. We're just another party on earth. You see, when our perspective is redirected towards God's, success is not attained by having the coolest youth group in town, nor the biggest, success is appearing before the throne of God and Him saying, at the end of our life "Well done, my good and faithful servant!".

I was one of those five youth workers, and not only did we receive awesome teaching on the gospel, God spoke to each of us individually. One thing I was reminded of, is that I don't need to make that choice of what to do next year. God has already done it for me, but what I need to do is to submit once again to God, submit all, leaving my sense of security, my fear of not being able to sustain myself and failing. There was a reason for me being at that conference and there is a reason why the Lord made His presence felt so much (and He did, oh He did!). I could have gone there and remain unchanged, but I was not unchanged, I was shaken.

... If God asks me to work with the Church for the rest of my life, I am willing to do that... It would not even be a big sacrifice! It would be the best adventure I could ever have! But I WILL live a life of sacrifice for Him, no one can stop me from doing that... Because I love Him. But also, because I know He loves me far more... He is building me up to be a man, and He will never let me fall!

I wish you all a good life, I don't know what mine holds, but I know it' s in the most capable
hands there are...

"Now faith is being SURE of what we hope for and CERTAIN of what we do not see" Hebrews 11:1