Category: Faith

Last night’s vtONE worship event was awesome. God was there, people were excited, and I feel that people left challenged. Even though we were probably the least prepared we had been in several events, God provided and things came together.

The night opened up with Isaac (Chi Alpha campus minister) leading two acoustic sets that I felt really impacted people. I especially enjoyed how he opened the night with David Crowder’s “Come and Listen” and closed his time with MercyMe’s “Word of God Speak.”

Sno led the first prayer time, which was done Passion style (groups of 3ish with one person praying at a time and the leader telling them when to switch). His introduction was amazing, and it ended with an individual time to get right with God that had a huge impact on people.

Our speaker for the evening was my co-leader Eric. We had invited several campus ministers to speak, but none of the people we thought could do a great job speaking on fellowship were available. As I prayed through who to ask, Eric just kept coming up. He’s the vtONE expert on fellowship, which is a harder topic than I would have thought it could be, and he delivered last night. I’ve never seen someone do that good a job with their first time speaking, especially to a crowd that was around 750 people. His talk is available online.

After Eric spoke on Redefining Fellowship, we had a group prayer time about being thankful for the fellowship we already have, led by Samantha from the Wesley Foundation. Incidentally, we’ve had almost no contact with Wesley in the past, but over the last few months they’ve become one of our strongest supporters.

One of the Cru bands rocked the last two sets with a collection of upbeat hymns and praise songs.

Josh from the vtONE network team (student leaders praying together) led a final prayer time, where we formed groups around campus ministers and the Christian faculty to lay hands on them and pray for them. Like the time we did something similar for campus ministers two years ago, the campus ministers and Christian faculty who were there were very moved by that time. I was in a group around Dr. Grisso from the Christian Faculty Fellowship, and he was so moved by our praying for him that he looked like he was about to cry.

We went from that prayer time into the Lord’s prayer, using the New Living Translation of the text to make people think about what they’re praying for. Marcus (from the leadership team) did an excellent job doing the intro and leading us in the Lord’s prayer.

After a few more songs, I briefly told people how they could support vtONE (including giving away a free t-shirt in the new design) and also introduced the prayer event. Unfortunately, not many people signed up for prayer event time slots, so we may need to try to hit all of our sponsors’ regular meetings before the prayer event. I closed out the night in prayer (I was the MC for the evening), and then we had one last song.

Despite a number of setbacks, such as not getting in our new album before the event, God was with us last night, and I feel that people left both encouraged and challenged. People signed up to get involved, had questions for the leaders, and were asking for copies of the talk. We even had people from several other local (within an hour’s drive) campuses show up–including some girls from Hollins University in Roanoke who are trying to start something similar to vtONE there.

Between the worship event and the prayer event, we’re blogging daily with a little devotion and a prayer to get us all unified in prayer leading up to the prayer event. You can check that out at http://www.vt-one.com/.

Thanks for your prayers and support of vtONE. We appreciate it, and we can see God moving at Virginia Tech!

Interesting thought that I’ve felt is true in my life this morning from John.  He writes:

There is a very interesting line in Psalm 37. It reads, “Delight yourself in the Lord; and He will give you the desires of your heart.” A lot of people interpret this verse incorrectly. They say that as long as I’m happy in God, He’ll give me everything I want – new car, hot wife, trip to California, sunny 80 degree weather for the rest of my life. Totally not the intent of that passage. What God is saying is that as we delight in Him, He changes us – we find ourselves wanting what He wants. We find ourselves desiring the things of God. That’s a very interesting way for me to take comfort in knowing that God is using even my desires to shape what my future looks like.

My desires are very different than they were in July 2003.  At the end of that month is when I stopped trying to live for myself and started trying to live for God.  Even though I had already had a relationship with God for about 10 years at that point, I felt a huge change in my life then.  And while I haven’t understood a lot of the stuff that God has taken me through since then, I can honestly say that I am closer to God, feel better about life, and feel better about myself.

I feel like God is getting ready to do something huge here, and I’m excited. It’s both intimidating and encouraging, but today especially, I’ve felt very encouraged by the people around me. Special shout outs (in order of my primary interaction with them) to Josh, the vtONE team, Isaac, Sno, and Michael. You guys rock.

Earlier, I added a post to the vtONE blog that I like. Check it out here.

I’m one of the main contributors on a new blog about vtONE, found at http://www.vt-one.com/. Leading up to the vtONE worship event next Saturday, I am blogging about the four themes of vtONE: repentance, prayer, worship, unity. Notice the new order. I believe those four themes are a process. To be ready to do any of the other things, you must first be right with God through repentance, so that you have a clean conscience. To pray, you need to be right with God. Worship is our response to God for what He has done and who He is. Unity comes when we’re joined together through prayer and worship, crying out to God for our generation.

Over on the vtONE blog, I am posting some devotionals from Zack and Ryan, the vtONE fathers, over the next few days that talk about these four themes. Today’s theme is repentance. I encourage you to check it out.

There’s still a lot to do before vtONE–more than the team can expect to do, easily more than I can expect to do. But the cool thing is that it forces us to rely on God to do the heavy lifting.

Just a simple request for you to pray for me. I have several big things going on right now–I’m in over my head, getting spiritually attacked, and I am in need of God’s assistance. Please pray for strength and endurance–this next week is going to be an interesting one. I know that God will come through and that trials build faith, but more than ever I need to get myself out of the way so that God can work through me (John 3:30 paraphrase).

UPDATE:  Thanks for praying.  Things are still interesting, as just this morning, I’ve had several things that I thought were taken care of fall through.  I’ve been attacked mainly by a combination of small things that have stacked up to make a monster.

One of the illustrations frequently used in the Bible is of sheep. Sheep are very dependent creatures. They have a symbiotic relationship with people, where the sheep rely on the shepherd for protection. In return, the shepherds get wool and food from the sheep. It’s this interdependence that makes sheep a perfect metaphor for God’s children. We need God’s love and protection, and in return we should give God the glory and praise that he is due.

The best known story involving sheep is the parable of the lost sheep. That parable starts off “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it?” Now, those of you who have heard this story before probably don’t see anything outrageous in that first sentence. Take another look. Leaves the ninety-nine in the open country? What kind of shepherd would do that? If you were a shepherd, would you risk having your other 99 sheep wander off while you searched for one? Of course you wouldn’t.

I think this parable makes even more sense when we look at it with the other two parables contained in Luke 15: the parable of the lost coin and the parable of the prodigal son. The woman who swept her house looking for a lost coin threw a party to celebrate when she found it. She likely spent many times more on the party than the value of the coin. In the same way, the parable of the prodigal son is about a father taking his son back, even after his son had taken his share of the inheritance (which was a way of telling his father “I wish you were dead”) and spent it on cheap highs.

All these parables are about the kingdom of God. God’s kingdom doesn’t work like the system of the world. His values and priorities are often nonsense in this world. These parables tell us the extent to which God loves us, that he would stop everything and come running after us. Even when we choose to run from God, He is still there for us and looking for us, ready to bring us back into the flock. It reminds me of 1 John 3:16: “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.”

Stop asking God to bless what you’re doing. Find out what God’s doing. It’s already blessed. – A close friend of U2’s Bono

Right on.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy.

O, Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console;
To be understood as to understand;
To be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

What great things to be asking for, and also what amazing things to display in life. It’s my prayer that through the grace of God I can do a better job exhibiting those attributes in my life. ‘Nuff said.