Friday, July 23, 2010

Love Others.



What a crazy past few days! Sorry for the lack of posting, it's hard to get back on my feet after being on "vacation" for a week, and this first week home has been insane with Vacation Bible School and waiting for Scott and the rest of the OCOG group to get home safe. Alright, onward to the next session recap.
The Saturday night session was focused on loving others. My notes are kind of scare for tonight's session, so my post will basically be what I remember and pull out of a hat. Sorry about that.
The speaker, Chip Taylor, told of being a student ministries paster at his church and loving his job. However, God put upon his heart to love people more - something that he wasn't doing so well at. He started with his crazy neighbor from across the street. Anytime Chip saw him outside, he would walk over and start a conversation - even when taking the garbage out at 3AM, he talked to the neighbor. Eventually he invited Chip to his birthday party at a less than ideal place - somewhere where noone, especially Christians, should be. He fought going, until he eventually decided to go. Chip walked inside, and saw his neighbor in the back, screaming his name. He became embarrassed, thinking that he was already drunk - until he realized that the neighbor was telling his friends how Chip was a Christian, and asked Chip to tell his story. His neighbor hadn't even had a drink, when normally he would have been completely drunk at that time.
Pretty crazy, considering all he did was talk to the guy.
Chip told of another time in his life where God told him to love others. He had just been diagnosed with cancer and was already being treated with chemotherapy. There was a nurse there at the hospital that he felt God was calling him to tell about Christ, and so he did every time he was there, without fail. Nothing ever happened, and so Chip was kind of upset. There was another pastor at Chip's church who had been diagnosed with cancer the same time as Chip, and they had chemo treatments at the same place. She ended up having that same nurse Chip was trying to lead to Christ, and started herself. Guess what? That pastor led the nurse to Christ.
Awesome.
These crazy examples from Chip's story show that we are called to love others, no matter what the situation. Chip walked across the road and talked to his drunken neighbor when he had the chance. He used his cancer as another opportunity to love others. Just because we don't have a drunken neighbor or cancer doesn't mean we can't love others though. So you don't have a crazy story like Chip's, filled with these things. So what? You still have people that you interact with everyday that need to be loved. God's calling us to love others.
Here's your NR challenge for this post. Chip had us fill out a 360 Revolution card, something that I'm familiar with because we do it in my youth ministry at church. The way to use it is simple - just follow the numbers. 360 =
  • Pick 3 different people.
  • Pray for those people at least 6 times a week.
  • And lastly, miss 0 opportunities to tell them about Christ.
It's as simple as that. That's your challenge for this week. Make up your own 360 Revolution card and choose 3 people you know that are unbelievers. Pray for them at least 6 times a week. And, most importantly, miss 0 opportunities to share Christ.
Are you in?
-Kimber.

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