What fun to be back in Oklahoma City for Spiritual Life Emphasize Week at Mid-America Christian University! I arrived home on Sunday evening from India and Gary had already arrived in Oklahoma City for the Spiritual Life Emphasis Week because he was the main speaker for their daily chapel services. I took Monday to recoup, do laundry and catch up on Landon time and then on Tuesday, Kristen and I headed south on I-35 bound for Oklahoma City ourselves. She, though a Taylor University grad was scheduled to speak in chapel at the Alma Mater of her father, grandfather, grandmother and brothers, on Thursday morning! What an honor!
We felt it almost immediately! A sweet, sweet presence of Christ on the campus and in the services! The faculty and students seemed to be the fragrance of Jesus! And what a pleasant aroma it is!
Gary challenged the students to fulfill the Great Commision and "Go unto the world until the whole world knows." On Thursday, Kristen shared her personal call to be on mission in China through Project Partner and talked about Seeking God and His Will, Surrendering to His plan and Following HIs directions. She didn't pull any punches and shared very frankly with the students about the cost of the call! She also encouraged them that God's plan was much MORE than they could dream or imagine and WAS the abundant life of Christianity!
Today Gary shared the final message of the week and challenged the students to look inside and let God do a work IN them before He does a work THROUGH them! He talked about the STUFF that we accumulate and carry around that gets in the way of who we are! Wherever we go, there we are! He assured them that our stuff follows us around and can prevent us from being all that God has for us to become and from going where God wants us to go!
He talked about Moses and the "stuff" of his life. Moses was raised a foreigner in a foreign land. He probably felt like a misfit and that he didn't belong. Eventually, his stuff boiled to the surface and came out in rage against an Egyptian and he had to flee, finding himself an outcast, he ran away. He encountered some daughters watering their animals who were being bullied and again his stuff boiled up and this time he rescued those being treated unjustly and was invited to be a part of their family. Now Moses was a part of a third culture, not his own. Moses believed the bad press from those around him and the lie of the enemy that he wasn't enough. But God saw Moses as the rescuer of his people--the man who stood up to the most powerful man in the world-Pharoah--the man who saw the face of God, who was a friend of God--the courageous man who held up his staff to part the Red Sea!
Gary concluded by reminding the students of Moses' encounter with the burning bush-a holy moment. Moses took time to take off his shoes and respond to God's call in the burning bush and it made all the difference. Gary challenged the students to take off their shoes and embrace the moment as theirs for a divine appointment with their Creator for their healing--a chance to lay down, surrender, their stuff to Him. The student band came forward: the keyboardist and female drummer were among the first to take off their shoes and pile them beside of the alter. Soon half of the student body had discarded their shoes at the alters and knelt to surrender their stuff and their plans to God!
Inspiring to see students respond to their call from God, Gary, Kristen and I headed home at noon. Encouraged to know the future is the hands of students surrendered to His hands!
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