World Changers Biloxi, MS: Day 5-7

Wow.. where did the week go?

A student works on a roof at World Changers Biloxi, MS

I keep thinking, didn’t I just blog the other day… but it’s been four days and I should catch everyone up on the end of our week in Biloxi.

Tuesday night was the concert of prayer (a dedicated time to focused prayer and reflection) and I am always amazed at how God works during these services when we simply stop and listen to Him. This night help set the stage for what I believe was some truly life-changing work that He did.

During the day time on Wednesday and on Friday I visited a few work sites. Out of the 16 sites or so I think I wasn’t able to make it to one of them. The work that these students and adults did was incredible. We had four crews re-roofing houses, all of which were completed by Friday. We had three crews remodeling a huge abandoned church compound that will be used to serve the local community as a counseling center and I believe a shelter. Other crews were painting interiors and exteriors of homes, and two crews were doing sheetrock (one church and one house).

The students get the night off on Wednesday and I hung out with the summer staff. We went to dinner and grabbed some ice cream, but  didn’t make it out to the mall or the beach where all of the youth groups were.

Thursday and Friday night of worship continued our theme of Holiness. I veered off the designed worship guide course for the messages because they were too limited.  The worship guide wanted me to spend two days on Isaiah 6:8-9 on the actual calling of Isaiah and his response to service.

However, I was convinced that the issue of personal holiness was a more needed topic to speak on. I expanded on the idea of our responsibility as believers in the process of holiness.  On Thursday I started to read the book that some of the summer staffers were reading called: The Pursuit of Holiness by Jerry Bridges.  To say Bridges’ book was influential in my approach to the topic of holiness for the rest of the week is an understatement. The book was eye-opening to say the least and highly recommend it. I’m pretty sure I’ve flipped through it before, but I consume half the book in part of the afternoon.

Bridges pointed out three reasons why personal holiness is less evident in the lives of believers as it should be that I used as a launching pad for Thursday’s message. He said that we have a self-centered focus of our salvation, a misunderstanding of what it means to “live by faith” and also a lack of seriousness concerning some sins.

In my life I recognize that all three of these have been at work at some point. Using lame excuses to justify some “little” sin or just expecting God to “make me more holy” when I have a responsibility! How easy it is for us to get stuck in these ruts and then wonder how we ever go there in the first place.

Thursday night we focused on Colossians 3 and Romans 6 and how as Christians we are “dead to sin” and “alive to God through Christ”. We walked through how we have a personal responsibility to “put away” evil practices and to “put on” the characteristics of Christ. Yes, this is a work of the Spirit in our lives, but we still have a responsibility. We cannot expect God to DO this work if we are unwilling to be OBEDIENT to what He has already revealed to us. That’s the bottom line. Personal holiness is a work of the Spirit in our lives, but is accomplished through the everyday submission and obedience to the commands of Christ. We must “discipline ourselves for the purposes of godliness”. We have a role.

Too many Christians (myself included) blame God for not making us more like Christ overnight, when thought processes, habits, and the sinful self have to crucified on a daily basis.

There is no shortcut to godliness.

There has to be a balanced view. God’s work + My obedience/discipline = PERSONAL HOLINESS

On Friday, crews finished up on their worksites and our worship service was focused on the “What Now” factor as camp came to a close. I challenged the students to get past their “camp high” and understand the reality of going back home. Let’s be honest. Anyone who has ever gone to a “church camp” knows the let down of returning home. You meet knew people. You have a great week. You may experience God in a fresh way. All of those things seem so distant once the return to the real world sets in. My hope for the students is not just to continue some camp “high”… but to realize that God gets glory when we are faithful in the small mundane aspects of everyday life.

We looked at the call of Isaiah again in chapter 6. I’ve never really noticed before how much we stop at verse 8 when dealing with this text. Preachers and teachers always look at this with such hope of volunteerism. We say things like… “Look at Isaiah’s willingness to serve!” and we encourage our hearers to follow his example. While this is true, it’s only part of the story.

It wasn’t until studying for the Friday night message did I really dig into what God asked Isaiah to do. Go read what Isaiah signed up for and his response to God’s directions. God lets Isaiah know that his preaching is going to harden the hearts of His people even more. Isaiah stops for second and ask the obvious question, “For how long?”

I can imagine me having this conversation with God.

God: “Brian, I need you to preach to these people that their ears will be dull and they won’t turn back to me.”

Me: “Really? Come one God. Had I known this I wouldn’t have said, ‘Here am I, send me’. Don’t you realize that this is counterproductive? Why don’t I give them a happy message? They will like me and you more! That makes more sense!”

God: “Go… now… Trust me…

I’ve never really heard the end of this passage preached (that I can remember). God’s message for Isaiah was not the most refreshing one. Yes there was to be a remnant to remain. Yes, the “holy seed” would come out of this remnant. But overall, Isaiah was volunteering for an arduous task. When most of us would have walked away once we knew what God wanted us to do, I’m thankful Isaiah stayed the course.

This was my main thrust for the Friday night message. We should be less focused on the how’s and when’s and more focused on the WHO that is doing the sending. We walked through the Great Commission in Matthew 28 and I reminded the students that we have been sent with the authority of Jesus Christ (verse 18) which is often neglected in the preaching of this text. We cannot fully understand what it means to “make disciples as we go” if we don’t lay hold of the fact that Christ, who has ALL authority, is the one empowering and sending us.

There is no Plan B. We are it. I don’t know why God chose to do it this way, but He did.

His plan cannot fail, but we can miss the blessing of cooperating with Him.

I showed the video of Penn from the Penn and Teller show that I have already post on here. Man, what a concept. An atheist who believes in the urgency of the Christian message to be spread more than most believers. After watching, I was again reminded about how serious the command of Christ is to make disciples of all nations. We cannot wait. We cannot make excuses. We must be obedient.

May we be a people who live out our faith in practical ways as we guide people into a life-changing relationship with Christ! May they be drawn to the Christ they see in our lives. May we exude holiness in our personal walk each day so that the holiness of God is on full display. May we live as a “holy nation” and a “royal priesthood” or a “chosen generation” so that ALL may proclaim the EXCELLENCIES OF HIM WHO HAS CALLED US OUT OF DARKNESS AND INTO HIS MARVELOUS LIGHT!

~ by crosseyedministries on July 6, 2009.