Well lets see... where to start.... Well it's been five months since my last post from Bean Town. A ton has happened since then. For one I think i was complaining about Elevate a little bit and now I have been teaching there for the past 5 months. I guess that's great place to start.
God has opened the door for me to explore my gifts in teaching on a weekly basis. Starting out it was all about how to get the wow response from the crowd. However, a pastor friend shared how this is the worst thing I do as a teacher. To shoot for the home run, instead of walking with your listeners and hitting base hits is a no-go. So once I processed this analogy... I took it and ran. I found out that the more you share real life with people while tying it in and backing it up with scripture it just works! I have found that the nights that I have been the most transparent the more people relate and understand the Gospel.
The other night I was teaching on John 4 and the woman at the well. The encounter this woman has with Jesus is life changing. However, I think people miss the woman's sin in saying that she was an adulteress because of her having five husbands. I know that this was here sin, but I think the true root of her sin what that she had given her heart to the wrong person. That's her great sin. How often this is our great sin too. This sin of give your heart to the wrong person covers a multitude of sins of misplaced worship.
As a University of Georgia alum I must say that I had fallen into idolatry of a school. The way that I figured this out was when I looked around my room and all I saw was Georgia Stuff... So as an illustration I brought all my Georgia stuff. Lets just say that there were two bags full of Red and Black garments, cups, ties, pictures, ticket stubs, even my orientation postcard framed, to top it all off with a little statue of UGA 6. Laying these idols down enabled people to see how their heart can be fully given to something other than our True Love. If you look at the first commandment God says,“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. “You shall have no other gods before* me. “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God... Ex. 20:2-4
When ever we exalt something/anything above God we are disobeying God's commandments. Once our sin has been reviled this allows us to see that we don't have a leg to stand on in the presents of God. However, while in this prostrate state we are able to receive our standing by grace through faith in Christ.Well I know if I write anymore you won't read it... so on that note peace out!
