Monday, September 14, 2009
Our Work: Our Calling
God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. 2Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their multitude. 2And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done. (Genesis 1:31-Genesis 2:1, 2)
Last Sunday I talked about bringing order out of chaos and that the first step in that process is making distinctions. Light and darkness, night and day, earth and sky, man and woman, Creator and Created. Today let’s talk about one more distinction made in this passage of Genesis, the distinction between work and rest. In this passage both are good, both are important.
But there was a time in the history of Christianity that one was exalted above the other. In fact I grew up in a culture where the good life, or success, whatever you may call it, is defined by the absence of work. The ideal life is to be able to command others to do the work. It is an exalted position to sit on a rocking chair and speak with a condescending voice to the servant, “O Inday, and tsinelas ko. Inday, isang basong tubig. Inday ilagay mo to sa pridyeder.”
In fact I have observed in Boracay that even the poorest visitor gets a perverse pleasure in being able to throw things at the street. There is an expectation that somebody gets paid to pick up litter that one throws away. For a few days in the island, every visitor is a master. Others have to do the dirty work.
During the time of Rizal the priestly vocation was considered higher than the vocation of the ordinary workingman. The command of the priest was considered the command of God. But Rizal in his letter to the women of Malolos criticized this attitude. He said,
Napagkilala din ninyo na ang utos ñg Dios ay iba sa utos ñg Parí, na ang kabanalan ay hindi ang matagal na luhod, mahabang dasal, malalaking kuentas, libaguing kalmin, kundí ang mabuting asal, malinis na loob at matuid na isip.
You know that the commandment of God is not the same as the commandment of the priest, that religion is not a matter of how long you kneel or how much you pray. It is not a matter of how large is your scapular or your religious medal. Rather it is a matter of proper conduct, clean conscience and a righteous mind.
Rizal was struggling with a belief system that considers prayer more important than work. It was believed that work was a curse and burden to be avoided if it exceeded what was enough for a modest life. The life of a priest and a nun was most suited for that kind of ethic or belief-system.
With Martin Luther there began a new understanding of Christianity.
1. It was a Christianity that understood that every believer is a priest unto God. But how does this priesthood offer its sacrifices to God? Not only in times of worship and prayer. But where everything we do is worship and prayer.
In Romans 12:1, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”
The body and all it does becomes an instrument for worship, whether it is done in church, or at home or in the workplace. These are various expressions of worship.
Work for the Christian, is not a curse but a blessing. It is the means by which we glorify God. Speaking to slaves who cannot receive earthly reward for their labor Paul said,
Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything, not only while being watched and in order to please them, but wholeheartedly, fearing the Lord. Whatever your task, put yourselves into it, as done for the Lord and not for your masters, since you know that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward; you serve the Lord Christ (Colossians 3:22-24).
Our work then is a means of glorifying God. Idleness does not glorify God. In his letter to the Thessalonians he discouraged Christians from making themselves a burden to other believers.
Now we command you, beloved, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to keep away from believers who are living in idleness and not according to the tradition that they received from us. For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us; we were not idle when we were with you, and we did not eat anyone’s bread without paying for it; but with toil and labour we worked night and day, so that we might not burden any of you. This was not because we do not have that right, but in order to give you an example to imitate. For even when we were with you, we gave you this command: Anyone unwilling to work should not eat. For we hear that some of you are living in idleness, mere busybodies, not doing any work. Now such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living. Brothers and sisters, do not be weary in doing what is right. Take note of those who do not obey what we say in this letter; have nothing to do with them, so that they may be ashamed. Do not regard them as enemies, but warn them as believers. 2 Thessalonians 3:6-15
2. There is another thing that we owe to the Reformers. It is a different attitude towards time and money. The Reformers believed that the idle person who spends one day sitting at home spends more than what he spent for his needs that day. He has also spent the money he should be receiving from his wages.
Furthermore, if he was a businessman he lost the opportunity for his money to beget more money. If you murder a hen you also murder all her chicks for a thousand generation. If you murder a thousand pesos, you lose the potential of those thousand pesos to yield more money.
More than greed is involved here. Excess wealth in the pursuit of honest labor is distinguishab le from avarice. To the Reformers economic gain is a sign of God’s grace.
The Roman Catholic who goes to the priest and seeks to be absolved of his sins finds assurance in the words of absolution. But the Biblical believer who knows from the promises of the Bible such as John 1:12, and the inward witness of the Holy Spirit that he is a child of God (Romans 8:16), finds external assurance elsewhere. One of those external signs is the material blessing of God upon our lives.
Perhaps the greatest contribution of the Reformers to the life of the ordinary believer is their belief in calling. Most of you are in awe whenever pastors talk about their calling. But there is a calling in which all of us can participate. It is the calling to live our lives in the world, and to be used by God so that our lives can bless others. John Wesley said, “Earn as much as you can. Save as much as you can. Invest as much as you can. Give as much as you can.” This summarizes the Protestant work ethic.
So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. 1 Cor 10:31.
In a sense, therefore there is no ordinary believer. All are priests unto God. All share in the calling of giving glory to God through his or her vocation. The priest performs it at the altar, the minister at the pulpit. The farmer’s altar and pulpit is his rice field; the carpenter and mason, the house they are building, the clerk, his or her desk. For others it is the call center, the factory, the store.
As heirs of the Reformation, we have every reason to take pride in the work of our hands. Paul did so. He said, “I coveted no one’s silver or gold or clothing. You know for yourselves that I worked with my own hands to support myself and my companions. In all this I have given you an example that by such work we must support the weak, remembering the words of the Lord Jesus, for he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive’ “ (Acts 20:33-36).
We have as much responsibility, then, not only to share the Gospel with our neighbors, but also to share our blessing with the needy. But we can only share what we possess. That is why it is not enough for a Christian to say,”Makakaon lag makabisti ok na.” If can feed ourselves; if we can clothe ourselves, it is enough. It is enough if we live in a world where everyone has equal opportunity to feed themselves and to clothe themselves. But we live in a very unequal world. Some are too ill, some are too weak, some are too discouraged. It is the height of selfishness for us to say that.
• If you are a laborer then pray that the Lord will give you a job that will provide more for you and your family.
• If you are an employee then seek to be promoted.
• If you are a businessman, then pray that the Lord will bless your business so you can hire more people, and be a blessing to the church and its mission. You have a calling to prosper so you can be a blessing.
In 2003 Sonia and I arrived to assume our responsibilities at Faith Village. We did not like what we saw. The place was unkempt, garbage was everywhere. There were only two workers who spent most of the day sitting down and watching over the property.
Today Faith Retreat looks neat and trim. We don’t have the money to landscape but we make us of what we have to create beauty and a restful atmosphere. But the grass is always mown and our calachuchi trees provide color in the summer peak season.
Furthermore we employ nine workers now. And out of our proceeds we send fifty elementary school Ati children and provide scholarship to two college young people. We pay the wages of two preschool teachers. We provide training for the teachers.
With the help of Mission of Mercy and Alan’s church we educate and feed a hundred Ati children every day five days a week.
No, never consider work as a burden. It is a privilege given by God. It is a calling.
Last Sunday I talked about bringing order out of chaos and that the first step in that process is making distinctions. Light and darkness, night and day, earth and sky, man and woman, Creator and Created. Today let’s talk about one more distinction made in this passage of Genesis, the distinction between work and rest. In this passage both are good, both are important.
But there was a time in the history of Christianity that one was exalted above the other. In fact I grew up in a culture where the good life, or success, whatever you may call it, is defined by the absence of work. The ideal life is to be able to command others to do the work. It is an exalted position to sit on a rocking chair and speak with a condescending voice to the servant, “O Inday, and tsinelas ko. Inday, isang basong tubig. Inday ilagay mo to sa pridyeder.”
In fact I have observed in Boracay that even the poorest visitor gets a perverse pleasure in being able to throw things at the street. There is an expectation that somebody gets paid to pick up litter that one throws away. For a few days in the island, every visitor is a master. Others have to do the dirty work.
During the time of Rizal the priestly vocation was considered higher than the vocation of the ordinary workingman. The command of the priest was considered the command of God. But Rizal in his letter to the women of Malolos criticized this attitude. He said,
Napagkilala din ninyo na ang utos ñg Dios ay iba sa utos ñg Parí, na ang kabanalan ay hindi ang matagal na luhod, mahabang dasal, malalaking kuentas, libaguing kalmin, kundí ang mabuting asal, malinis na loob at matuid na isip.
You know that the commandment of God is not the same as the commandment of the priest, that religion is not a matter of how long you kneel or how much you pray. It is not a matter of how large is your scapular or your religious medal. Rather it is a matter of proper conduct, clean conscience and a righteous mind.
Rizal was struggling with a belief system that considers prayer more important than work. It was believed that work was a curse and burden to be avoided if it exceeded what was enough for a modest life. The life of a priest and a nun was most suited for that kind of ethic or belief-system.
With Martin Luther there began a new understanding of Christianity.
1. It was a Christianity that understood that every believer is a priest unto God. But how does this priesthood offer its sacrifices to God? Not only in times of worship and prayer. But where everything we do is worship and prayer.
In Romans 12:1, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”
The body and all it does becomes an instrument for worship, whether it is done in church, or at home or in the workplace. These are various expressions of worship.
Work for the Christian, is not a curse but a blessing. It is the means by which we glorify God. Speaking to slaves who cannot receive earthly reward for their labor Paul said,
Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything, not only while being watched and in order to please them, but wholeheartedly, fearing the Lord. Whatever your task, put yourselves into it, as done for the Lord and not for your masters, since you know that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward; you serve the Lord Christ (Colossians 3:22-24).
Our work then is a means of glorifying God. Idleness does not glorify God. In his letter to the Thessalonians he discouraged Christians from making themselves a burden to other believers.
Now we command you, beloved, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to keep away from believers who are living in idleness and not according to the tradition that they received from us. For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us; we were not idle when we were with you, and we did not eat anyone’s bread without paying for it; but with toil and labour we worked night and day, so that we might not burden any of you. This was not because we do not have that right, but in order to give you an example to imitate. For even when we were with you, we gave you this command: Anyone unwilling to work should not eat. For we hear that some of you are living in idleness, mere busybodies, not doing any work. Now such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living. Brothers and sisters, do not be weary in doing what is right. Take note of those who do not obey what we say in this letter; have nothing to do with them, so that they may be ashamed. Do not regard them as enemies, but warn them as believers. 2 Thessalonians 3:6-15
2. There is another thing that we owe to the Reformers. It is a different attitude towards time and money. The Reformers believed that the idle person who spends one day sitting at home spends more than what he spent for his needs that day. He has also spent the money he should be receiving from his wages.
Furthermore, if he was a businessman he lost the opportunity for his money to beget more money. If you murder a hen you also murder all her chicks for a thousand generation. If you murder a thousand pesos, you lose the potential of those thousand pesos to yield more money.
More than greed is involved here. Excess wealth in the pursuit of honest labor is distinguishab le from avarice. To the Reformers economic gain is a sign of God’s grace.
The Roman Catholic who goes to the priest and seeks to be absolved of his sins finds assurance in the words of absolution. But the Biblical believer who knows from the promises of the Bible such as John 1:12, and the inward witness of the Holy Spirit that he is a child of God (Romans 8:16), finds external assurance elsewhere. One of those external signs is the material blessing of God upon our lives.
Perhaps the greatest contribution of the Reformers to the life of the ordinary believer is their belief in calling. Most of you are in awe whenever pastors talk about their calling. But there is a calling in which all of us can participate. It is the calling to live our lives in the world, and to be used by God so that our lives can bless others. John Wesley said, “Earn as much as you can. Save as much as you can. Invest as much as you can. Give as much as you can.” This summarizes the Protestant work ethic.
So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. 1 Cor 10:31.
In a sense, therefore there is no ordinary believer. All are priests unto God. All share in the calling of giving glory to God through his or her vocation. The priest performs it at the altar, the minister at the pulpit. The farmer’s altar and pulpit is his rice field; the carpenter and mason, the house they are building, the clerk, his or her desk. For others it is the call center, the factory, the store.
As heirs of the Reformation, we have every reason to take pride in the work of our hands. Paul did so. He said, “I coveted no one’s silver or gold or clothing. You know for yourselves that I worked with my own hands to support myself and my companions. In all this I have given you an example that by such work we must support the weak, remembering the words of the Lord Jesus, for he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive’ “ (Acts 20:33-36).
We have as much responsibility, then, not only to share the Gospel with our neighbors, but also to share our blessing with the needy. But we can only share what we possess. That is why it is not enough for a Christian to say,”Makakaon lag makabisti ok na.” If can feed ourselves; if we can clothe ourselves, it is enough. It is enough if we live in a world where everyone has equal opportunity to feed themselves and to clothe themselves. But we live in a very unequal world. Some are too ill, some are too weak, some are too discouraged. It is the height of selfishness for us to say that.
• If you are a laborer then pray that the Lord will give you a job that will provide more for you and your family.
• If you are an employee then seek to be promoted.
• If you are a businessman, then pray that the Lord will bless your business so you can hire more people, and be a blessing to the church and its mission. You have a calling to prosper so you can be a blessing.
In 2003 Sonia and I arrived to assume our responsibilities at Faith Village. We did not like what we saw. The place was unkempt, garbage was everywhere. There were only two workers who spent most of the day sitting down and watching over the property.
Today Faith Retreat looks neat and trim. We don’t have the money to landscape but we make us of what we have to create beauty and a restful atmosphere. But the grass is always mown and our calachuchi trees provide color in the summer peak season.
Furthermore we employ nine workers now. And out of our proceeds we send fifty elementary school Ati children and provide scholarship to two college young people. We pay the wages of two preschool teachers. We provide training for the teachers.
With the help of Mission of Mercy and Alan’s church we educate and feed a hundred Ati children every day five days a week.
No, never consider work as a burden. It is a privilege given by God. It is a calling.
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Reordering the Chaos of Our Lives
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, 2the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. 3Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light. Genesis 1:1-3
Growing up after the war we were so poor because my father was too ill to work. I often fantasized about money. I had this recurring dream. I would either be going up or down the bamboo ladder to our house. My foot slips and I would fall. My fall breaks the ground and lo and behold before my eyes is a box full of money. The dream was so vivid I would wake up panting with excitement.
As I was growing into adolescence and learned how to swim, me and the other boys would think of how to use our skill to bring fortune. We would fantasize about a rich woman crossing the bridge. Something happens. The woman falls screaming into the river. Then we would rescue her and naturally she would be grateful and offer to marry her rescuer. Then the rest of us would have to find other rich women to rescue.
Most of us fantasize about getting more money. If the Lord granted you a wish, how would you like him to bless you? Would you rather have it the way of my dream? You don’t have to do anything about it, it shows up like magic. Or would you rather find a rich man or woman to marry?
Do you remember the Disney cartoon of the Sleeping Beauty? Well, she had three fairy godmothers, each with a wand and they could make things appear and disappear. When Sleeping Beauty’s wedding gown was being made, the godmothers could not agree on the color. So with the zip or a wand, the gown turns into blue; another zap of the wand, it turns pink. And so on and so forth.
God can bless us by magic. He did that when the disciples needed money to pay tax. Jesus sent them to the sea to catch fish. And one fish had a coin in its mouth, enough for the poll tax. Not much, this is no goose that lays the golden egg story.
But the miracle of Genesis is not so much creating things out of nothing as much as bringing order out of chaos. To the Hebrews living on the hills of Palestine, the sea was sinister, wild and turbulent. But the Spirit of God brooded over the waters and things began to take shape.
Chaos is confusion, clutter, a mess. Junk.
How do you create order out of chaos? First of all you have to take some boxes and label them, putting some things here and other things there. It may require throwing unnecessary things away. In other words you make distinctions.
And this is just what God did. Open your Bibles to Genesis 1. What did God separate?
• Light from darkness
• Earth from sky
• Land from sea
• Man from animals
• Woman from man
Although it is not explicitly mentioned, there is one more distinction to be made. God is not part of creation. He is distinct from the things he created. He is holy. For that is what holiness means, to be distinct, to be set apart. We are not to confuse God with nature. We are not to confuse God with ourselves. This is what sets apart Bible religion from the religion of Greece and Rome. For their Gods were mere mortals with supernatural powers. They lie, cheat, commit adultery just like ordinary mortals do. God asked, “To whom will you compare me?”
Salvation then is the beginning of the work of creating order out of our confused lives. Let me use my own life as an example of this process of making distinctions.
Before I came to know the Lord Jesus Christ, God wasn’t a part of my life. I see religious people and sometimes I wished I could be like them. But I wasn’t really aware of God. I think of religion as kind of belonging to a club where you have certain rules to follow, certain uniforms to wear at certain times. But God wasn’t a part of my understanding of religion.
1. Then I was introduced to Jesus and things began to change in the ordering, first of all of my awareness of reality. I became aware of the presence of God. Have you experienced working and then without looking back became aware that someone is standing behind you? Somebody has intruded into your space.
I became aware of his place in the affairs of my life. It’s like you’ve been living alone in your dormitory room and then a stranger knocked asking if he could share your room. Remember I’ve known about this person before but he has no part in my life. Now he is sharing my room.
I was used to running my life the way I wanted to, now here’s this person who was getting in the way. Things got complicated. I find that word in FB profiles.
Relationships? Some answer, “Complicated.” Jesus does complicate our life.
He got in the way of my social life, for example. Would I introduce him to my friends? Would I rather not? Could I take him to this place where I hang out with other friends? Would I rather that he kept his own company while I kept mine?
So I began reordering my life with Christ around. I began doing what I have never done before, praying. My mother taught me some prayers. But knowing prayers and praying are two different things. Prayer is awareness of the Other Person before you. Prayers are like reading a book. The characters don’t leap out of the book and talk to you. Prayers are risk free. You do the talking; you do not consider the possibility of interruption, like, “What do you mean?” or “Why did you say that?” When you pray you are aware that the Other Person has something to say about what you are saying.
So praying is an interruption of my privacy. The more I talk the more I am allowing interruptions. But without talk Jesus remains a stranger and that’s difficult to have a stranger rooming with you. That creates a very awkward situation.
2. As soon as I began to see that there is a distinct Person who had become part of my life, I also came to realize that I had to make a distinction with regards to time. Prior to Jesus it was all my time. With his coming, he invites me to his time. Prayer is basically very much my call. I choose the time and the place. But not Sunday. It is his time and he chooses the place not me.
Until I met Jesus Christ Sunday had no significance for me. Other than the fact that I don’t go to school that day and that my father is at home and not working on Sunday, it was still part of my time. When I met Jesus, it became his day. The English language retained the old pagan name which is Sunday or the day of the Sun. But you can’t escape the meaning in Spanish. It is Domingo, which means the Lord’s or the day of the Lord. It is there I meet his people.
3. Now I have to make another adjustment. For, to be frank, some of his people I don’t like at all. I still think that some of my own people were better behaved than this bunch. There was this young man for example who just got in my nerves. He went to the same school as I but he was too loud. He was drawing too much attention to himself and his religion. He would call me in school and shout, “Brother Dionson!” Weird.
But I discover one thing. The difference between his people and my people is that I can easily drop people I don’t like in my circle. But I cannot drop people from his circle. I have a choice to do. I can drop out entirely. But that means losing the people there that I learned to like. I found out that the discipline of staying put with these people is helping me in many ways. I see myself much better because his people provide kind of a mirror through which I see myself. This is not always true in my circle where people just tell me what I like to hear.
Furthermore, I found out that being in fellowship with his people, my circle of friends actually expanded with people I could trust.
4. As I got to know Jesus better I find out there is a gradual but definite reordering of my outlook. I was born in poverty. Early on, I developed a defeatist attitude towards life. This was what scared me as I was graduating in high school. It was not so much that I lacked interest in pursuing a career. It was rather that I wasn’t sure what to do with a career. Finding Jesus in my life was like having an experienced mentor who told me, “Don’t be afraid, I’ll help you.”
It was that assurance that gave me the courage to take up the Christian ministry as my career. In fact it was a relief when I finally decided after months of agonizing prayer what to do with my life. Being in Bible school was a pivotal experience for me. More than the things I learned, the lifelong friendships I developed, and the awesome experiences with the Holy Spirit, what Bible instilled in me was the development of habits that eventually would prove to bless me in ways I never imagined. These habits Sonia and I carried into the raising of our family.
• We woke up before sun-up to read the Bible and pray.
• We ate our meals together.
• We worked from 8 to 5.
• We studied between 7:30 and 9 in the evening.
• We went to bed at between 9:30 and ten at night. We knew nothing of night life.
• We went to church together every Sunday. It was a holy day for us.
• We gave ten percent of our income to the Lord.
• We saved money. Bonuses. Extra income. Gifts.
• We entertained people at home.
There was a time when our squatter congregation was still quite small. I was working at home, pounding my typewriter writing a manuscript for sale to a publisher. An old Japanese gentleman opened the gate and introduced himself as Reverend Sato. Without saying anything he started unzipping his trousers. I was shocked. Is this Japanese going out of his mind? Then he pulled a cloth bag, opened it and gave me a hundred dollars. He said the Lord had told him to find me and give the gift to me.
I have a few experiences like that. But I could see that most of the time, the blessing came like Paul said it in Acts 20:33, “I coveted no one’s silver or gold or clothing. You know for yourselves that I worked with my own hands to support myself and my companions. In all this I have given you an example that by such work we must support the weak, remembering the words of the Lord Jesus, for he himself said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”
The blessing came as I gave. I started my first congregation in Cebu among squatter people. I had to find work to rent a house where we met. I gave a tenth of my income to the District because I was an ordained minister of the AoG. It was like a seed. Our congregation grew. And the time came when I did not have to work. Not only that as the congregation increased in number and as our income grew, they took care of me and my family in a very generous manner.
In my last visit in Boracay I spent a few nights at Beth Shalom our own property in Boracay. We built a school there. It’s small now but it will grow. I sat down at the carpet of grass so carefully tended by Nanay Teling. And I was just overwhelmed by God’s goodness. Through the years the miracles that the Lord brought in our lives were the miracle of being connected with the right kind of people, of being at the right place at the right time. As though an unseen hand was guiding our decisions and even our failures and shortcomings became part of a tapestry of light and shadow that God was creating out of our lives.
Too much clutter in your life? Too many complications? Has somebody knocked at your door, saying, “Behold I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice, open the door and let me in. Let me help you with that junk. Let’s put order into your life.”
I can tell you this, you’ll never be sorry you let him in.
To Ichtus Youth
“In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams.” Acts 2:17
I was overwhelmed by the 6th Anniversary of FNJ last Friday. It says a lot about you.
1. That you could have a church group for 6 years, maintain it and keep its momentum.
2. That you could find IF a church worth loyalty, energy and enthusiasm despite its many obvious shortcomings.
3. That you could keep fellowship with previous Ichtus youth who are scattered abroad.
IF does not have to create a youth movement; it is already here. The boundless energy is there; the bond is there; the spirit of adventure is there.
The question is where to? In this passage about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, young men and old men share the capacity for seeing things that are not. I wish it was the other way around though, old men dreaming dreams doesn’t sound as nice as old men having visions.
You have proven that being Christian and being young can be a lot of fun. It is now time to turn the power of Ichtus youth into the service of the kingdom.
I have four ideas to suggest to you on this 6th anniversary of Friday Night Jam:
1. That Ichtus reclaim the campuses. This has always been the mandate of Ichtus Youth and many of you have come to know the Lord while in college. But what I mean is a determined and aggressive campaign to bring Christ into the campuses.
2. That as Ichtus graduate into Ichtus Alumni you the same drive, and creativity and idealism into the work place. Ichtus Alumni, whether singles or marrieds, consider yourselves as models and as mentors to Ichtus college youth.
3. That Ichtus Alumni now scattered in the country and around the world form Ichtus International, using the internet as means of communication and maintaining reunions and forming extensions of Immanuel Fellowships around the world.
4. That Ichtus serve the wider Fellowship. You are already doing that. Through your diverse ministry involvement. Still, I want to be able to say to you, “There’s an old lady in the hospital that needs a young person to comfort her.” I need to be able to say to you, “I need someone to teach a new Bible study group in Lahug.”
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams.” Acts 2:17
I was overwhelmed by the 6th Anniversary of FNJ last Friday. It says a lot about you.
1. That you could have a church group for 6 years, maintain it and keep its momentum.
2. That you could find IF a church worth loyalty, energy and enthusiasm despite its many obvious shortcomings.
3. That you could keep fellowship with previous Ichtus youth who are scattered abroad.
IF does not have to create a youth movement; it is already here. The boundless energy is there; the bond is there; the spirit of adventure is there.
The question is where to? In this passage about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, young men and old men share the capacity for seeing things that are not. I wish it was the other way around though, old men dreaming dreams doesn’t sound as nice as old men having visions.
You have proven that being Christian and being young can be a lot of fun. It is now time to turn the power of Ichtus youth into the service of the kingdom.
I have four ideas to suggest to you on this 6th anniversary of Friday Night Jam:
1. That Ichtus reclaim the campuses. This has always been the mandate of Ichtus Youth and many of you have come to know the Lord while in college. But what I mean is a determined and aggressive campaign to bring Christ into the campuses.
2. That as Ichtus graduate into Ichtus Alumni you the same drive, and creativity and idealism into the work place. Ichtus Alumni, whether singles or marrieds, consider yourselves as models and as mentors to Ichtus college youth.
3. That Ichtus Alumni now scattered in the country and around the world form Ichtus International, using the internet as means of communication and maintaining reunions and forming extensions of Immanuel Fellowships around the world.
4. That Ichtus serve the wider Fellowship. You are already doing that. Through your diverse ministry involvement. Still, I want to be able to say to you, “There’s an old lady in the hospital that needs a young person to comfort her.” I need to be able to say to you, “I need someone to teach a new Bible study group in Lahug.”
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