Well it is Sunday afternoon and the much needed nap was a great success. Getting over a 15 minute nap with 4 kids four and under is a small miracle so the I feel extremely blessed.
I am preaching through the book of Mark and was in the 3rd chapter were multitudes are trying to get to Jesus because he is healing people. I don't know how his ministry grew so fast without TV's, radios, flying banners behind planes, billboards, or the beloved internet. It seems that when Jesus is moving in people's lives that growth just happens- people are naturally attracted to were life is. He really did mean it when he said to "remain in me and you will bear much fruit." Our lives are filled with a continual fingerprints of God's presence and provision--we just need to open our eyes. Sharing our "faith" has become some fictitious futuristic event whereby someone sits in our office while we explain how God saved us...all the while noding in approval. This seems to me the reason we view evangelism as a bad word either a) because people don't seem to want to make regular appointments to hear our story or b)we don't feel like we can quite explain is like Billy Graham. It seems to me that the RX for such a view is in the realization that "sharing our faith"- which we are called in scripture to repeatedly do- is a sharing of one's complete life as it relates to God...how he is answering daily prayers..the revelation he is giving me from his word about my life.. the 1001 daily miracles he is doing in my life...the profound miracle of how he is changing someone who is full of himself to be full of someone else- Jesus..I am convinced that these little "t"testimonies lead to the "big" testimony "telling people how God saved you." By the time a person has seen the gospel on the canvas of your life...you are a more effective evangelist than anyone else. I must interupt this BLOG to go to our cell group...God bless any who stumble on these ramblings....
6 comments:
ahem....when I said let's reconnect...I meant it! Email me, you freak show. Brandon@ottercreek.org.
And why wouldn't you want to reconnect with the one who affectionately calls you "freakshow"?
Ty, thanks for the thougths. Maybe Paul was on to something when he said, "we loved you so much that we didn't just share the gospel, but our lives as well."
I look back on the days when we would share "lives" (and fireworks, girls, cutdowns, cigars...) with the fondest of memories.
Blessings Ty!
Oh yeah,
Quit complaining about your fifteen minute naps...Almost your entire sophomore year was a freakin nap! You and Shulze crawled in your 23 degree cave after pledging and came out for spring break. You have enough naps in you to last into your nineties!
Ty,
Glad you got to lie dow for a bit. I'm also glad you married and have kids. You've come a long way from your days when Leviticus 18:22-23 were daily practices for you. I'm proud of you buddy!
ahhhhhh-those were the days.
I'm so lost. The only Ty Lovell I know is esteemed family man, church leader, worship guru and sweet Rachel's husband. It is a great stretch to imagine what he was in like in college. These Levitical references worry me all the more knowing that my precious wife once looked up to him as a model and leader in said college days. So, out with my old view of Ty and in with the new. Actually, I think I relate to the new view a lot more anyway...
Post a Comment