#P4C12 Part 1

This past week I had the great privilege of being able to go to the Passion 4 Christ conference in Perrysville Ohio. I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to go or not because of funds but God wanted me to go so He provided. :)
     
    Let me tell you... it was... beyond incredible. Exactly what I needed. Even now I don't know how to put into words what I experienced while I was there. All I can say is that I believe I have never ever experienced Christ in the way that I did while I was there. He used every aspect of the conference to reach into the deepest corners of my heart. There are a few moments that stuck out to me in particular. 

    I had no idea that so many of my friends would be there which turned into a nice surprise. I remember getting to know people even better than I knew them before and completely opened up my heart to them and they did the same. We had sweet fellowship with each other and many times simply sat and excitedly told each other what Christ had been revealing to us or expressed our desire to understand hard questions that we had been struggling with. I was inspired by these people because I could see that they wanted Christ to be the forefront of their lives. It was so encouraging to be with these like-minded people for several days gleaning from their experiences and sharing and encouraging them as well. 

   Worship. Ohhhhh how I look at the word completely different now! In one session we defined what worship exactly and instead of making this post longer than it already is I'm going to save that for another time. But before every session we had a sweet time singing praises to the Lord of Heaven. Many I have heard before but there were two that I hadn't heard that had me on my knees before Christ. I'll post the link but wanted to write the words so you can see how powerful it is. 
     Oh Great God of Highest Heaven
     Occupy my lowly heart
     Own it all and reign Supreme
     Conquer every rebel power
     Let no vice or sin remain
     That resists Your holy war
     You have loved and purchased me
     Make me Yours forever more

     I was blinded by my sin
     Had no ears to hear Your voice
     Did not know Your love within
     Had not taste for heavens joy
     Then Your Spirit gave me life
     Opened up Your Word to me
     Through the Gospel of Your Son
     Gave me endless hope and peace

     Help me now to live a life
     That's dependent on Your grace
     Keep my heart and guard my soul
     From the evils that I face
     You are worthy to be praised
     With my every thought and deed
     Oh Great God of Highest Heaven
     Glorify Your name through me

This song is... overwhelming. It says all that is in my heart. We sang this song maybe three times and I was astounded by the simplicity of the words but how powerful they were. This is my prayer every day.Oh Great God of Highest Heaven
           
   One of the greatest eye opening moments was my "Lunch with Jesus". A two and a half hour time with just you and Jesus. Soooooo revealing! Jesus spoke to me! It was such an amazing moment! I was sitting outside going over my notes from the previous sessions about becoming immersed with the gifts of Christ in us. I decided to list all of the gifts I could see that Christ had given me. There I was listing them when all of a sudden, as I was reading a certain verse, I felt a lightning bolt of revelation. Philippians 4:19 says "And my God shall supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus." So, if Christ is in me and Christ has every gift... then that means that the gifts that are in me aren't even mine but Christs! Which means that I have a piece of Christ in me!! My gifts are His!! I got sooo excited in this revelation and still am!! It was just such an out of body experience!
  
   I have soooo much more to say over my time but sadly not enough time right now. But no worries. I will write again soon!

A challenge to keep up

I must say I have been very lax in my efforts to keep up on this blog. I deeply apologize. Sometimes I think my life must be very uninteresting to the average reader soooo... I don't bother writing. Other times I use business as my excuse. All in all though I should be better than I am now at writing. I promise to make a valiant effort to write at least once a week. This is actually therapy for me so I shouldn't be too hard to keep up. :P Now to catch up on life here's whats gone on this week.
  
   School, work, sleep, school, work, maybe sleep, school, work, no sleep then school. Weeeellll... actually it's not all that bad. The highlight of my week was seeing the Broadway play of Les Miserables with my mom. I had obtained some tickets for her birthday and the showing ended up being sooner than I thought. :P But it was absolutely AMAZING! If I wasn't addicted to it already then I am now.
  
   The play did remind me of something though. For the first part of the play I was disappointed because of a scene that was very descriptive. I found myself actually asking my mom if she wanted to leave. She said that it was only for this one scene and the rest would be better but I was still very uneasy and uncomfortable throughout the scene. I was troubled that no one else seemed bothered by it. This is the society we live in today. No one cares whats honoring to God. They only care about being entertained which is... extremely sad to say the least. Thankfully the rest of the play was incredible and I was able to enjoy myself and bask in the singers voices, the set, the orchestra, and the costumes. 
   

   This story reminded me of how we are called by Christ to die to ourselves. Take up our crosses and follow Him. Jean Val'Jeans life was not easy in the least and yet He put everything aside once he saw the Christ had redeemed him and followed after Him. This was very encouraging to me because it showed me that everything is worth it in the long run because once we get to a certain point the only thing that we see is Christ. That's how life should be. Or I should say how we should live it.