Day 9, Budapest

With the first week behind me I finally have time to make a post! It has been a crazy week, but already the team is gelling amazingly. Its humbling to watch how perfectly God can bring the right people to a group. There are 21 of us living in the house, with only 6 guys. The London airport lost my luggage, so I wore the same wonderful clothes for three days….fun fun.

I was told that we weren’t going to have the normal first week because of scheduling problems, so instead of having a full week or orientation, we would have a full week of lectures AND orientation. Heh, nice. But it was actually amazing how perfectly God put the pieces of the puzzle together. The speaker, Don Stephens, started off the school with a week of lectures about God’s glory and how we view the world and the Kingdom. It couldn’t have fit more perfectly.
We always hear "Do everything unto the glory of God" which we take to mean "Just do the things you hate and act like you enjoy it". We think this because we dont have an understanding of what Gods glory is. We follow a God that we have never seen before, so what does His glory look like? How can you follow someone that you have never seen? Its because His glory is reflected in us, in creation. It is the reflection of Gods glory in sunsets that draws us to watch them, its everything that is beautiful. Humans are hardwired to be drawn to Gods glory when we see it, even the unbelievers. Its why people love to see a father and a son settle their differences, its why people love to hear an orchestra play, its why we love playing with babies, or look at the clouds or stars. These things are the core of any good movie. Good reigns over evil because it reflects God, the prince always defeats the dragon and sweeps the damsel off her feet because this is God! Bell penetrates the heart of the Beast and he is transformed into the man he was created to be, Frodo destroys the ring and brings peace to middle earth. Nicholas Sparks books are so popular because the love stories reflect the beauty of God. Any good movie has a good ending that reflects God’s glory. If the bad guy ever wins at the end of the movie, or the prince doesn’t end up with the princess, or the father and son aren’t reunited, we say, “It was an okay movie, but the ending wasn’t good” This is because we know how the story is supposed to go, we know what God’s Glory looks like, and when they story doesn’t go like we KNOW it is supposed to go, something in us stirs and says, “That’s not how the story goes….” We are hardwired to know what God’s glory looks like, and when it is altered or marred…we notice it.

Its because God is invisible, and its through what we can see here on earth that He is revealed. God's glory is his invisible nature reflected in the visible.

There is a huge battle against Gods glory, and this is where we see so many religions fighting. Imagine it this way. Say you were about to get married, some guy promised you he would marry you, and then went away for a month and your friend told you that he went off and got married to another girl. All chances of you being with him are completely gone, so what would you do? Burn his pictures, letters, anything you have of his that will remind you of him because you cant be together and it pains you to remember him. Well when Satan rebelled against God and was thrown from His presence, he lost all chances of ever being in His presence again, and this is why Satan tries to destroy everything that is beautiful. He is surrounded by things that reflect God, he cant escape it, its all over creation. The glory of God is visible for everyone to see and Satan HATES it! This is why Muslim women are forced to cover themselves from head to toe in black so you can only see a little bit of their eyes, this is why pornography is a billion dollar industry, this is why the media is getting bad. Satan is trying to destroy everything that reminds him of God. This is why the church of Christ doesn’t use instruments, etc, it goes on and on.

Back to the "Do everything unto the glory of God" thing. Its usually used when we are talking about work, but it says EVERYTHING. But i'll talk about the work part. God loves creativity, order, color, music, etc. He is a God of beauty. A clean room is more beautiful than a dirty room, a cut lawn is more beautiful than an overgrown lawn, a submissive wife reflects God more than a rebellious wife, a giving person more than a selfish person, a forgiving person more than an unforgiving person, a gentle loving suggestion than a short harsh yell, etc. These all represent God better than the latter. This is what it means to do something unto the glory of God. Reflect God in the best way possible in every area of your life.

Don Stephens packed so much in this short week, I’m sure I’ll be feasting on it for a while now.

God is moving through our work. There are several outreaches in the city we are doing, music, dramas, dances, street evangelism, coffee bars, English clubs, and others. We are about to go out into the city to have some fun now, so I gotta run. I’ll keep you all posted.

In Him