As the clock counts down and the days are peeled from the calendar, I look back at my time here, and the time I have left, and feel unprepared for the outreach we are about to set out on. The more I learn and see, the more I realize how much I dont really know, and how much I really haven't seen. This week we were taught by a man named Ronnie Stevens, the pastor of a local church here in Budapest. The importance of the Word was shone in a new light to me.
We cannot appreciate the cross until we understand our need for the cross. We have grown up in a world of limited attention, we cannot be effective missionaries (Christians) unless we soak ourselves in the Word. In the physical world...the world around us, we have directions in 2D (basically). We can go 360 degrees, left, right, straight, back,....and yet we get even confused with this and lose ourselves (physically). How many of us have gotten lost before? All of us. Especially Ryan Shelton. Hehe, sorry bud, couldn't resist. In the spiritual realm of things, it is 3D. Its like a sphere, and our directions are infinite. How can we know which direction to go? The Word...its a map. We talked about interpreting the Bible, how to really see what God is saying. We looked at both ends of the spectrum. People who interpret the scripture too loosely, and then the legalists. Legalists are people who make up rules in the Bible, people who get more pleasure out of talking about what they have given up for God more than what God has given up for them.
We looked at the way that the god of this world twists scripture, adds and takes away from it, and tries to get us to question the character of God. In Genesis 3, the serpent tries to sow doubt into Eve. He says, "Did God really say, 'you cannot eat from ANY tree in the garden?" God didnt say ANY tree, he said a specific tree. The serpent tries to make God look unreasonable, Eve also adds by saying "and not touch it". God didnt say not to touch it.
The serpent inflicts doubt, and tries to inflict unreasonableness into the character of God. In Genesis 3:4, the serpent makes it look like God is insecure, and that God doesnt want them to be like Him. Not only is that a lie, but its the opposite of the truth!! Another thing to look at, is Adam and Eve didnt eat the fruit because they were hungry. Forbidding that fruit didnt deny a need or even a desired want....they ate the fruit because they believed a lie about God. How many times do we swallow the fruit because we believe a lie about God?
What is fruit anyway? This fleshy thing thats comes from a green thing usually, and more than often tastes good, except tomatoes. But really, what is it? How can we "bare fruit". What does that even mean? We usually cut off unexpected growths from our bodies, so it must be a spiritual thing. Fruit is excess life. In its essence....it is life that a tree cannot consume, so it produces a vessel to store that life. So if we are the tree, somehow there has to be life flowing through us to produce this "excess life". There are two ways to allow living water to pass through you. How do we do this? Like a pipe? That gets water from A to B pretty quickly, but the pipe is unaffected by the water...or if it is, its in a bad way. What about a tree? As living water passes through the tree, the tree is affected, it changes the tree, and it bares fruit and flowers. Thats how I want to be a vessel for living water....is it a choice? Is it possible to be like a pipe? Will God use us to transport living water like a pipe if we choose to not transport it like a tree? I dont know. Any insight?.....
I heard about two types of flight ratings for pilots. Visual Flight Rating (VFR) and Instrument Flight Rating (IFR). VFR tests how a pilot flies when they can visually see where they are, and where they are going, when there is no cloud cover, no moonless nights.....and IFR tests how pilots fly when they cannot see.....when they are disoriented....but use their instruments to guide them and keep them safe. We have our instrument, the Word of God, and our relationship, discernment, and Godly conscience....but how many times do we not use these instruments and trust our senses and the words of the enemy when we cannot see.....Eve trusted her senses and the words of the serpent over the instruction of God...
I wish I could share all of the things I have learned this week that have totally blown my mind about reading the Word, and recognizing the truth in it...but it would take forever, and time is something I cant spare in excess. Maybe I will take some time when I return to you, to speak to you about these things. The Bible is like a beautiful woman...you never look at an amazingly gorgeous woman and then say, "Oh, I've already looked at her." No, you want to look more, you haven't seen all you want, just like the Bible, you have to keep looking...sorry for the example. It made sense though. I wish I could sit here all day and share these things with you, I'm waiting to explode all these things that have changed my life with you guys, so you too may experience the same thing, the same change.
I love you guys, and I DID have an amazing Thanksgiving, thanks for asking, for all of you who sent me e-mails. Its great to hear from you all.
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Day 60, Budapest
It is already the second day into the week, but I want to give you an update on this previous week's sessions. We dealt with our authority in Christ. From the Fall of man to the resurrection of Christ, some big things changed and we really took a dive into how Satan builds strongholds in our lives.
The enemy doesn't want us to discover our original design. When we do, we become dangerous. He builds strongholds in our lives that he uses to keep us from discovering our original design, the way God created us as. We spoke of several kinds of strongholds, including generational, curses, fear, and soul-ties.
Generational strongholds are passed down from parent to child, or even from grandparent to grandchild. Alcoholism is an example of this. Children of alcoholic parents more often that not struggle with alcoholism or marry someone who does. People who were abused, struggle with being heavy-handed with their own children.
Soul ties are also strongholds. People can form soul-ties with people through sinful activity, traumatic events, sexual immorality, and occultic practices. Even people who have been abused or held captive form weird relationships with their abusers and captors. These things can draw people together in an unhealthy way. These ties need to be broken.
As we prepare for our three months of outreach, we are focusing on breaking down the strongholds in our life, and discovering who we are created to be and the authority that comes with it. Our strength and authority is increased as we break the areas that the enemy has held captive in our lives. Man....this has been an amazing journey. I have been changed, and I have seen immediate changes in the lives of my team members as we break down the doors of the places of our lives that the enemy has built strongholds, and take back what belongs to us.
As I see these things happen, my excitement about our ministry in Egypt and India increases! We are becoming more and more effective each day as we uncover new layers of our identity in Christ. We have only a few weeks left before we leave. Please continue to pray for us. We applied for our visas today, so pray that God will provide entrance into India for our team. We also need more support. Thank you guy so much for your encouragement and kind words! They do mean a lot to me, I plan to sit down soon and reply to them.
The enemy doesn't want us to discover our original design. When we do, we become dangerous. He builds strongholds in our lives that he uses to keep us from discovering our original design, the way God created us as. We spoke of several kinds of strongholds, including generational, curses, fear, and soul-ties.
Generational strongholds are passed down from parent to child, or even from grandparent to grandchild. Alcoholism is an example of this. Children of alcoholic parents more often that not struggle with alcoholism or marry someone who does. People who were abused, struggle with being heavy-handed with their own children.
Soul ties are also strongholds. People can form soul-ties with people through sinful activity, traumatic events, sexual immorality, and occultic practices. Even people who have been abused or held captive form weird relationships with their abusers and captors. These things can draw people together in an unhealthy way. These ties need to be broken.
As we prepare for our three months of outreach, we are focusing on breaking down the strongholds in our life, and discovering who we are created to be and the authority that comes with it. Our strength and authority is increased as we break the areas that the enemy has held captive in our lives. Man....this has been an amazing journey. I have been changed, and I have seen immediate changes in the lives of my team members as we break down the doors of the places of our lives that the enemy has built strongholds, and take back what belongs to us.
As I see these things happen, my excitement about our ministry in Egypt and India increases! We are becoming more and more effective each day as we uncover new layers of our identity in Christ. We have only a few weeks left before we leave. Please continue to pray for us. We applied for our visas today, so pray that God will provide entrance into India for our team. We also need more support. Thank you guy so much for your encouragement and kind words! They do mean a lot to me, I plan to sit down soon and reply to them.
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Day 51, Budapest
I’m sitting here alone as I write this, trying to make sense of the last week....trying to find some sense of control over the changes so I can comprehend what went on in me......what happened?
Wednesday night I stayed up talking with some of the team members. We discussed some of the things that have happened to us in life, some of the events that changed us, and no matter if we wanted them to or not, shaped us into the person we are now. I was talking about how I have become to desensitized to the glory of God, how I used to be very spiritually sensitive. The simplest movies, certain songs, shows and plays, even watching an older man play with his child or grandchild would choke me up. I kept these things in, never let people know, but it still affected me, something stirred in me when it had any kind of spiritual truth, any kind of the way things are supposed to be. After an event that shook the reality of my life, shattered the faith I had in people and even God, I noticed that I was spiritually numb.....no longer did I notice the same things I did before.... I was.....emotionless. At first I enjoyed it. My days of pain were deadened, it no longer hurt, and I even saw it as an advantage, I hungrily devoured the Proverbs, I knew that emotions could affect wisdom and discernment, and I could finally make decisions without my emotions affecting them.....but I was spiritually dead.
We burned the candles into the night, talking until the last flame flickered, and went out. I remember the last thing I said, "And now....I dunno....I’m just so hungry for some emotion, I've noticed that even THEY are a gift, and I miss feeling that...."
Thursday morning I walked into class and set my coffee mug on the table in front of me. Opening my leather journal, I began to prepare the next page for a day of notes on the lecture. How unaware I was that my reality was about to be shattered....well...actually, it was about to be put back together....this time the way it was originally supposed to be.
I don’t remember what the whole lecture was about, but it started off talking about the difference between our flesh and spirit. This was not an unfamiliar topic, I had spoken many times about this at Bible studies throughout the past few years.
Jesus was crucified....we have heard it thousands of times. We have seen the pictures, heard it described, seen the movie.... He willingly set an example for us....it wasn't His spirit that was crucified, it was His body. He could have called down the angels and gotten away, He knew it was coming, but He willingly went. He asked God if there was another way, I'm sure He didn’t look forward to the pain....
Our problem is we don’t see who we are, we don’t know who we truly were created to be....
We can only go to the cross through our freewill... We have been acting like something we weren't created to be...the sin, the masks, the posing. We need to crucify this "old man", the "old self" so we can live free from the bondage, but we can only go to the cross through our freewill.....we can only be crucified and kill our old self, if we go to the cross....and our flesh will be kicking and screaming the whole way....it knows the pain and death....and it resists. It won’t go willingly...
I heard this and started writing what was coming to my mind... Frustrated. I was writing down all of the words I could use to describe myself, the way I have been thinking in life. And something was stirring in me...why was this hard? "Why am I doing this, Lord?" I looked at the page:
"Prideful, mean, uncaring, self gratifying, lazy, manipulative, lying, cheating, false, all about appearance, unconfident, procrastinating, forgetful, unmotivated, rebellious, lonely yet independent, hateful, harsh, judgmental, comfortable, hurt, attached, unfocused, stubborn, sarcastic, self-absorbed...."
I closed my eyes...."Why is this hurting...what is going on?"
"You need to know the man you are burying. You cannot bury what you don’t know exists....You must do this to say good-bye to your old self"
I tilted my head back, trying to deny tears. They came anyway. What was going on...I knew now. God gave me a look at who I was putting up on the cross, the man I was giving up, the old me, I was saying goodbye. I thought this would be a great time of freedom and rejoicing, but no. It was hard, I had to say goodbye to someone I was familiar with, I felt secure with the old self, I was crucifying an old friend, and saying goodbye to one I had grown close to. There is freedom, but it also came with a period of burying an old friend.
The emotions are back, I have my identity now, the man I was created as. Truly, a Christian isn’t one who gives his life to Christ, but one who gets his life from Christ.
Things are different now, what freedom, what vision. I had to be taken through the lies of my life, the identity I had believed of myself, the one I had accepted and lived with. God took me and showed me the new man, the one He had always seen, He showed me my real identity. An identity void of scars, void of lies, void of masks. What now? What will I do with this? I will show others. Too long have we lived in the dark, too long have we been living with an identity that is marred, scarred, and a broken image of whom we really are. I can't just sit back anymore.
STATUS UPDATE:
Tomorrow I will announce where I will be going on outreach to the group.... I have had to choose between two outreaches. One is setting out for Bulgaria, Armenia, and Greece. The one I chose is heading for Egypt, and then India.
In less than a month, God is sending me out to speak to the lost and encourage the found. On December 10 I leave for Egypt, fully equipped (and by fully equipped I mean completely and utterly broken in spirit and humbled knowing I can bring nothing without God), soaked in prayer and grace to spread the Gospel. I have been in training for 2 months, and will continue this preparation for the time remaining before we leave. I do need help. The plane tickets from here to Egypt, and from Egypt to India and back to Budapest have risen a lot. Each member of our team needs $4,500 to cover his or her part of the crusade. I do not have this money. I look at the time in-between now and the time I leave. Less than a month. This seems like an overwhelming obstacle for me. It is a lot of money. I ask that you all please pray about supporting me during this time. I cannot do this alone, I have taken the step into this time, I am walking this out, and we will reach these Muslims and Hindus, but I cannot do this alone. Please pray about my financing, and the whole team's. I will keep you informed about how God provides this money, so you can grow in faith and rejoice with me.
In faith,
Nick Huber
P.S. Thank you so much for your letters, e-mails, and comments. They are a constant source of encouragement, its feels good to know I am not alone in this battle.
Wednesday night I stayed up talking with some of the team members. We discussed some of the things that have happened to us in life, some of the events that changed us, and no matter if we wanted them to or not, shaped us into the person we are now. I was talking about how I have become to desensitized to the glory of God, how I used to be very spiritually sensitive. The simplest movies, certain songs, shows and plays, even watching an older man play with his child or grandchild would choke me up. I kept these things in, never let people know, but it still affected me, something stirred in me when it had any kind of spiritual truth, any kind of the way things are supposed to be. After an event that shook the reality of my life, shattered the faith I had in people and even God, I noticed that I was spiritually numb.....no longer did I notice the same things I did before.... I was.....emotionless. At first I enjoyed it. My days of pain were deadened, it no longer hurt, and I even saw it as an advantage, I hungrily devoured the Proverbs, I knew that emotions could affect wisdom and discernment, and I could finally make decisions without my emotions affecting them.....but I was spiritually dead.
We burned the candles into the night, talking until the last flame flickered, and went out. I remember the last thing I said, "And now....I dunno....I’m just so hungry for some emotion, I've noticed that even THEY are a gift, and I miss feeling that...."
Thursday morning I walked into class and set my coffee mug on the table in front of me. Opening my leather journal, I began to prepare the next page for a day of notes on the lecture. How unaware I was that my reality was about to be shattered....well...actually, it was about to be put back together....this time the way it was originally supposed to be.
I don’t remember what the whole lecture was about, but it started off talking about the difference between our flesh and spirit. This was not an unfamiliar topic, I had spoken many times about this at Bible studies throughout the past few years.
Jesus was crucified....we have heard it thousands of times. We have seen the pictures, heard it described, seen the movie.... He willingly set an example for us....it wasn't His spirit that was crucified, it was His body. He could have called down the angels and gotten away, He knew it was coming, but He willingly went. He asked God if there was another way, I'm sure He didn’t look forward to the pain....
Our problem is we don’t see who we are, we don’t know who we truly were created to be....
We can only go to the cross through our freewill... We have been acting like something we weren't created to be...the sin, the masks, the posing. We need to crucify this "old man", the "old self" so we can live free from the bondage, but we can only go to the cross through our freewill.....we can only be crucified and kill our old self, if we go to the cross....and our flesh will be kicking and screaming the whole way....it knows the pain and death....and it resists. It won’t go willingly...
I heard this and started writing what was coming to my mind... Frustrated. I was writing down all of the words I could use to describe myself, the way I have been thinking in life. And something was stirring in me...why was this hard? "Why am I doing this, Lord?" I looked at the page:
"Prideful, mean, uncaring, self gratifying, lazy, manipulative, lying, cheating, false, all about appearance, unconfident, procrastinating, forgetful, unmotivated, rebellious, lonely yet independent, hateful, harsh, judgmental, comfortable, hurt, attached, unfocused, stubborn, sarcastic, self-absorbed...."
I closed my eyes...."Why is this hurting...what is going on?"
"You need to know the man you are burying. You cannot bury what you don’t know exists....You must do this to say good-bye to your old self"
I tilted my head back, trying to deny tears. They came anyway. What was going on...I knew now. God gave me a look at who I was putting up on the cross, the man I was giving up, the old me, I was saying goodbye. I thought this would be a great time of freedom and rejoicing, but no. It was hard, I had to say goodbye to someone I was familiar with, I felt secure with the old self, I was crucifying an old friend, and saying goodbye to one I had grown close to. There is freedom, but it also came with a period of burying an old friend.
The emotions are back, I have my identity now, the man I was created as. Truly, a Christian isn’t one who gives his life to Christ, but one who gets his life from Christ.
Things are different now, what freedom, what vision. I had to be taken through the lies of my life, the identity I had believed of myself, the one I had accepted and lived with. God took me and showed me the new man, the one He had always seen, He showed me my real identity. An identity void of scars, void of lies, void of masks. What now? What will I do with this? I will show others. Too long have we lived in the dark, too long have we been living with an identity that is marred, scarred, and a broken image of whom we really are. I can't just sit back anymore.
STATUS UPDATE:
Tomorrow I will announce where I will be going on outreach to the group.... I have had to choose between two outreaches. One is setting out for Bulgaria, Armenia, and Greece. The one I chose is heading for Egypt, and then India.
In less than a month, God is sending me out to speak to the lost and encourage the found. On December 10 I leave for Egypt, fully equipped (and by fully equipped I mean completely and utterly broken in spirit and humbled knowing I can bring nothing without God), soaked in prayer and grace to spread the Gospel. I have been in training for 2 months, and will continue this preparation for the time remaining before we leave. I do need help. The plane tickets from here to Egypt, and from Egypt to India and back to Budapest have risen a lot. Each member of our team needs $4,500 to cover his or her part of the crusade. I do not have this money. I look at the time in-between now and the time I leave. Less than a month. This seems like an overwhelming obstacle for me. It is a lot of money. I ask that you all please pray about supporting me during this time. I cannot do this alone, I have taken the step into this time, I am walking this out, and we will reach these Muslims and Hindus, but I cannot do this alone. Please pray about my financing, and the whole team's. I will keep you informed about how God provides this money, so you can grow in faith and rejoice with me.
In faith,
Nick Huber
P.S. Thank you so much for your letters, e-mails, and comments. They are a constant source of encouragement, its feels good to know I am not alone in this battle.
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Day 46, Budapest
It is the second day into our week of lectures, and already my mind is crammed with new ideas and thoughts. Sverker, a Swedish missionary, is speaking this week. I looked at the schedule yesterday to get an idea about what our topic would be, and the words on the sheet said "The Gospel".
I prepared myself for a week of teaching on Jesus. I was mistaken. Im not sure how the rest of the week will turn out, but we haven't talked about the life of Jesus. Instead we have been talking about deep things that are totally changing the way I think!
We are talking about our identity, the masks we wear, and how we "pose" for the world. He is using many different movie clips to highlight his points. I am very impressed. I find myself sitting back in my chair, trying to comprehend the words that are piercing my heart as he brings lie after lie to the surface and allows God to shine light on them.
One of the things that is continually popping up in my mind, is that we all need more love than we deserve. We were created in His image. I find myself walking from time to time asking questions....questions i think everyone asks, something that is core to actually living a life with "life" in it. These times usually happen while im alone, when no one else is around, no one's gaze is upon me and i don't need to "perform" for anyone, like when I'm staring into a fire, or by myself on the bus, walking home at night alone...."Who am I....really.......why do I think the way I do, why do I feel the emotions i do,....why do we all put on different faces around different people? What am i looking for.....why do we do this?....why am I more aware of this when no one else is around?" We want to know more about ourselves, the spiritual part of us, the emotional part of us. We wear masks, we pose, change the way we hold ourselves, so that we can gain someone's acceptance, love, affection. But deep down, we are looking for the real us. We were created in God's likeness, after his heart, His image. We find our identity from God, it is bestowed on us, we can look at ourselves and know "I am like Him", so we look at Him to understand ourselves.
But something has happened.....we have lost our identity. We believe we came from monkies, we think we were a great cosmic accident, homosexuality, we think unborn children aren't even humans until they are born......Even if we dont believe in any of these things and have a relationship with God, we still feel uncertain of who we actually are.....I think the cry of most of our hearts is...."There.....has.....there has to be more than this......" There is, and God wants to take us there, He wants to show us more.
Another thing that we have been discussing is the Law, and how we still cant seem to shake the bondage of it all the time. The Law is a gift from God to bring the flesh to its end, to reveal the truth about our flesh to us.
Galations 3:21 NLT
"If the law could have given us new life, we could have been made right with God by obeying it"
Galations 3:19 NLT
"Well then, why was the law given? It was given to show people how guilty they are..."
1 Corinthians 15:56
"For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power"
Its not that we should become evil people sinning all the time because we are no longer under the law....no, not at all. We dont sin because of other reasons, not just because the law says not to. If the law says to not beat your wife because you will go to jail....I dont care about that law, it doesn't mean anything to me at all, why? Because we are governed by a HIGHER law, because of our relationship with Christ. I dont WANT to beat her, not because the law says not to, but because I love her. Love is the higher law here. If we were governed by the law, what kind of marriage would that be? You come home and go to hit your wife and then stop right before your hand strikes her and say, "Oh...I cant hit you because the law says I cant" That isn't marriage. You can find examples of this for every law.
Im getting ready to head out for another outreach, so I gotta run.
I prepared myself for a week of teaching on Jesus. I was mistaken. Im not sure how the rest of the week will turn out, but we haven't talked about the life of Jesus. Instead we have been talking about deep things that are totally changing the way I think!
We are talking about our identity, the masks we wear, and how we "pose" for the world. He is using many different movie clips to highlight his points. I am very impressed. I find myself sitting back in my chair, trying to comprehend the words that are piercing my heart as he brings lie after lie to the surface and allows God to shine light on them.
One of the things that is continually popping up in my mind, is that we all need more love than we deserve. We were created in His image. I find myself walking from time to time asking questions....questions i think everyone asks, something that is core to actually living a life with "life" in it. These times usually happen while im alone, when no one else is around, no one's gaze is upon me and i don't need to "perform" for anyone, like when I'm staring into a fire, or by myself on the bus, walking home at night alone...."Who am I....really.......why do I think the way I do, why do I feel the emotions i do,....why do we all put on different faces around different people? What am i looking for.....why do we do this?....why am I more aware of this when no one else is around?" We want to know more about ourselves, the spiritual part of us, the emotional part of us. We wear masks, we pose, change the way we hold ourselves, so that we can gain someone's acceptance, love, affection. But deep down, we are looking for the real us. We were created in God's likeness, after his heart, His image. We find our identity from God, it is bestowed on us, we can look at ourselves and know "I am like Him", so we look at Him to understand ourselves.
But something has happened.....we have lost our identity. We believe we came from monkies, we think we were a great cosmic accident, homosexuality, we think unborn children aren't even humans until they are born......Even if we dont believe in any of these things and have a relationship with God, we still feel uncertain of who we actually are.....I think the cry of most of our hearts is...."There.....has.....there has to be more than this......" There is, and God wants to take us there, He wants to show us more.
Another thing that we have been discussing is the Law, and how we still cant seem to shake the bondage of it all the time. The Law is a gift from God to bring the flesh to its end, to reveal the truth about our flesh to us.
Galations 3:21 NLT
"If the law could have given us new life, we could have been made right with God by obeying it"
Galations 3:19 NLT
"Well then, why was the law given? It was given to show people how guilty they are..."
1 Corinthians 15:56
"For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power"
Its not that we should become evil people sinning all the time because we are no longer under the law....no, not at all. We dont sin because of other reasons, not just because the law says not to. If the law says to not beat your wife because you will go to jail....I dont care about that law, it doesn't mean anything to me at all, why? Because we are governed by a HIGHER law, because of our relationship with Christ. I dont WANT to beat her, not because the law says not to, but because I love her. Love is the higher law here. If we were governed by the law, what kind of marriage would that be? You come home and go to hit your wife and then stop right before your hand strikes her and say, "Oh...I cant hit you because the law says I cant" That isn't marriage. You can find examples of this for every law.
Im getting ready to head out for another outreach, so I gotta run.
Saturday, November 3, 2007
Day 43, Budapest
We had an amazing street outreach this week. I'll tell you all the events leading up to it. One of the things God has really been showing us lately is the power of prayer. I have always understood that prayer is good, and that every once in a while something great happens from prayer, but I never really understood the importance of prayer and how it can affect things. I used to always be the first one to get bored and lose focus ten minutes into the hour long prayer times......I still do...but I "used to" too. ; )
This week we were reaffirmed of how important prayer is, and heard all kinds of different stories of how prayer changed things. Well, right before outreach we fasted lunch, and spent the time praying for the our ministry on the streets. We arrived at the metro we were going to do our songs and testimonies. We spent about 10 minutes, in pairs, walking around praying for the people, and claiming the area for the Kingdom. I decided to give it a try, I would usually say a quick prayer and then tune my guitar and get ready for worshiping. So I walked around praying, the whole time. Then we sang. It was rough, we were having trouble with the sound system, and half the worship team couldn't get set up, so we fumbled through it.....but people were watching intently. It was different. And then while they were giving testimonies and translating it into Hungarian, I would usually just sit and wait for the next set of songs. But I decided to pray again, and walked around praying for the people's hearts to be prepared and again claiming the area for the Kingdom. I was about to go back up when a man walked up to me and started talking about our songs. To make the story short, I eventually led the conversation to his belief in Christ, and he immediately changed the subject. A few minutes later I started talking about God again, and he said he had to leave and hoped I had a good time in Budapest, then walked away and stood there watching the dramas. He didn't have to leave, he just didn't want to talk about God. I was a little put off, I figured I was too forceful, but whatever, I tried. A few minutes later a guy in his mid-twenties stood about 5 feet away from me, watching the program. He inches his way closer, and kept looking at me. He had seen me talking to the other guy, and I think he noticed how I was touching the other guy's shoulders and heart (its amazing what touch does to people). I looked up at him, and smiled, and he walked over to me and said "Do you believe this F$%&ng $#!T?" I smiled, knowing that I was probably one of the only ones on the team who could talk to this guy without my head exploding because of his language, and that's why God led him to me and not someone else. I said, "Yeah, actually, I do man" He asked me a few questions, and I asked him what he believed. He didn't believe in God anymore because of some deaths in his life, he didn't understand how God could let people die so young. I told him about Christ, and how we can have personal intimate relationships with God. At first he didn't want to accept Christ into his life. I asked him again, but still, he didn't want anything to do with Him. I shared about some of the things God has done in my life, about how I changed and how I'm living a completely different life now that I have a relationship with Christ. He asked about talking to God and prayer. We talked for a while, and at the end I asked Him if he would like to know Christ like I do, and have a relationship with God. He said, "Yeah....I....I do." I just kind of stood there....in disbelief, did that actually just happen? After fumbling through that whole conversation, it actually got to the point where he asked to have a relationship with God....I couldn't believe it. We prayed and he asked Jesus into his heart, repented for living away from Him, and asked the Holy Spirit to live in him! Totally blew my mind.
We sang more and did more dances and testimonies, and then had a debriefing. One of the Hungarian pastors who was there thanked us, saying that he had been doing this every week for years and years, and had never had so many people open to receive Christ! Many people entered the Kingdom of Heaven that day!
Totally opened my eyes to the power of prayer.
This week Jim Isom talked about "Family". Intense stuff. He talked about our roles in the family, how we receive different wounds and identities from the way our family interacts. He spoke on building joy, and family blessings, visions, and used Biblical examples. One of the things that he said really stuck out to me,
"The place you learn the most about God is the place God has destined you to be"
Moses didn't know much about God before he led the Israelites out of Egypt, it was when he stepped into the position that God planned for him to be that he learned the most about God.
He talked about the church as a family a lot too. While speaking at a church in South America, he got on the topic of missionaries. He was teaching about the gifts that God has given us, and how some people have a gift for missions. He said, "Would I be mistaken if I were to say that God has called at least 1% of real, God fearing Christians to be missionaries, and that He has gifted them in that area and they don't even know it?" They church said that they believed 1% sounded too low, that more people were probably gifted in the area of evangelism and missions. He asked them how many people lived in El Salvador. They said 6 million. He asked them how many of those people were true Christians, who walked with Christ, and prayed and went to church and were serious about their relationship with God. They said a little over 30% of the people. So about 2 million. So 1% of 2 million is 20k people. Of a nation of 6 million people, 20k would be a reasonable (or low) number of people that God has gifted in missions. He asked them how many missionaries they actually had. They discussed it, and said they had about 125 missionaries that they send out to save the lost. So is it possible that the other 19,875 people just don't know that they have a gifting in that area?
He asked them if they could support that many missionaries, and they said that they actually couldn't. How many churches have this same problem? How many of us don't know the calling God has on our life, and just live life doing things with no eternal value?
This stirred something in me.... Is there something that we can do to show people the calling on their life? Help people get a vision of something? I don't know, but God is moving my heart in this direction, I just cant see clearly what He wants me to do just yet.
This is getting pretty long, so I'll hop off for now. I'll write again soon. I am praying for you guys back home.
This week we were reaffirmed of how important prayer is, and heard all kinds of different stories of how prayer changed things. Well, right before outreach we fasted lunch, and spent the time praying for the our ministry on the streets. We arrived at the metro we were going to do our songs and testimonies. We spent about 10 minutes, in pairs, walking around praying for the people, and claiming the area for the Kingdom. I decided to give it a try, I would usually say a quick prayer and then tune my guitar and get ready for worshiping. So I walked around praying, the whole time. Then we sang. It was rough, we were having trouble with the sound system, and half the worship team couldn't get set up, so we fumbled through it.....but people were watching intently. It was different. And then while they were giving testimonies and translating it into Hungarian, I would usually just sit and wait for the next set of songs. But I decided to pray again, and walked around praying for the people's hearts to be prepared and again claiming the area for the Kingdom. I was about to go back up when a man walked up to me and started talking about our songs. To make the story short, I eventually led the conversation to his belief in Christ, and he immediately changed the subject. A few minutes later I started talking about God again, and he said he had to leave and hoped I had a good time in Budapest, then walked away and stood there watching the dramas. He didn't have to leave, he just didn't want to talk about God. I was a little put off, I figured I was too forceful, but whatever, I tried. A few minutes later a guy in his mid-twenties stood about 5 feet away from me, watching the program. He inches his way closer, and kept looking at me. He had seen me talking to the other guy, and I think he noticed how I was touching the other guy's shoulders and heart (its amazing what touch does to people). I looked up at him, and smiled, and he walked over to me and said "Do you believe this F$%&ng $#!T?" I smiled, knowing that I was probably one of the only ones on the team who could talk to this guy without my head exploding because of his language, and that's why God led him to me and not someone else. I said, "Yeah, actually, I do man" He asked me a few questions, and I asked him what he believed. He didn't believe in God anymore because of some deaths in his life, he didn't understand how God could let people die so young. I told him about Christ, and how we can have personal intimate relationships with God. At first he didn't want to accept Christ into his life. I asked him again, but still, he didn't want anything to do with Him. I shared about some of the things God has done in my life, about how I changed and how I'm living a completely different life now that I have a relationship with Christ. He asked about talking to God and prayer. We talked for a while, and at the end I asked Him if he would like to know Christ like I do, and have a relationship with God. He said, "Yeah....I....I do." I just kind of stood there....in disbelief, did that actually just happen? After fumbling through that whole conversation, it actually got to the point where he asked to have a relationship with God....I couldn't believe it. We prayed and he asked Jesus into his heart, repented for living away from Him, and asked the Holy Spirit to live in him! Totally blew my mind.
We sang more and did more dances and testimonies, and then had a debriefing. One of the Hungarian pastors who was there thanked us, saying that he had been doing this every week for years and years, and had never had so many people open to receive Christ! Many people entered the Kingdom of Heaven that day!
Totally opened my eyes to the power of prayer.
This week Jim Isom talked about "Family". Intense stuff. He talked about our roles in the family, how we receive different wounds and identities from the way our family interacts. He spoke on building joy, and family blessings, visions, and used Biblical examples. One of the things that he said really stuck out to me,
"The place you learn the most about God is the place God has destined you to be"
Moses didn't know much about God before he led the Israelites out of Egypt, it was when he stepped into the position that God planned for him to be that he learned the most about God.
He talked about the church as a family a lot too. While speaking at a church in South America, he got on the topic of missionaries. He was teaching about the gifts that God has given us, and how some people have a gift for missions. He said, "Would I be mistaken if I were to say that God has called at least 1% of real, God fearing Christians to be missionaries, and that He has gifted them in that area and they don't even know it?" They church said that they believed 1% sounded too low, that more people were probably gifted in the area of evangelism and missions. He asked them how many people lived in El Salvador. They said 6 million. He asked them how many of those people were true Christians, who walked with Christ, and prayed and went to church and were serious about their relationship with God. They said a little over 30% of the people. So about 2 million. So 1% of 2 million is 20k people. Of a nation of 6 million people, 20k would be a reasonable (or low) number of people that God has gifted in missions. He asked them how many missionaries they actually had. They discussed it, and said they had about 125 missionaries that they send out to save the lost. So is it possible that the other 19,875 people just don't know that they have a gifting in that area?
He asked them if they could support that many missionaries, and they said that they actually couldn't. How many churches have this same problem? How many of us don't know the calling God has on our life, and just live life doing things with no eternal value?
This stirred something in me.... Is there something that we can do to show people the calling on their life? Help people get a vision of something? I don't know, but God is moving my heart in this direction, I just cant see clearly what He wants me to do just yet.
This is getting pretty long, so I'll hop off for now. I'll write again soon. I am praying for you guys back home.
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