Friday, July 08, 2005
Afternoon & Night #4
The afternoon pretty much consisted of wandering around, and catching up with friends from interstate. I caught up with my old youth pastors, and they had a guy from another church in Lincoln with them. It turns out that we went through school (Kindergarten to Yr 12) together!
I was speaking with him during the day, and I mentioned to him that I was surprised to see him. He responded with a "why?" - and I replied "well, I didn't know that you were a christian!" He said that he had "kind of" been a christian his whole life, but he re-committed his life to God around 6 months ago. Then he said something that shocked me: "I didn't know you were a Christian either".
Ouch.
That stung.
I always thought that I'd been fairly outspoken about my faith. After all, all of my friends knew that I was a Christian. I thought it was pretty obvious - espcially in the 80's when we were all wearing "Jesus loves me" badges to school.
I think there's some serious self-examining coming up. (Especially after hearing Reinhard Bonnke speak!)
And then he shared his only memory of me from primary school: apparently we were playing tee-ball and he hit the ball into my face. I can't remember it - maybe I've blocked the memory out of my brain!
So then we lined up for the 5:00 session. I decided that I was going to attempt to go to both services - why not? So for the 5:00 session we ended up sitting behind the stage. Surprisingly, they were pretty good seats - close to the stage, with a good view of the speaker's back :) Michael W Smith (and band) took the worship, then Reinhard spoke.
Reinhard shared about the "baptism of fire". He used this analogy:
The word "baptism" was once used to describe the process of dyeing cloth. The cloth was baptised into the dye. Upon being removed from the dye, the cloth had taken on the appearance of the dye. The cloth had taken on the colour, the smell, of the dye. It was obvious to all that the cloth had been baptised into the dye.
Likewise, when we are baptised into Christ, we should take on his appearance; it should be obvious to all that we are of Christ.
Challenging.
After that service, I had to go and line up again for the 7:30 service. I had "priority seating" - whatever that means. I ended up at door 81, which is on the upper most level. Luckily, I'd run into a friend from Karcultaby (regional SA) who had Network Seating, so he saved me a seat on the floor. However, once you were upstairs, there was no way to get DOWN stairs, unless you left the building and re-entered. So that's what I did. I raced around the building, and back into the superdome. We managed to find each other, and I got to my seat just as the service started.
Darlene and co started off the Worship - which included my current favourite, "How Great is Our God", from Chris Tomlin's "Arriving" album. And the MWS and band took to the stage for another 90 minutes of worship. The night was incredible, even with Ps Brian informing us of the horrible terrorist attack on London. That put a slight dampner on things, but it also made everyone press in more, and pray all the harder.
I was speaking with him during the day, and I mentioned to him that I was surprised to see him. He responded with a "why?" - and I replied "well, I didn't know that you were a christian!" He said that he had "kind of" been a christian his whole life, but he re-committed his life to God around 6 months ago. Then he said something that shocked me: "I didn't know you were a Christian either".
Ouch.
That stung.
I always thought that I'd been fairly outspoken about my faith. After all, all of my friends knew that I was a Christian. I thought it was pretty obvious - espcially in the 80's when we were all wearing "Jesus loves me" badges to school.
I think there's some serious self-examining coming up. (Especially after hearing Reinhard Bonnke speak!)
And then he shared his only memory of me from primary school: apparently we were playing tee-ball and he hit the ball into my face. I can't remember it - maybe I've blocked the memory out of my brain!
So then we lined up for the 5:00 session. I decided that I was going to attempt to go to both services - why not? So for the 5:00 session we ended up sitting behind the stage. Surprisingly, they were pretty good seats - close to the stage, with a good view of the speaker's back :) Michael W Smith (and band) took the worship, then Reinhard spoke.
Reinhard shared about the "baptism of fire". He used this analogy:
The word "baptism" was once used to describe the process of dyeing cloth. The cloth was baptised into the dye. Upon being removed from the dye, the cloth had taken on the appearance of the dye. The cloth had taken on the colour, the smell, of the dye. It was obvious to all that the cloth had been baptised into the dye.
Likewise, when we are baptised into Christ, we should take on his appearance; it should be obvious to all that we are of Christ.
Challenging.
After that service, I had to go and line up again for the 7:30 service. I had "priority seating" - whatever that means. I ended up at door 81, which is on the upper most level. Luckily, I'd run into a friend from Karcultaby (regional SA) who had Network Seating, so he saved me a seat on the floor. However, once you were upstairs, there was no way to get DOWN stairs, unless you left the building and re-entered. So that's what I did. I raced around the building, and back into the superdome. We managed to find each other, and I got to my seat just as the service started.
Darlene and co started off the Worship - which included my current favourite, "How Great is Our God", from Chris Tomlin's "Arriving" album. And the MWS and band took to the stage for another 90 minutes of worship. The night was incredible, even with Ps Brian informing us of the horrible terrorist attack on London. That put a slight dampner on things, but it also made everyone press in more, and pray all the harder.
