Yes, you guessed it! I'm blogging while listening to John Mayer (: Have you heard his song "Daughters?" If you haven't, you must! It's such a sweet song and I love it!
Anyways, back to the bigger stuff. Today was a very interesting day, as we visited both a Christian church as well as a Mormon ward. We started the day off right, by going with our house's host Russ East to his church, called Ogden Valley Community Church. It was a very small church, but very nice to check out. The teaching today was on "Assurance," and the main points were: 1) Why should we understand assurance? 2)How our assurance affects what we know about Christ and 3)The benefits of assurance.
The teacher made observation that I thought was quite interesting, so I'll share it here. Under the heading of his 2nd main point, he said that the Holy Spirit was meant for our assurance (Ephesians 1:13-14). He said that once we are saved, we will always be saved. It is not something we lose or gain through our own power, but through Christ. To illustrate this point further, he used the story of Job. He said that Job was a righteous man, indicating he was saved. And God allowed him to be tempted and tried an incredible amount, and at the end of it all, Job was still saved. He didn't renounce his faith in God, or become unrighteous. All this to say that Job began his trials with faith in God, and the Lord upheld his salvation with His power, so at the end of all the trials and such, Job was still praising God! Interesting thought, no? (: No matter what trials and distresses come our way, we are still saved because He sustains us!
It reminds me of a sermon that C.J. Mahaney taught at this year's RESOLVED conference, titled "Called to Contend for Christ." In it, C.J. describes how many Christians experience "spiritual sinkholes," where they still sing praises to God, but they are no longer affected by the singing. They hear preaching, but they no longer are affected by the preaching. He says, "We are still attending to the spiritual disciplines, but there is a distinct lack of spiritual desire in our lives..." Anyways, after describing this sinkhole, C.J. asks the question, "Have you recently experienced a spiritual sinkhole?" He answers this question by saying, "You need to know that...God's love for you, that God's promise to keep and preserve you does not change. Though maybe...you become less aware of God's love...that does not alter God's heart toward you. Because His love for you is not like your love for Him. His love is fixed, mine fluctuates. And when your grip begins to weaken, His grip will remain fixed." What a wonderfully comforting thought! Praise God for His immutable love, who is the same "yesterday, today, and forever" (Hebrews 13:8)!
A little off topic. Ha. Anyways, after the Christian church service, we walked down the road to the Mormon ward. At the ward they have three different services. The first service separates the boys and girls, men and women, etc. The women take part in the "Relief Society," while the men join in the "Priesthood Ordinance" class. Each is like a Bible study, I think. The second service is a joint service, where both groups join together and have a little praise/worship and testimony time. And then is the third service. This is the "sacrament" service, and is their kind of communion. In it, they pass around pieces of bread and small cups of water, and after a very formal prayer they sing, eat, drink, etc., and then have a speaking time.
Our original plan was to attend the first two, and possibly the third service but, as it turns out, we missed the first two and only attended the third service and part of a Sunday school class. The speakers were very interesting. Two women - one a teenager and the other - an older women, and one man, all spoke on different topics. The two women used the Bible a little bit, but the man did not use the Bible once! Just an interesting observation. And the second lady that spoke, seemed to be speaking mainly about the Mormon's "pilgrimage" from different parts of the world, and at the end of it all, thanked Joseph Smith for bringing the "restored gospel" to the Mormon people! The Sunday school class was interesting too. Again, it was a lady teaching, and she spoke out of 1 Kings 17-19, as well as some parts of the Doctrine & Covenants. Her lesson was more of an overview about the story that occurs in that section of the Bible, instead of actual teaching or anything. And at the end of each speaker's presentation, the speaker says, "In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen" which the congregation then repeats with "Amen." And the hymns were interesting as well. The preface to the hymn book mentions in a couple places that the reason they sing hymns is because it "causes them to do good actions", and inspires courage and good deeds among one another, so everyone should sing hymns. Curious reason for singing songs.
After the church service and Sunday school, my sister Elyse and I walked to the barn across the street and petted some horses (which I will post pictures of when I can), then walked to the car to meet up with our other group members. May I add that the horses were just adorable?!? The main one we petted was really interested in the bow that was on the front of my dress (: Yay for beauty that reveals God's creation!
The rest of our night is planned as follows: Dinner with 10 other people that my sister and myself will be cooking, and maybe a movie. I personally will try to sneak a nap in before dinner (: As for tomorrow? Maybe we will visit this great "Salt Lake!" Our team leader Jonathan has been to the Big Blue House 4 or 5 times with this ministry, and yet has never been to the Lake, and neither have the rest of us, so we might try and do that tomorrow! I'm really eager to continue sharing the truth with people we meet, so maybe we will have the opportunity for witnessing tomorrow! We'll see what the Lord has in store because as we know, "A man plans His ways but the Lord directs His steps."
Please continue praying for us! That the Lord would give us opportunities to be bold about the truth! Which reminds me of one more interesting point the Christian teacher said today. He said, "If we lack assurance, we may lack the boldness to speak the truth." So true! Why would we proclaim something we ourselves weren't even sure about? But we know God, and who He is, and we can rest assured that we are justified immediately upon conversion, and sanctification takes time. We're sinners, and it's a process of perfection, not an immediate thing. Like my dad said, "It's not about perfection, it's about direction." Anyways, please pray that our time here in Utah would not be in vain! Even if we won't be here to see the fruits of what has been spoken these past couple days, please pray that the Lord would convict them with His truth! We appreciate your prayers!
Enjoying His fixed love,
Em
Anyways, back to the bigger stuff. Today was a very interesting day, as we visited both a Christian church as well as a Mormon ward. We started the day off right, by going with our house's host Russ East to his church, called Ogden Valley Community Church. It was a very small church, but very nice to check out. The teaching today was on "Assurance," and the main points were: 1) Why should we understand assurance? 2)How our assurance affects what we know about Christ and 3)The benefits of assurance.
The teacher made observation that I thought was quite interesting, so I'll share it here. Under the heading of his 2nd main point, he said that the Holy Spirit was meant for our assurance (Ephesians 1:13-14). He said that once we are saved, we will always be saved. It is not something we lose or gain through our own power, but through Christ. To illustrate this point further, he used the story of Job. He said that Job was a righteous man, indicating he was saved. And God allowed him to be tempted and tried an incredible amount, and at the end of it all, Job was still saved. He didn't renounce his faith in God, or become unrighteous. All this to say that Job began his trials with faith in God, and the Lord upheld his salvation with His power, so at the end of all the trials and such, Job was still praising God! Interesting thought, no? (: No matter what trials and distresses come our way, we are still saved because He sustains us!
It reminds me of a sermon that C.J. Mahaney taught at this year's RESOLVED conference, titled "Called to Contend for Christ." In it, C.J. describes how many Christians experience "spiritual sinkholes," where they still sing praises to God, but they are no longer affected by the singing. They hear preaching, but they no longer are affected by the preaching. He says, "We are still attending to the spiritual disciplines, but there is a distinct lack of spiritual desire in our lives..." Anyways, after describing this sinkhole, C.J. asks the question, "Have you recently experienced a spiritual sinkhole?" He answers this question by saying, "You need to know that...God's love for you, that God's promise to keep and preserve you does not change. Though maybe...you become less aware of God's love...that does not alter God's heart toward you. Because His love for you is not like your love for Him. His love is fixed, mine fluctuates. And when your grip begins to weaken, His grip will remain fixed." What a wonderfully comforting thought! Praise God for His immutable love, who is the same "yesterday, today, and forever" (Hebrews 13:8)!
A little off topic. Ha. Anyways, after the Christian church service, we walked down the road to the Mormon ward. At the ward they have three different services. The first service separates the boys and girls, men and women, etc. The women take part in the "Relief Society," while the men join in the "Priesthood Ordinance" class. Each is like a Bible study, I think. The second service is a joint service, where both groups join together and have a little praise/worship and testimony time. And then is the third service. This is the "sacrament" service, and is their kind of communion. In it, they pass around pieces of bread and small cups of water, and after a very formal prayer they sing, eat, drink, etc., and then have a speaking time.
Our original plan was to attend the first two, and possibly the third service but, as it turns out, we missed the first two and only attended the third service and part of a Sunday school class. The speakers were very interesting. Two women - one a teenager and the other - an older women, and one man, all spoke on different topics. The two women used the Bible a little bit, but the man did not use the Bible once! Just an interesting observation. And the second lady that spoke, seemed to be speaking mainly about the Mormon's "pilgrimage" from different parts of the world, and at the end of it all, thanked Joseph Smith for bringing the "restored gospel" to the Mormon people! The Sunday school class was interesting too. Again, it was a lady teaching, and she spoke out of 1 Kings 17-19, as well as some parts of the Doctrine & Covenants. Her lesson was more of an overview about the story that occurs in that section of the Bible, instead of actual teaching or anything. And at the end of each speaker's presentation, the speaker says, "In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen" which the congregation then repeats with "Amen." And the hymns were interesting as well. The preface to the hymn book mentions in a couple places that the reason they sing hymns is because it "causes them to do good actions", and inspires courage and good deeds among one another, so everyone should sing hymns. Curious reason for singing songs.
After the church service and Sunday school, my sister Elyse and I walked to the barn across the street and petted some horses (which I will post pictures of when I can), then walked to the car to meet up with our other group members. May I add that the horses were just adorable?!? The main one we petted was really interested in the bow that was on the front of my dress (: Yay for beauty that reveals God's creation!
The rest of our night is planned as follows: Dinner with 10 other people that my sister and myself will be cooking, and maybe a movie. I personally will try to sneak a nap in before dinner (: As for tomorrow? Maybe we will visit this great "Salt Lake!" Our team leader Jonathan has been to the Big Blue House 4 or 5 times with this ministry, and yet has never been to the Lake, and neither have the rest of us, so we might try and do that tomorrow! I'm really eager to continue sharing the truth with people we meet, so maybe we will have the opportunity for witnessing tomorrow! We'll see what the Lord has in store because as we know, "A man plans His ways but the Lord directs His steps."
Please continue praying for us! That the Lord would give us opportunities to be bold about the truth! Which reminds me of one more interesting point the Christian teacher said today. He said, "If we lack assurance, we may lack the boldness to speak the truth." So true! Why would we proclaim something we ourselves weren't even sure about? But we know God, and who He is, and we can rest assured that we are justified immediately upon conversion, and sanctification takes time. We're sinners, and it's a process of perfection, not an immediate thing. Like my dad said, "It's not about perfection, it's about direction." Anyways, please pray that our time here in Utah would not be in vain! Even if we won't be here to see the fruits of what has been spoken these past couple days, please pray that the Lord would convict them with His truth! We appreciate your prayers!
Enjoying His fixed love,
Em
It's fun hearing about your trip! Keep blogging! :-)
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