John 11 and 12

Wow. Many people have asked me how Passion 2010 was and I'm speechless. So much to describe and tell about. It was such an overwhelming environment to be in. The largest gathering of Christ followers I've ever seen. I was surrounded by 21,500+ followers of Jesus who were there for the same reasons I was. Such an amazing thing to see. The first Hillsong concert we went to there were no seats left in our suite so I sat at the bar in the back, watching my brothers and sisters in Christ worship beautifully. The worship leader asked us all to give a shout of praise to God, and I was drawn to tears as I saw waves of hands spring in the air, necks rise upward, and voices scream and sing out! I felt like I saw a tiny little piece of heaven in that moment, and that's something I'll never forget. The amount of people in Philips Arena was mindblowing, even the sound of everyone clapping all at once hurt my ear drums a little bit :) It was such an encouragement to be around all these people, to learn with them, to worship with them, and to glorify the Lord with them. I pray this experience is something I remember to look back to when I'm weary and want to give up in this fight. I pray I won't forget what I've seen in these days.

One of the sermons by Louie Giglio I heard this week that hasn't stopped impacting me, and I pray never will is out of John chapters 11 and 12. The story of Lazarus is pretty downhearted at first glance. Lazarus is sick, Jesus doesn't go to see him, Lazarus dies. But when Jesus and Martha, Lazarus' sister, go to the tomb, Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead. Louie Giglio, the speaker at Passion, stopped here and went on for awhile about how Jesus isn't afraid of our humanity. He isn't afraid of the stench of our grave clothes. While all that's true and important, it was chapter 12 of this story that woke me up.

So, Chapter 12, they have a party for Jesus because he raised Lazarus from the dead. Mary puts the perfume on his feet and washes his feet with her hair. Coming up on verses 9 and 10- the kicker. "Meanwhile a large crowd of Jews found out that Jesus was there and came, not only because of him but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. So the chief priests made plans to kill Lazarus as well,

for on account of him many of the Jews were going over to Jesus and putting their faith in him."
Lazarus' life and death was to make Jesus more famous. I think it would be interesting to hear this story told from Lazarus' point of view. When he was sick, would he have been laying in bed asking..."Come ON Jesus, when are you gonna heal me?" "Why do I have to die? Why can't one of these other guys die....really Jesus? Why me? I'm for you!" According to the end results of this story, I don't think any of these were Lazarus' thoughts. Lazarus was for Jesus. If he hadn't have died, Jesus wouldn't have been made as famous as he was after he died. (vs.10 - many of the Jews put their faith in him) Lazarus was up for anything that would make Jesus more famous. Sickness. Death. Whatever. As long as Jesus was glorified and made more famous.

Makes me question what I'm willing to do, where my priorities are. Is my life truly about glorifying God and making him more famous no matter what the cost? A key phrase that I feel the Lord has been giving me to push me the past few weeks has been "End Result---God's glory." I think it's kind of my New Year's Resolution :) That's not really one you can take lightly. Asking myself when I leave my dorm room, when I get out of class, after I have a conversation or hang out with friends, when the semester's over...did I make Jesus more famous in that? Was God truly given the glory he deserves through that? That was some tough stuff. Thanks Louie Giglio. :)

Verses 16-19 of chapter 12 make me giggle though too.

Passion was all about a generation coming together to see the Lord glorified. The theme verse for us was Isaiah 26:8- "Yes, Lord, walking in the way of your laws, we wait for you; your name and renown are the desire of our hearts." There's God glory coming up again. Colossians 1:16 was a verse we talked about in our community groups. There it is again - "all things were created by him and for Him." I exsist to glorify the Lord. John Piper also talked about God's glory... Isaiah 43:6-7, Jeremiah 13:11, Psalm 106:7, Isaiah 48:9-11. The last sermon by Louie hit me the hardest. It was on Philippians 2 where Paul lays out for us how we should have the same attitude as Christ. He gives us the run down of what Jesus did: *he didn't consider equality with God *he made himself nothing *he took on the nature of a servant *he humbled himself *he became obedient, even to death. The last verse explains why he did all this "that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

I sat under some awesome servants of the Lord who taught me the Word this past week on a lot of great topics, but everything I heard kept coming back to God's glory. Even though that it seems like something you should learn in Sunday school, I'm just know fully learning to base my life on that, and I feel like we all in some way could give God the glory due to him more in some area of our lives. Needless to say, I have a lot to pray about and allow the Lord to work out in me.

So, in a word, Passion was incredible. While I had some fantastic times like inventing a road trip game called Schnaggledoarf, being rendered speechless after realizing I was in an elevator with Francis Chan, and had lots of fun learning new techniques for swimming through crowds of people to get Hillsong tickets, the most impacting, life-changing thing I experienced was awakening to the glory of God and learning how to surrender my life to magnify that.

"...so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked or depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe..."