The Filers were gone last week but they are home now. Thank you for praying for them. It was a hard time but good.
My last conversation with the missionaries was really cool. We talked about who God is for an hour and a half. I think it was pretty clear by the end of it that we believe in different gods. They said that in their quests for truth, the main thing that kept them from becoming traditional Christians was that the Trinity was confusing. I asked how the LDS Church handled the information in the Bible better than the Trinity, and they said they don't understand everything but it goes back to the feeling they got when they read the Book of Mormon. I asked how they deal with Kolob and the plurality of gods and they said the same thing. Basically it came down to the Trinity is confusing, Kolob is confusing, but they had the feeling when they read the Book of Mormon. It was really sad that they were so bound by that. I explained that we are not submitting to the idea of "trinity," we are submitting to what God reveals about himself through the Bible. In the Bible, we see that Father is God, Jesus is God and the Holy Spirit is God. God says there is only one God, no other before or after. Jesus claimed that he and the Father are one. We also see the relationships of love, submission and authority within the persons of the Trinity in the Bible. The Father sends the Spirit and the Son and the Son sends the Spirit and submits to the Father. The Spirit is referred to the Spirit of God, the Spirit of the Father and the Spirit of Jesus. We have a lot of information about it, and the Trinity is a way for us to understand it and put it together. It defines bounds, which the LDS Church falls out of, because they told us that they are each a god, that there are three gods. Chris told them that of course they don't understand the Trinity. Their spirits are dead unless they are born again and they can only understand things of the flesh. I was amazed how the boys shrugged that off, like "okay, whatever." God made men and women to be SUCH different communicators. I met with my friend Shannon to talk about getting her questions about God answered. She's a Christian who was was Mormon until a little over a year ago. She wants to start back from the basics. We talked about the missionaries and she said that when she was a Mormon, she tried really hard to understand how the Trinity worked and couldn't. But once she became a Christian, she wasn't burdened by it anymore. It's a mystery and it's revealed by faith, but not blind faith, faith that comes from having our eyes opened to knowing God relationally. It's been really cool understanding and accepting that people of the flesh are not able to understand the things of the Spirit. I've been thinking lately how I don't really care about Mormonism. It's fascinating in a morbid humor sort of way, but I don't care if people get baptized into the Mormon Church. I don't care if it's growing or anything. Really, it doesn't matter. Dead people are dead people, no matter what color coffin they are lying in. All that I really care about is about being a live person who offers life to the dead. What matters? Jesus, that's all.
Shannon and I started talking about theology stuff. It was a cool time for me to reflect on how far I have come spiritually. I had to explain to her that knowing a lot about God does not mean knowing HIM better. It will not improve your relationship with God on its own. It made me love God more in that I admired him more and had fuller worship, but it wasn't until that information became incarnational in my life that I fell in love with him again. I had to admit to a lot of pride that can come from information, especially important information. Someone can probably have pride in knowing a ton about leaves, another can have more pride in knowing molecular biology and more in knowing astronomy. Think about how much pride we can have by knowing a lot about the Creator of all of that. How strange human nature is. That should be humbling. And eventually it will be and through great deals of information we come much fuller worshipers. But I think we get really lost in pride, and that's pride in anything. I've come to appreciate ecumenism much more being in a state run by an unbelieving cult. I've never appreciated Roman Catholics so much as when I consider how we share Jesus, whether or not we share a fully grace-based theology. Again, what matters? Jesus. That's all.
The weekend after this, I got to do a lot with Genesis Project. It's a church that really looks to reach out to the outcasts. Friday night we got food together and brought it door to door to the projects in Ogden. It was awesome to give these families fresh produce and breads. I have come to appreciate more than ever tangible expressions of the love of Christ. Saturday they had a huge Mother's Day lunch at a park. About 500 people came and we basically ran out of food way before the day ended, but it was so cool to see so many poor families enjoying kids activities and barbecue ribs and chicken. I love what that church does. (Wow! I'm super excited right now! The baristas just started talking about how much they love worshiping Jesus!) I went to something with Refuge Church after that which was also cool and encouraging. Oh!! That's right, I got an email from my friend Kacie that day who is a nurse serving aboard Mercy Ship. She was excited to tell me about her experiences (her first real experiences with Christians, I'm so stoked!).
The missionaries came over that night to basically figure out if they still were going to come. I was really frustrated with it. I wouldn't give up on them. They talked about humility and how we weren't submitting to what they were saying. I was bothered but kept pushing them to meet. We agreed on a time and then they said they wanted to meet at the Institute building. That freaked me out a bit because I have been pushed to talk with those in charge and I don't want that again. Right after they left a few friends were passing buy and they prayed with me for the meeting to not happen. That night a YWAM couple came. They stayed for a few days and we went to a Family Ward which was a new experience for me. Not a good one, but not really worse than anything else, haha.
I met a girl aptly named Christian who moved out here to minister to Mormons. She's renting a room from a super Mormon family who have the missionaries hang out there all the time, so naturally she's pretty discouraged. It was cool to talk and encourage each other.
When it came time to meet with the missionaries at the Institute, I was in battle mode (probably because I spent all my free time that week reading a kids' series that had a LOT of sword fighting in it). It was from God, I think because it made me consider the armor of God passage for the first time in detail. I realized it was not a battle "against flesh and blood"-I'm not up against the LDS Church or the people in charge. It's a rescue mission. It was cool to be thinking about that. We went to the Institute and waited for an hour and a half and they never showed. God answered those prayers. I was quite relieved.
The next thing after that will be just preparing the Blue House for the summer. I am in charge of planning just about everything for the interns and teams that are coming. I have to get the house ready to hold a lot more people than it should. I'm so excited about what God will do with that. Please pray that God does a miracle this summer in Ogden and in the hearts of individuals.
So I only thought I had a few sentences to update you on, but this is a bit longer. It's funny how much God reminds me what he has actually been doing when I think it's been a sleepy week. Nope, he's got his thing going. I love you all and hope you are doing well!
