Hello my Beloved! I love you all and as God has been giving me genuine affective love for more people I find myself loving those I loved before more. That’s a cool way God has designed us. Our capacity to love him and others grows with use and does not get used up. How cool is that!
I am a great lover of hymns. Not all hymns, but the great ones. I love that we can commune with past believers in singing their songs. They have meditated on the truths we love and have poured out their hearts and minds in worship. The team that is out here now has been doing a lot of hymns and I love that I get to sing with them morning and night. The songs that have been speaking most loudly to me lately are Rock of Ages, Doxology and In Christ Alone. Love them lots. However, there is a modern song that I also love. Here are a few lines followed by an explanation.
A thousand times I’ve failed
Still your mercy remains
And should I stumble again
Still I’m caught in your grace
My heart and my soul, I give you control
Consume me from the inside out, Lord
Let justice and praise become my embrace
To love you from the inside out
Everlasting your light will shine when all else fades
Never ending your glory goes beyond all fame
So that’s not the whole song and it’s not in the right order I don’t think but I’m sharing it with you because you and I are so blessed to have a religion that can honestly say that to our God.
Backtrack a bit: this has been an incredible week. These kids are amazing. I love them so much and they give me a greater love for the church at large. I am so glad that God is raising up such as these in the faith to do his work in the kingdom. Saturday they witnessed at Temple Square. Sunday they witnessed at local wards in Ogden. Monday they tried to go to seminary classes but were instantly booted out for trespassing. They snuck into Institute classes and when they got kicked out, many of them went right back in. Some of them met with the Director of the Institute and were commended for being respectful young adults. Others went to the Student Union at Weber and passed out a hundred papers refuting the claims of Mormonism with the Bible and sharing Christ with people there. Other groups went to a local mall and spoke with every single person there, sharing Christ and praying with all that would let them. Others went to the Ogden Temple and spoke with missionaries. These kids are on FIRE. When they weren’t allowed to do something, they didn’t give up. They tried and tried and tried again. I am so proud of them.
That night my friend Shannon came over and shared with them about how she was saved out of Mormonism. She had been questioning but you’re not allowed so she covered up her questions with works. She visited a Christian church where she heard a message about living from the inside out (explanation for song) and she decided she was done with the LDS Church. She had never heard that before because Mormons teach that if you do good you will become good. Because this is impossible (it’s Pharisaical), it leaves them feeling empty, depleted and unworthy often times. Celebrate that God wants our hearts! He makes them his and then changes them from the inside out! Yay! She also told us that she had never had anyone witness to her before and most LDS people don’t know people outside their religion. These kids are witnessing all over Ogden to people who have never had that happen. Every person that has ever said “I love you” to them has been Mormon and no one has ever loved them enough to share with them the good news of our blessed Savior. These kids are planting seeds like you wouldn’t believe. Following her testimony was what I can only describe as a clash of the titans. Shawn McCraney of the Heart of the Matter Christian TV broadcast and Dave, a Mormon apologist battled it out before us. It was almost three hours of them yelling back and forth. It was…intense. It was filmed so hopefully it’ll find its way to the internet.
Tuesday the kids went to the places they witnessed at the day before and prayed there for the Spirit to move in the hearts of those they talked to. After that we went down to Salt Lake and witnessed at Temple Square. It was awesome. I had some of the best times witnessing yesterday than ever before. I honestly believe I will meet a couple of those sister missionaries in heaven one day. I look forward to that day. I didn’t see people coming to Christ but I saw eyes and hearts opened. What a joy! I had some good times speaking with the team that day and then we went to the Heart of the Matter show. We got on TV for a moment and Shawn shared about the previous night’s adventure. Two of the callers were making decisions to give their lives to Christ. One was LDS and he didn’t know how to lead his family out of LDS and into the light. The other actually prayed with Shawn for Christ to take over his life and he was a different man from the start of the conversation to the end. He believed it and we could tell. Welcome to the family, Jason! What a joy to witness!! Or hear, I guess. But anyway, God is good.
Today the team tried to go to seminaries but was ousted again. They returned to the mall, temple and student union building and some went to some apartments or door-to-door in this neighborhood. It wasn’t as good of a day of witnessing, but at least one woman wanted follow-up and will probably come to Christ in coming months. The kids had a fun afternoon of snowball fights and relaxing. Joe came and spoke about ADI with the team and then we had dinner. One of my LDS friends was planning on coming and she even ran into our kids today and said she would be here, but she didn’t show. That was a bummer but I’m sure also from God. I invited Tia Lynn over, who is an LDS woman I meet with regularly. The kids showed her a lot of love and grace. She was elated to be treated so well. I was glad to see it. Two other LDS young men showed up. One is a newly returned missionary and the other is a future missionary. They had met one of our kids at ward and Sunday and came for dinner. We fed them, fellowshipped with them, worshipped with them and some of the kids witnessed to them. They were here for about four hours which was awesome! God is moving!
Sorry this is long. But there is a lot to share and this is the first time in a few days I will be going to bed without a migraine. As you can tell, God’s people are taking ground from the enemy. As you might expect, he’s fighting back. Hard. And his attacks have been on me personally. I think it’s because I’m in charge of just about everything and the spiritual forces in this area have had access to me the longest. But it’s been really hard. Russ warned me this would probably happen so I’m not completely surprised. Saturday I started to get sick for the first time since I have been here. I also got a ticket that night which I will admit is my fault. I didn’t notice my speed but it was still a big frustration and definitely distracting since I was rushing around making a second trip to the airport to pick up some lost luggage. Sunday my ward was split. Monday I got way more sick and ended up with a migraine. Tuesday a lot of things went wrong and I ended up getting a lot sicker. Wednesday I went to urgent care after sending off the team and got some medicine so I've been doing a bit better. It's been a lot of little things and some bigger things that have served to impede me from serving at my best, but God is not impeded nor is the advancement of his kingdom.
This has been an amazing week and I have no doubt that God is moving. It’s just something to expect-when Satan starts losing, he starts fighting. These are his people and his goal is for them to live and die without hearing that God loves them and wants to be with them. Please pray that the last couple days of this team will be fruitful. It has been SO cool to be in charge of them. I get to come up with a vision and know that whatever I send them to do, they will do above and beyond what I ever would have thought. I love being in charge of these teams and I love these kids to death. I am so excited about what is next. God is moving.
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