You're the God of this City
You're the King of these people
You're the Lord of this nation
You are...
On our Friday adventure, Rebecca challenged me to explain just why I fell away from unity in Christ for so long. I didn't really have an answer other than the things we had already talked about, but now I think those thoughts have been synthesized into a much better answer. Much like how predestination doesn't detract from God's glory with regards to our sinful nature, I think that though being unified with Christ does bring God glory, God will allow us to be in sin if those experiences and trials can ultimately be used as a story of redemption and bring Him glory. In my case, I believe His call requires that I use the ways I felt rejected, alone and passive to connect with others, and help prevent them from going down the same paths I took. I talked about this same thing in my last post, and the more I'm involved in this community, the more I feel that it is His call in my life. I'm beginning to see more how I can apply it to my relationships with other people both inside and outside Echo. This community will be powerful if we trust God even just a little bit. My prayers have been focusing on asking God to move in this church, and create in us a great desire and love for Him. Brett and I have had quite a few conversations expressing our belief that our community has great things ahead of it, and the Chris Tomlin song above really does fit Austin (Tomlin wrote it while at Austin Stone). For now, I want my studies in the Word to focus on developing my knowledge of stories that I can use to relate to others. I don't want my fears to be a cop-out of God's calling though. The appropriate level of that fear/knowledge trade-off is something I'll have to seek guidance on and pray about. For now, I need to go to bed so that I can get back to getting up early and giving my time to Him that strengthens me.
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