Our God

A couple of weeks to go, I had the privilege to go to a Chris Tomlin/Louie Giglio concert at ASU. It was a very refreshing night and I learned quite a bit. It was amazing to see so many people worshipping God corporately on a state college campus. It was really good to be encouraged in the Lord and have a night set apart for worshipping God. One song that we sang was Chris Tomlin's Our God.

I love this song and recommend that you look it up. This past friday I got to go to the detention center with some of my old friends from Bible Church and Crystal Hill. It was different than any other time I had been. Most of the members from the band Across the Valley were there playing and Michael Friesen encouraged the kids there to stand/clap/ get into the music. Most of the kids know what we want to hear and will try to give us the right answers so it can be difficult to know whether they are genuine or not. Our job isn't to judge whether they are or not. We are just supposed to love them and share the message with them.

Anyway that night we played the same song that I had heard at the concert; Our God. The kids stood up, danced, clapped, and played beats on the desk. Now I don't know if those kids believed and I know for sure that not all of them were. But that didn't matter. Whether they meant to or not, God was glorified. Music was made and it was pleasing to God. I worshipped well that night. I was filled with both sorrow for my sin and joy for God's grace and mercy to me. I worshipped just as well sitting in a detention center with kids who didn't know what it meant to follow Christ as I did sitting in a gym filled with Christians singing praises to God. Why? Because God was glorified. And we had the opportunity to share the gospel. It truly is amazing.

So in my profile I have mentioned that I am a graphic design major, but I haven't really said much about it or shown very much of my work. I really like my major and in future posts I will post some of my work and comment on them. Currently I am working on a pretty big side project. This idea came to me about a week ago and since it is spring break I have really been able to work on it. I will keep you posted on this project as well.

The Great Exchange

In church today, Pastor Lawrence taught on 2 Corinthians 5:21:

"For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."

After the sermon, the worship band played music while we went to get the elements and take communion. Near the crackers and grape juice, they put a piece of paper titled "The Great Exchange - A Communion Meditation." I want to just copy that on here. Please take time to look and meditate on these truths and how they apply to your life.

"We Come With...

God's wrath upon us
Enmity with God
Our unrighteousness
Enslaved to sin
Sin against God
Addictions to various lusts
Lawlessness
Dead in sin
Hopelessly Lost
Justly deserved punishment
Weak
Ungodly
Sinners
Enemies of God
Disobedience
Slaves to our fleshly nature
Defeated by sin
Spiritually destitute poverty
Enslaved to the spirit of this age
Death and Hell as our future
The devil as our father
Part of the fallen sinful creation
My past sinful life
Cursed because of the law
List of sins against God's law
Racism, class warfare, religious bigotry
Division due to selfishness, self-centeredness
Alienated from God
Sons of the devil, this world"

That's the bad news and if we stopped there everything would be hopeless. But here is the good news of the gospel and the great exchange

"By the Cross We Receive...

God's favor
Peace with God
Christ's righteousness
Redeemed (bought with a price)
Forgiveness
Freedom in Christ
Penalty paid in full
Alive in Christ
The hope of heaven
Propitiation (anger and wrath appeased)
Can do ALL things through Christ
Made godly by God's gift of righteousness
Status as God's "holy-ones" - saints
Reconciliation with God
The obedience of Christ credited to us
Slaves of God
Victorious in Christ over sin
Every spiritual blessing in Christ
Deliverance from this evil age
Life and heaven as our future
Reborn from above - God is our Father
Made a new creation in Christ
All things new in Christ
Status as blessed in Christ
Released from punishment due our sins
Dividing wall is torn down
Unity in One new Man - Christ
Acceptance in Christ
Sons of God"