Monday, June 9, 2008

Appearances

It's been a great trip so far! Today we got to do all sorts of work around the campground and there are places that look totally different because of all the work that was done. There was a section we were working on today that looked like a nice big tree, so we were busy weeding and and removing vines from the fence next to it and not paying much attention to it. Upon closer inspection we realized that what we thought was a tree was really a support pole for the electrical wires that came into the campground that had gotten so filled with vines that it had the appearance of a tree, but in reality it was just a big dead pole with a bunch of flimsy, yet incredibly stubborn and annoying, vines wrapped all around it to make it look like a thriving tree!
Tonight we had an awesome time: 2 and a half hours of worship and teaching and then some more worship! God was really working in our hearts. Pat (our local contact), shared a word out of Isaiah 58 (the whole chapter) about appearances...just reading through it is pretty powerful (go ahead click on the link and read it for yourself...this will be here when you come back...you're still here!?! Go read it, it won't take that long...seriously, why are you still reading this and not clicking on the link? :-) ).
OK, now that you read it, you know that God is speaking to the people of Israel there telling them that there APPEARANCE of rightness was not what He was looking for (funny how fitting that is for us today, huh).

Here are 3 points from his message for us to move into the challenge at the end of the chapter (check out the IF'S at the end and the rewards for them!)

1. We need to move from knowing God with our head to also knowing Him with our heart.
2. We need to move from selfish to supernatural lives.
3. We need to go from the EXAMPLE of the Father to the EXPERIENCE of the Father.

Verses 6-14 really get me...hopefully it makes you think too.

On another note: God has already healed a couple of people physically and there have been some amazing conversations and "coincidences" (keep praying for God to move supernaturally through our team)!

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