Ordination!!!

So last night was the ordination of 4 people, all four of them had some type of influence on my life. The four ordained were my mom Deaconess George as Evangelist George, My youth minister Min. Brown as Rev. Brown, My praise dance team leader Sis. Ford as Evangelist Ford, and her husband another youth leader Trustee Ford as Min. Ford (new youth minister).

Now the service was good but the main focus of this blog is the actual sermon for the night and it really got me thinking more about evangelism. Rev. Rakeem Thomas delivered the sermon. I always like the way he speaks because he doesn't try to make himself look good by using big words and being conservative. He wants God to look good and get all of the praise. He sugar coats NOTHING and makes sure we understand what the message is through his illustrations. The title of the sermon was "Two Sticks". It came from 1 Corinthians 1:18 which reads:

For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.

Now he was talking about the cross and what it meant to some people. The he brought out 2 sticks. Throughout his sermon, he formed the 2 sticks into 5 different things. First he formed them into a cross to represent the cross Christ died upon. Then he began to talk about math and how it applied to the church. He formed the sticks to form an addition sign (+), this represented the addition of Jesus to your life as a result of Him dying on the cross. He the took one stick away and held the other horizontally to form a subtraction sign (-). That is to represent the removal of things/people from your life. There is no subtraction until there is addition. Many people think they can just start taking things away and removing people from their lives that they THINK aren't supposed to be there. But if you just add Jesus...He will do the subtracting for you. After you add Christ and he subtracts people and things from your life, you will begin to multiply (x). God will begin to open doors for you to tell someone else about him so they can add Him, he can subtract people and things from their lives, and they can multiply.

Now imagine this; you have 20 people in the church. Everyone adds Christ, allows Him to subtract from their lives, and take the opportunity to minister to just one person. They add Christ and allow Him to subtract. You now have 40 people, they speak to one person and the cycle continues. Imagine just how many people we will reach if every church would add Christ, allow Him to subtract, and use the given opportunity to minister to someone else. Just imagine that.

Now if your church is not growing, DON'T LOOK AT YOUR LEADERS!!! Look at yourself and see what's wrong with YOU FIRST!!! YOU have to tell somebody. The leaders can't do it alone, they are being used to teach YOU so that YOU can assist them in bringing others to the church so they can minister to them and teach them.

With all of that said, let's move onto the next operation. Rev. Thomas stood there and struggled to make a division sign. It couldn't be done. That was for a reason. There should be no division in the church. Satan tries and sadly sometimes succeeds at dividing churches. God can't properly use a church if it's divided so we must stay in God and be deeply rooted in Him and His word.

There is something you can make with the 2 sticks, and that a (V). If you do all of the operations that can be formed you will obtain Victory in Jesus Christ. There is one last thing you can make with 2 sticks. He really had us puzzled when he said that because we couldn't think of anything else. I sat there thinking of a bunch of math symbols trying to figure out what else you could make with 2 sticks but I was lost. He then said, the last thing you can do is start a fire within the soul. HA!!!! Who would have thought he would have said that. I know I had a burning fire when I went in there but when I left, that fire had some extra fuel and I was ready to tell someone about God.

I love sermons like that, ones that make me think, ones that can refuel this burning fire I have inside of me. I'm not sure it will touch someone else like it touched me but I just HAD to share it with somebody.

Until next time...GOD BLESS!!!

Post Big Event 2009

So I said I would tell you all how Big Event went, so here it is...

The ride this year was very different, my best friend was driving and there were 2 people in the car that I had just met that day. While we were talking and getting to know each other, we found that we all had a lot in common. My best friend and I strayed away from God last semester but we're coming back in full force. The other two were invited to come and decided at the last minute that they would join us.

The whole weekend was full of joy, peace and happiness even though we all had problems at home. We were able to come together, pray for one another and keep each other encouraged. We had our times where we praised God, we worshipped, we cried, we laughed, but most of all we were all changed in some way.

The track (workshop) I chose this year was Evangelism. I learned different approaches I could use for different people to get the Gospel out. I was given "tough questions" that people may want to ask and I was also given tools on how to answer those questions and use scripture to back it up. The people in my track were split into small groups of 5 or 6 people and a small group leader. The people in my group we AMAZING. We were able to open up to each other and help each other, give suggestions on how we could improve or different approaches we could share to give a different outlook on situations we may run into. They also warned us that not everyone would want to hear what we have to say, and that some may even get hostile and say some crazy things but we have to be patient and stay in prayer.

One of the questions asked was "How can a good God send good people to hell? And how about if people have never heard about Christ?" Now we were told to first ask questions to get better clarification on what the person is asking, try to answer the question to the best of our ability, and if we aren't sure about something ask for an extension and ask someone who knows the answer. This is how our role-playing exercise played out:

• What do you consider good people?
• I know someone who does a lot of good things for people, they help the elderly cross the street, the serve at shelters, and things like that.
• Well some "good people" do not have a relationship with Christ.
• I believe in God but I don't believe in Jesus Christ.
• Have you ever heard of the Holy Trinity?
• No, what is that?
• Genesis 1:26 says "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness..." and "our" is referring to the Holy Trinity which consists of God the Father, God the Son(Jesus Christ) and the Holy Spirit. Though they are 3, they are only 1. I can find another scripture to explain that but you would have to give me some time.
• Ok, I would like that, here is my number so you can call me when you find it.
• Ok, and here's my number so you will know it's me and if you have any other questions feel free to ask.
• What about those who never heard of Christ though?
• Oh, Matthew 24: 14 says "And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all the nations; and then shall the end come." That is saying that everyone will have a chance to hear the gospel before the second coming of Christ. This is why we have missionaries.
• Ok thanks, now I understand, but I have to go, I look forward to hearing from you again.

I found this to be very fun. Not just fun to ask questions and be on the difficult side asking very difficult questions, but fun to look through my Bible and share with someone the Gospel that I'm still learning myself. So answering these questions are actually teaching me something. I asked a few people to ask me those questions knowing that I would get different responses from everyone. While answering these questions, a friend of mine began to get personal and ask questions about faith and we got into a deep conversation and I had to really stop and call my Pastor and ask him to explain it to me so I could explain it to them.

Overall the Big Event was GREAT, I came back with a new fire and it's still burning high. I wish everyone had access to something like this because it will really help a lot of people.

PRAISE REPORT!!!

We had 10 people saved that we know of and I heard that more were saved after we dismissed from Big Event. 2 of the 10 people were the 2 people I didn't know in my best friend's car. I was so happy when I saw the 2 of them make their way to the stage to accept Christ. I cried like a baby because I wanted to run up there and hug them both. I look forward to attending Big Event 2010, maybe this time I'll do the Leadership track...who knows

Until next time...GOD BLESS