Kingdom 360
The Summer of my freshman year of Texas Tech, I worked at a YMCA summer camp. Imade a list of goals for the summer the first of which was to "Know God Better". At that time in my life there was probably little outward evidence at all that I was spiritually interested. I wasnt a horribly immoral person...just an average college student who hung out with my friends, partied, and generally lived a happy life.
I can remember sitting with my friends in the dorm. We had the lights off and we were all piled on the bed talking about what kind of guy we wanted to marry. We all agreed on a really good guy...but not a "Bible Beater or anything". Two of the girls came from strong Catholic backgrounds. They eventually were a part of something called Raider Awakening, a retreat put on for college students by their church.
In the Spring I was invited to go and through the process...my heart was softened, broken by the love I experienced there...and I became serious about finding out what I really believed about God.
Throughout the next 8 months, I entered deeper into a process of becoming a committed follower of Christ. As a child, I had risen my hands mutiple times at Baptist Youth Camps and Vacation Bible School events that I attended with friends, indicating that I wanted to be with Christ in eternity....but I had never know what to do past that point.
During those 8 months...I looked into other religions and then began to read the Bible. As I read the New Testament I was deeply impressed with the transcendence of Christ's teachings. "Dont merely love those who love you, but love your enemies". This was not the teaching of the world. In my heart I wanted to believe in this God...so loving and compassionate.
I did not want to be a fool though. I wished that I could be anything but a "Christian". Finally, with many questions still in my heart concerning the validity of the Bible, evolution , dinosaurs, etc. I told God that I believed but He would have to help my unbelief. I wanted God to give me assurance...a solidness in my heart that He was who the Bible said He was. Somehow He did...and eventually I felt that I should be baptized.
When I was around 8 years old, men from a church I had visited, came to my home and told my parents about my indication to receive Christ as my personal savior (I had heard the salvation message and walked down the aisle and prayed with someone). They were wanting me to get baptized. My parents told me it was my decision. If I felt that I knew what it meant that I could. I didnt know what it meant...and so it was not until March of my junior year of college that I would publically profess my commitment, my "marriage" in a sense, to Christ.
Baptism was a bench mark in my life to that expressed my total commitment and loyalty to Jesus and His Kingdom ways. I wanted my old life to be gone and to rise a new. I am so thankful for the wisdom of my parents in allowing me to wait to fully experience the fullness of the symbol of baptism as a surrender of my will to His...and an expression of my love for Him and an acceptance of His love for me. I was accepting everything about Him..not only His payment for my sins....but even more, His calling to follow Him and His ways.
Soon after, I became a Young Life leader. As I was interviewed before joining...He asked me what a person needs to know before beoming a Christian. I remember thinking back to all the things I had been reading in the Bible about loving Christ and loving others, the Kingdom of God, forgiveness,.....he said I was forgetting something. The answer was sin. Its not that I didnt believe that sin seperated us from Christ and that He died for our sins....I just didnt know that was the "answer". After reading the gospels, forgiveness of sin really wasnt the main point I had come away with. I believed it...but it seemed so insignificant to everything else Jesus taught about...everything about the Kingdom of God.
It was a confusing thing to go from that point in 1998 to now in 2006...coming full circle in confidence that the Kingdom of God was central to the gospel. It is my desire that as Campus Crusade ministers to the students in a post modern environment that there will be room for a process and that their faith would be one that may withhold the fires of the Kingdom of God and the love of Jesus.
I can remember sitting with my friends in the dorm. We had the lights off and we were all piled on the bed talking about what kind of guy we wanted to marry. We all agreed on a really good guy...but not a "Bible Beater or anything". Two of the girls came from strong Catholic backgrounds. They eventually were a part of something called Raider Awakening, a retreat put on for college students by their church.
In the Spring I was invited to go and through the process...my heart was softened, broken by the love I experienced there...and I became serious about finding out what I really believed about God.
Throughout the next 8 months, I entered deeper into a process of becoming a committed follower of Christ. As a child, I had risen my hands mutiple times at Baptist Youth Camps and Vacation Bible School events that I attended with friends, indicating that I wanted to be with Christ in eternity....but I had never know what to do past that point.
During those 8 months...I looked into other religions and then began to read the Bible. As I read the New Testament I was deeply impressed with the transcendence of Christ's teachings. "Dont merely love those who love you, but love your enemies". This was not the teaching of the world. In my heart I wanted to believe in this God...so loving and compassionate.
I did not want to be a fool though. I wished that I could be anything but a "Christian". Finally, with many questions still in my heart concerning the validity of the Bible, evolution , dinosaurs, etc. I told God that I believed but He would have to help my unbelief. I wanted God to give me assurance...a solidness in my heart that He was who the Bible said He was. Somehow He did...and eventually I felt that I should be baptized.
When I was around 8 years old, men from a church I had visited, came to my home and told my parents about my indication to receive Christ as my personal savior (I had heard the salvation message and walked down the aisle and prayed with someone). They were wanting me to get baptized. My parents told me it was my decision. If I felt that I knew what it meant that I could. I didnt know what it meant...and so it was not until March of my junior year of college that I would publically profess my commitment, my "marriage" in a sense, to Christ.
Baptism was a bench mark in my life to that expressed my total commitment and loyalty to Jesus and His Kingdom ways. I wanted my old life to be gone and to rise a new. I am so thankful for the wisdom of my parents in allowing me to wait to fully experience the fullness of the symbol of baptism as a surrender of my will to His...and an expression of my love for Him and an acceptance of His love for me. I was accepting everything about Him..not only His payment for my sins....but even more, His calling to follow Him and His ways.
Soon after, I became a Young Life leader. As I was interviewed before joining...He asked me what a person needs to know before beoming a Christian. I remember thinking back to all the things I had been reading in the Bible about loving Christ and loving others, the Kingdom of God, forgiveness,.....he said I was forgetting something. The answer was sin. Its not that I didnt believe that sin seperated us from Christ and that He died for our sins....I just didnt know that was the "answer". After reading the gospels, forgiveness of sin really wasnt the main point I had come away with. I believed it...but it seemed so insignificant to everything else Jesus taught about...everything about the Kingdom of God.
It was a confusing thing to go from that point in 1998 to now in 2006...coming full circle in confidence that the Kingdom of God was central to the gospel. It is my desire that as Campus Crusade ministers to the students in a post modern environment that there will be room for a process and that their faith would be one that may withhold the fires of the Kingdom of God and the love of Jesus.
posted by Melinda at
7:41 PM
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