It’s March Already

If I were to grade myself on a scale of 1 to 10 on how well I’ve been updating around here, I’d give myself a D-. But rather than apologize for a paragraph and rattle off reasons for not writing here, I figure that it’d be more productive if I were to just fill in some of what’s been going on here in Sydney.

Intensives finished a few weeks ago and we’re into the meat of our semesterly (I think I just made up a word) schedule. I absolutely love the classes and teachers that I have. I have three different music classes a week, two Old Testament classes, two personal leadership, and then chapel four times a week.

A few weeks ago, I went with three incredible people from my tutorial class to Mona Vale and went to the beach there. That was such a fun day and it ended with me getting probably the worst sunburn I’ve gotten in my life.

Then this last Monday, my entire tutorial class took a trip in to the city to do the touristy thing down at the opera house.

I love being here. This college and this church are challenging me constantly to become that man I was born to be. I leave every class feeling more like that man I was born to be.

This wasn’t very many words and only had a few pictures. But I will try to do better at updating this thing.

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. – Ephesians 2:10

He’s Funny Like That

It’s not really surprising that the day after God reveals something to me, He hammers it home. Two nights ago, after Elevate, God revealed that I’ve been seeking an emotion during worship instead of simply seeking him. Last night was a UNITED night, where all of the youth ministries gather together for a night of worship and a message.

The core message of the night was 1 Corinthians 13 where Paul is talking about Love. “Love is patient, love is kind…” One of the big things that caught my attention was when the Wildlife (Sr High) pastor, Nick Khiroya, got up and briefly talked about love being greater than a feeling. Sound familiar? I smiled to myself and said, “Okay, God. I get it.” During worship, one of the newer songs written in house called Faith in the Unseen contains a line that says “I know your love is far greater than a feeling.” At this I whispered to God, “Seriously. I got it. We’re good. A Okay. Awesome. Superb. Stupendous. Cool? Cool.”

Now, after UNITED was an event held in the chapel called Midnight Massive where young people come together to worship in a more intimate setting and pray. The particular theme of this Midnight Massive was praying for Vision Sunday coming up tomorrow. As the service was starting, a passage from Jeremiah 29 was read, “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” Again, going back to the night before, all I could do was just smile by this time and love how God will go through so much to make sure that I understand something. Then the worship started.

I can honestly say that this hour and a half long time of worship and prayer was my favorite thing I’ve been a part of so far here at Hillsong. It was a super intimate time of worship with a couple guitars, a keyboard, and voices. The song of the night was a song called Carried to the Table originally by Leeland. It was the first time I had heard this song so I just listened to the words and found myself on my knees crying at the words to the song and what God was showing me at the same time. It was an incredible night of seeking his face and encountering the Love of Christ.

God is good, friends. God is so, so good.

Elevate and Chasing a Feeling

This is a picture my friend Justin took last night at an event called Elevate. Elevate is an event that happens a couple times a year where the entire creative team from all of the Hillsong comes together and worships and is challenged and inspired by the words spoken. The night was epic. Joel Abell brought a great message about the unforced rhythms of grace and definitely challenged me as to how I am going to live life this year. It was what happened on the way home though that I really received a revelation from God as to what I’ve been doing and what I am to do.

I was walking home from Maccas at about 10:30 and started praying and talking to Jesus about how amazing the night was and how I’m so thankful to be here and be a part of it. Now, I’ve been a fan of Hillsong music for around three years and I came down here with certain expectations of what I would see, hear, and feel during church/worship/whatever. God revealed to me that lately in times I’ve worshiped, I’ve been worshiping to try to get a feeling to come over me. I’ve been seeking an emotional state where I just start weeping during worship because of what’s going on. Then God whispered these words into my ears, “Don’t seek a feeling. Seek me.”

I’ve talked about how worship is more than a feeling before, but this really hit me last night as during the night, Joel Houston talked about freedom in worship and not abiding to the, “raise your hands during the chorus, sway during the verse” model we sometimes get caught up in. As people were really pressing into God and seeking God in that time, as I was pressing into and seeking after God in that time, worship felt different than it has since I’ve been here. It wasn’t about getting this mushy feeling inside. It was about worshiping God because he’s God.

Holy are You, God.
Holy is Your Name.
With everything I’ve got
My heart will sing “How I love You.”

Your Gift Says Nothing About You

This week was the first week of classes here at Hillsong. The first two weeks of classes here are known as intensives, where they squeeze a semester’s worth of two subjects into two weeks. I know. Anyway, yesterday all of the first year students were in a lecture with Robert Ferguson and he gave an illustration of God and our gifting and character that left me in awe and the room stunned.

There are flashy gifts in the Kingdom of God. There are the more prominent gifts. There are gifts that are more noticeable because it involves being on a platform singing or speaking. But those gifts don’t say anything about the person who has received it. It’s a testimony of God’s goodness that he would gift us. Like Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12:4-5, There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. Ferguson then went on to say that it is our character in which we use the gifts that says something about us.

This was making sense to me, but my spirit hadn’t fully received what he was saying until he illustrated it out for the class. He opened his wallet and took out a fifty dollar bill. He asked who in the class room needed fifty dollars. A few people raised their hands and he walked over to a young woman from New York who raised her hand. He asked her if she needed the money. She said yes. He asked if she had prayed for God to provide. She said yes. He then gave her the fifty dollars from his wallet.

He asked the class, “What does this gift say about her?”

The room was amazed. I may have had to pick my jaw up off of the floor.

“Nothing.”

It spoke of his generosity, but it spoke nothing of the young woman from New York.

In the same way that Robert Ferguson’s gift of fifty dollars to the young woman said nothing about her. God’s giftings he’s given us say nothing about us. But it is a testimony to who He is. It’s what we do with the gifts that says something about us.

Retreat

I was at the Powerhouse summer retreat this weekend from Thursday night through Saturday night up on the central coast in Gosford. Powerhouse is the 18-25 ministry at Hillsong. The retreat was an amazing way to start the year here in Sydney as it provided a great opportunity to get connected more with people who are not just at College but who are simply part of this church.

A huge blessing this weekend was getting free transportation and accommodation while in Gosford. The house that a large group (18 to be exact) of people stayed at was a beautiful house right on the water.

The retreat was so good. It was also way different than retreats I’ve been to before. Mostly just because of the size of this ministry, it had more of a conference feel to it. Hills, City, Southwest, and Brisbane campuses were all there, there was a different worship team each session, and a different speaker each session. All of it was wonderful.

I was particularly challenged and convicted by the message Thursday night delivered by Thomas Hansen, the Powerhouse pastor at Hills. He talked about “getting out of bed” or getting out of our comfort, our complacency, our sin. And how sometimes when our passion and zeal fades, we slide back and pull away from God and from our convictions a little bit. This hit me because I’ve been in this mindset where at times I’ve thought that just being here is “enough”. That being at Hillsong is “enough”. I can just do stuff here for a couple years, ride the Hillsong wave and not focus on growing my relationship with Christ in my own time, and then leave and be in a great place with life, God, etc.

But that’s not what God wants.

Simply being here isn’t enough. If I don’t show up everyday ready for what God has in store, I will have missed why I came here in the first place: to be completely engulfed by Jesus. That’s what I want to be. I’m glad that God showed me this early on rather than at the end of the year I look back and see that I didn’t grow at all.

So yeah. Retreat was good . I also had orientation on Wednesday and Thursday and classes really kick off on Tuesday. I’m excited that things are getting underway here and I can’t wait to see what happens this year.