The Way: Storm

It's four days later, and I am barely now recovering from this weekend. Well, physically that is. I pray that anyone who was a part of Storm Weekend '10 will recover physically, but I pray that none of us would ever be able to recover spiritually. This weekend was one of those weekends. It is a weekend that I will never forget. It was a moment along my journey that I will never forget. I have been rooted even deeper, and my love for Christ has never been more intense. I was poured out this weekend, only to be poured back into thirty-fold. This weekend Christ came and fell on us. I pray that if you weren't a part of Storm Weekend and you are reading this that Christ will fall on you today. We (the Senior guys that is) had a theme verse for the weekend:

Hosea 6:1-2: "Come, let us return to the Lord; for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up. After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him." (Thanks to Mike Govan for showing Jarred this verse.)

When Chris Dupree came to Baptist Temple, he unveiled his vision that the students there would be a storm for Christ. A storm has insurmountable momentum. A storm brings total devastation. But what does this verse in Hosea tell us? That when the storm that is Christ comes into our lives he tears us "that he may heal us." He strikes us down but "he will bind us up." Christ's love and grace is devastating. Ask anyone who has confronted it. They will tell you that it wrecks you. And you can never be the same. He tears out our old hearts, stained and flawed by the fall, and replaces them with his heart. He heals us. He redeems us. He reconciles us to God. He regenerates us into that which we were intended to be. But first, you have to be torn. This is not pleasant. The tearing hurts as Christ, the "Great Physician," removes those places in our hearts that have been twisted by sin. It is unpleasant when everyone sees us for that which we are, broken and messed up. But the end makes up for it all, as we are restored into right relationship with Christ.

Have you experienced this tearing? Have you had your "heart of stone" torn out and replaced with a "heart of flesh?" If so, when was the last time this happened? My prayer for us is that we would daily be confronted by the unsurpassing glory of God and his unmatched majesty. That we would daily experience Christ's overwhelming, jealous love for us. That God's grace, which is given to us at the expense of Christ and his death on the cross, would wreck us for the things of this world, so that we can say, "You [God] have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound" (Psalm 4:7). Christ, tear our hearts so that we may be healed. So that we may live "life, and life more abundantly." So that we may love the things that you love. So that our desires would be your desires. So that our heartbeat would match your heartbeat.

"Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen" (Jude 24-25).

-Trace