celebrations of a charismatic calvinist

I was just reading a statement on the Gifts of the Spirit by the PCA
and well I am very surprised to say I agree with all but baptism of the spirit*
In this document it makes some things very clear
such as that God DOES heal today, which is a blessing to a girl convinced of God's healing power
Pretty much it just believes that the gifts of the spirit should not be the focus of the church, and that they must be orderly when practiced so that the church is not divided and anger is not brought up.

This is a statement I can fully fully agree with. I have seen how charismatic gifts can go too far, and divide a church, I hope I never have to go through that again.
God must be the focus, signs and wonders should not be what we seek,
For when we seek signs and wonders are we truly following God with our whole heart?
Because if we are following God with our whole heart, doesn't it mean we should worship him even if all the gifts had stopped.

but this does not mean they do not happen today
because we serve an all powerful God, that is bigger and greater then we can possibly imagine, and because of this we can not put limits on what he can do. We must hold everything up to God's holy scripture. We must follow God with all our HEART, soul, and MIND

* listen to John Piper's sermon concerning the matter, turned my heart which was very set that it occurred at salvation, to believing in baptism of the holy spirit as a separate occurrence once again

“There is a warning. The path of God-exalting joy will cost you your life. Jesus said, “Whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.” In other words, it is better to lose your life than to waste it. If you live gladly to make others glad in
God, your life will be hard, your risks will be high, and your joy will be full. This is not a book about how to avoid a wounded life, but how to avoid a wasted life. Some of you will die in the service of Christ. That will not be a tragedy. Treasuring life above Christ is a tragedy.”
― John Piper

"We must be global Christians with a global vision because our God is a global God." — John Stot
I have a bit of holy anger burning inside of me, because I keep on realizing how un internationally focused CCU is.
CCU keeps on focusing more and more on America, not the world, it makes me mad, it makes me furious. And it's the attitude I keep on seeing more and more at CCU. That we should just focus on America because that's where God put us.
Don't they realize That the bible tells us to GO OUT!!!! to all nations
that there are people who have never heard the Jesus is their Savior
That America has 95% of Youth Ministry resources.
That sometime the best way to share the gospel is across culture
God has redeemed my soul, he bring a new meaning to my life. I want to share that with everyone. God loves the nations so we must love the nations. Not in a were better then you way, but we must walk besides people of all cultures on this journey we call life.

We must GET OUT of our America Bubble. Yes some people are called to minister to America, but their prayers, their resources must be partly with the nations. We can not afford to be American focus, our hearts our brains must be internationally focused.

"The Great Commission1 is not an option to be considered; it is a command to be obeyed" — Hudson Taylor
"The Bible is not the basis of missions; missions is the basis of the Bible" — Ralph Winter, missiologist
"The mission of the church is missions" — Oswald J. Smith
"To belong to Jesus is to embrace the nations with Him." — John Piper
"God is pursuing with omnipotent passion a worldwide purpose of gathering joyful worshipers for Himself from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. He has an inexhaustible enthusiasm for the supremacy of His name among the nations. Therefore, let us bring our affections into line with His, and, for the sake of His name, let us renounce the quest for worldly comforts and join His global purpose." — John Piper
"Go, send, or disobey." — John Piper

There are two things that I would like to say in speaking about the revival in the Hebrides. First, I would like to make it perfectly clear that I did not bring revival to the Hebrides. It has grieved me beyond words to hear people talk and write about the man who brought revival to the Hebrides. My dear people, I didn't do that. Revival was there before I ever set foot on the island. It began in a gracious awareness of God sweeping through the parish of Barvas.
Then I would like to make it perfectly clear what I understand of revival. When I speak of revival, I am not thinking of high-pressure evangelism. I am not thinking of crusades or of special efforts convened and organized by man. That is not in my mind at all. Revival is something altogether different from evangelism on its highest level. Revival is a moving of God in the community and suddenly the community becomes God conscious before a word is said by any man representing any special effort.

my hearts churning
it's scary when this happens, God usually ends up doing something big
like sending me to Uganda
but well with learning more about truth these past couple week, I have also learned about love
and it's changing the way I see everything. The people I am around, the people God has put in my life, well he's given me such a passion for them.
I'm so thankful for the people he's put in my life this year, both the people that I knew would be there, and the unexpected.
my unexpected direct roommate(s)
my apartment mates
my dearly beloved friends at school
my acquaintances.
I'm thankful, I'm sure going to be missing everyone a lot in a year and that's all your get in this area until after graduation, because just writing that sentence makes me tear up, this is way harder than leaving shorter because the friendship have been there longer, but it feel so similar. Graduation Life as a college grad I'm excited about you, but please don't come to fast

“The heart overflows with gladness, and leaps and dances for the joy it has found in God. In this experience the Holy Spirit is active, and has taught us in the flash of a moment the deep secret of joy. You will have as much joy and laughter in life as you have faith in God.”
― Martin Luther

So I'll admit somethng I was struggling with my plans for next year a lot
because i feel so ill equipped.
I'm the shy person who has struggled to make friendship for the last 10 years of her life (even though God has blessed me in that area in college, and has answered my deep crying prayers in high school I am still not miss social butterfly)
and yet I'm going to go to Scotland, to minister to people? God do you know what your asking?
but God is good. He's reminding me of one of the biggest passions in my heart. Mentoring and shepherding people. Not in a huge group, not in a teaching sense, but one on one or two by two.
Just listening, and living life with people, Helping them along with there lives by merely being there, by merely seeing their own heart.
(there's a reason I have a secret dream of helping people choose the right college)
and well I think he's showed me through different situations, that I'm pretty good at it too.
Sometimes God calls us to trust him blindly, but other times we need to trust him with reason, with our heads.
and i think God's allowing me to do this
My heart to mentor, love , and minister to people in Scotland grows by leaps and bounds when I put it in this perspective.
I'm not your church planter
I'm not your fiery evangelist
but God has grated me with gifts of shepherding and discernment (can you tell I took a spiritual gifts inventory this week), a gift of a servants heart
Now God Can you please show me how I can use this in the future, direct a path for me in scotland?
I want to love your people, and share your love.
Every bone in my body cries out for this.
Please prepare a path for me

These past two weeks I saw the danger of grey thinking
not that it's always wrong
Jesus made it clear that their are grey areas of life, no one besides God has all the answers, and those that believe they do often become pharisees
buy when tolerance becomes our goal and not truly having an open mind to God
we get in trouble
Sin becomes no longer sin because we tolerate it, and slowly people start down a path where God is the God we think he is in our heads.
I once heard a quote that describes this perfectly. it went something like this, If God hates everything we hate we have taken a wrong turning
We can't make up who God is
God is God he is unchangeable, he is Holy

but to figure out who God is and what he has made us to be. We must look towards him, we must read scripture, always remembering context context context. We must seek truth, we must see love, we must seek God
Growing closer to God is a struggle, it's important to wrestle with scripture, so that we can fully understand.
Just because part of the bible offends us, doesn't mean we are interpreting it wrong,or that the bible is untrue(it's not). It might be God pointing something in our hearts that we need to bring to him

As C.S Lewis once said "Safe, who said anything about safe, 'Course he isn't safe, but he is good, He's the King I tell you"
1 Corinthians 10 gives us a beautiful picture of why this is important

*my heart is broken by what I have seen on facebook this week, in regards to an action made by my old college. God's truth should reign in our lives, not the worlds truth.
(I do not fully know if I support the actions of Shorter College, there are many comments on the petition that make me question if I do, even though I am happy that they are emphasizing christian education, I wonder sometime if they are seeking the SBC's truth, not God's truth)

but to put things in perspective, this is what I think about legalism

"I have three things I'd like to say today. First, while you were sleeping last night, 30,000 kids died of starvation or diseases related to malnutrition. Second, most of you don't give a shit. What's worse is that you're more upset with the fact that I said shit than the fact that 30,000 kids died last night"

more on this quote about the Dalit freedom network 's visit to CCU next time

“Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat.”
(please click on quote above to go to a link to help the Dalit people of India)