Cause Conference: Thursday Night

Hey lovelies! I hope you have had a fantastic week so far!

So my church hosted this conference last weekend called the Cause Conference. The purpose of the conference is to come together as followers of Jesus and learn more about Him, grow closer to Him, and establish this beautiful cause worth living/loving/dying for. It started on Thursday night and it continued through Saturday night. And it was incredible. So, we're going to take this a little at a time. On Thursday night, the pastor from the Vineyard Church--Rick Olmstead-- in Fort Collins came and spoke to us. He called his talk "for such a time as this". And it was essentially all relating to what I started this blog for. I want to love God and love other people as he expects and teaches us to. So let's chat about the points about the talk that really hit me.

First, Rick started by introducing us to his growth as a Christian. He told of how he started out not Christian at all, but of the firm conviction that the needy should be helped by the more fortunate. When Rick was around 20, he met Jesus for the first time and pledged his life to His wonderful cause. But as a part of the church Rick joined, he got involved with a team of church members who went from door to door, essentially with a "salvation agenda", and with hopes of being able to report a large number of successes back to the church. While this all sounds like a good idea, Rick started to become disenchanted with the fact that his team's "salvation agenda" was getting in the way of actually connecting with the people they were talking to. Like they were to busy trying to save them to care for them (does that make any sense?). I think this is a really big idea for us Christians. The Bible teaches us to go out and preach the Gospel to the world, but in spite of this, we shouldn't let our desire to bring people to Jesus get in the way of really connecting with them and taking time to just stop and talk with them. To take this a little deeper, Rick continued by saying something in passing: "it's hard to listen on an empty stomach". I really, really, REALLY like this. People are so hungry for love and acceptance that it gets in the way of their ability to listen to you-- before you just stop and love them, that is. I don't know, that statement just really hit me.

The next major topic of Rick's talk was Micah 6:8.

He has showed you, O man, what is good.

And what does the Lord require of you?

To act justly and to love mercy

and to walk humbly with your God. (NIV)

As Rick sees it, there are three major things that we should focus on about this verse. (1)to act justly (to do the right thing), (2) to love mercy, and (3) to walk humbly. He then went into detail about each:

1. To do the right thing: The major thing that Rick had to say about this was that our Lord would never ask us to do something for someone else that wouldn't benefit us to. He isn't going to send us on some journey for someone else that will pain us or make us miserable. Our Father is far to kind for that. He always has us in mind, even when he asks us to do something for someone else. In this, Rick also referenced Proverbs 31:8. This verse specifically instructs us to speak out for the people who can't speak out for themselves, and Rick made it clear to point it out that in saying this, God doesn't want us to ask or judge how someone got into the place that they did. He just wants us to reach out to them and help them. I firmly believe that His heart aches for every single one of His children that is in need and isn't helped by those of us that have the means.
2. To love mercy: Rick made a really big deal about how this doesn't say show mercy. It says to LOVE mercy. To long for it. To wake up every morning and go to bed each night completely thankful for the mercy that you have been shown, and completely eager to show people the same mercy that you have been shown. After all, we deserve so much worse that God gives us. He never has and never will give us what we deserve.
3. To walk humbly: We could be the poor. We could be in their place. But God has blessed us with numerous, numerous things that some people will never have. So we should turn right around with what God has given each of us and make it count. We should love other people with what God has given us.

Then, Rick began to talk about love. And the fact that love has a name. Love's name is Jesus. Love's name is also my name, Mackenzie. Love's name is also your name. Love's name is everybody's name. He talked very passionately about how we can't write people off as "the homeless" or "the poor". They are very much human and have names and stories, and that we should make lots of effort to learn people's names and stories. And that no, we can't help everyone. But for the people that we help, it will mean the world to them. Have you heard the starfish story? Rick referenced this story, and in the process, pointed out that the only difference between the little boy and the old man is how much each of them expected to be possible. What if we expected that every single starfish to be saved? After all,

"with man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26 NIV

According to Rick, all it takes is a little bit of faith the size of a mustard seed (Matthew 17:20) and things could change radically. Rick said over and over that you don't have to be all put together and have this immense amount of faith for God to take the reigns and move mountains through you. In fact, Rick's exact words were: "You don't have to have great faith to do great things". Wow. And then to top it all off, Rick had brought tiny little baggies for each of us, each with a tiny mustard seed inside-- to remind us that our faith can be the size of that seed, and still God will do amazing things through us. And then that seed (one of the smallest seeds) will turn into a huge mustard plant (which grows to be a bush, and sometimes even as big as a small tree!).

Needless to say, Thursday night was the start of something big... and it only escalated from there! Stay tuned for more posts on Cause Conference.

Also, I would like to apologize for the delay of these posts. I could tell you all about how so much happened at the Cause Conference that I really just needed some reflection time, and I could also explain how much I've been working this week. But I'll save you the details and just apologize.

Have a wonderful day, and may God bless each and every one of you!