tims_world

This pass retreat was great. My pastors from UofI came and spoke. I think their messages where what my churched needed to hear. We need revival and I was rebuked to pray more for my home church. Even though I have heard those messages and the ideas before, it was really good to hear again (and AGAIN and AGAIN and AGAIN …) So many times I lose focus and need to be drawn back. I need to be reminded that neutral is the enemy of good and good is the enemy of the best. I need to have that maximum mentality. I shouldn’t be reaching for the minimum but the maximum. Every minute, every hour. I need to be committing myself, trying not to fail and getting back up and recommitting. This life is a marathon with 300 lbs people tackling you and getting in the way. I will run as one who runs to win the race.

What made this retreat so awesome was getting to know P.Min. I know him, but I haven’t met with him yet. I had to privilege of fetching him for Sunday morning service. I learned so much in the maybe 30 minutes I spent with him. He would ask me questions about our church, the culture, the beliefs, who certain people were. He wanted to get a feel for his audience to know the people he’s preaching to. To know how to reach them. In the same way, I need to get to know my target audience. Who the coops are I’m reaching out to, who my small group members are, what catches their interest. I need to know my people. I also learned so much about him and what makes P.Min such a good spiritual leader (he’s so much more than a pastor). I remember something P.Min said during Servants Meeting about Ms. Kim. “You guys don’t know what you’re getting.” I felt like that’s how it was for my church and his messages. Not to say that people didn’t get anything out of it. I’m sure a lot of them did but there’s just SO much more to be gotten. It’s SO deep. I noticed that a lot of the things people laughed at were self-deprecating truths about him. This man knows himself so well. He sees his sins, he sees his faults. He also knows God incredibly well. The more he sees God and sees himself the more thankful he is and the more he fights. He said that when he preaches, 99% of his motives are to glorify God and 1% is to glorify himself. Yeah that sounds good, but could you say that? I’m sure we’d all like to, but then you probably don’t know yourself that well. I know for me, it’s like 40%. The deeper you look the more you see how corrupt you really are. Then the more you have to fight. For him to say that 99% of him is for praising God, that is a man who lives and dies for Christ. There was so much truth behind his words. I got so much more out of seeing his character come through than the sermons themselves. To be a man of God like that, wholly devoted, using every ounce to fight, running full steam. I’m challenged to live a maximum full life, forsaking the neutral for the good, the good for the best and committing to fight.

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