A Day Of Quiet Time

Thursday 5 June 2008

 

Unfortunately today I did not have work, and of course, everyone else did. So I was alone all day from about 9am to about 6pm. At first I was disheartened at my lack of good luck once again in my life. However, I began to try and see the reason for such a uncontrollable event. I knew that I sometimes lack spending sufficient quiet time with the Lord. I began to ask God to give me patience and determination to stay with Him for the entire day. It was a good day, in which I spent the whole day reading the Bible as well as other religious books and praying as well. I know that with every action like this brings me closer to the Lord. As I read and prayed through the day I asked God to create an undeniable faith in me that would shine through me to others and encourage them. I can’t say that anything absolutely amazing happened, but I definitely felt my faith grow.

 

The previous night I was a little discouraged because I felt like my prayers were just me talking with myself. I know it is not good to test God, but I told God I believed in Him with all my heart, I just wanted encouragement in knowing that He was listening. I asked God to show me that He was indeed listening by asking Him to not allow me to wake up with the blanket over me (I got the idea from the story of Gideon).  As I woke up the next morning, the guy that was sharing the bed with me had the blanket completely wrapped around him, keeping me from having any part of the blanket whatsoever. I don’t think I ever woke up with such joy, other than Christmas morning when I was a young boy Praise the Almighty God ruler of all things, and capable of ANYTHING!

Your Growing Brother in Christ,

Lane

P.S. I will try to post some pics in next weekend. I forgot my camera, so I have to gather some pics from my friends.

Growing Pains: A Battle with My Selfish, Sinful Self

Wednesday 4 June 2008

 

 

Today was the first day of work, as I said before I work at a ‘50s diner. I inevitably ended up as the cook and was busy flipping hamburgers and getting small grease burns most of the day. I was good though, and I was able to talk with a lot of people in the kitchen. God’s gift to me was a middle aged veteran of Desert Storm that works at the diner as well. I spent most of my free time talking with him about his war stories and advice for an up and coming Lt. I am excited about this because he is someone that I can really get to know because of our awesome common ground. I am so eager to share Christ with him but I know that I need to develop a strong relationship first in order for him to take it seriously, and he may not, but I will know that at least he has been given a chance. I am very excited to see what God is going to do in Red’s ‘50s diner and in my life.

 

Tonight was a great message, “Intimacy with God”. It was all about the most important thing that I want to accomplish this summer. As I heard the message, I began to wrestle with myself as I heard that we need to give up idols in our lives. For me this is a easy subject to understand in my mind, but so hard to understand and carry out in my heart and my actions. All I want is to be closer to God, but I am so afraid to let go of the things that are keeping us distant. Please pray for me that I may finally understand in my heart and be able to destroy these unnecessary worldly things in my life, such as selfishness, time, money, and success, etc. Also, that God would shine through me to my coworkers at the diner, so that He might give me opportunities to share my faith.

In Depth Word Training

Tuesday 3 June 2008

 

Today we had Word Training, it was about the life of Paul. It was a very in depth study of Paul’s four missionary journeys. Up until now I hadn’t really studied the life of Paul, only what he wrote to his fellow believers such as in Romans and Corinthians.  It was awesome to read about all the happenings and hardships of Paul and his disciples. It was also awesome to see how the Holy Spirit worked through Paul and how many sticky situations he was able to get out of because of God’s grace. 

Growing A Heart for the Lost

Monday, June 2

 

Today was a good, fun day. We started out learning about evangelism techniques in the classroom, but then headed out to Dollywood for real evangelism, needless to say I was pretty nervous. We went around Dollywood riding rides and walking around looking at everything, when we would see someone standing around waiting, we would go and speak with them (we didn’t want to bother someone who was doing something other than waiting). I was extremely surprised at the ignorance of people to the Gospel. Almost everyone we talked to said, “good works” gained you access to Heaven. I was stunned. I guess I never thought about how lost the lost really are. It was very saddening to me. I didn’t really dive into evangelism to anybody, just small talk and asking questions about their faith. Our leader wanted us to become comfortable with talking with them first. However, I was a bystandard in many deep conversations, in which I learned a lot. I now thank God so much more for His grace on me that I know about Him and what His Son did for me, as well as His helping my heart grow in concern for the lost. Oh thank you, Jesus.

 

Your Growing Brother in Christ,

 

Lane

P.S. On a fun note we rode the swiveling tea cups. Three of us got in and cranked that thing round and round. If you don’t know about this ride, it is basically a cup you sit in that is on a rotation platform. On top of that rotation is the rotation that you control, how fast the cup spins. We cranked that wheel so hard, we must have been exerting probably 3 or 4 G forces. My buddies made the decision to ride it again, but I was a little skeptical because we had just eaten lunch. I made the bad decision to ride anyway. When the ride was about 20 seconds from completion, I threw up. It was first time that has ever happened to me on a ride. With that said, I had asked God the night before to humble me, because I wasn’t doing a very good job. What a sense of humor He has.

Hit the Ground Runnin'

It has been a very busy couple of days since my arrival at SMP. Thursday we arrived around 5pm eastern time, signed in, paid rent, and unpacked. We had a social that evening which was a lot of fun. 

The very next day started at 7 am with a morning spent with God. The activities were not far behind, at 9am we started orientation which consisted of 2 sermons from 2 different leaders in Campus Outreach(CO) about studying the Word and evangelism. We then had lunch, then found out where we work at Dollywood. I will be working at Red's Diner, which is a 50's diner. After that we had some social time, then another sermon from our head leader Mike Jackson. He talked to us about humbleness and about submission to authority. Two things I really need help with, if you know me, I dislike Brentwood cops because of their abuse of power. But Mike told us that it is God's will for us to submit to authority, unless it directly contradicts God's will. We will be blessed for these humble actions.

Saturday consisted of the best orientation I have ever had. Dollywood is a Christian theme park with Christian goals and values. The people that work there and in management are amazing and Christian as well. We started out getting our costumes, then we went to check out the park, which consisted of riding the rides and getting some free food. Yea, it was awesome! But God really convicted me that He wants me to not only evangelize to me coworkers but to show Christ to the people we are serving. 

That evening we had our first Discipleship Group meeting(D-Group). Our leader, an older student, took us to Outback for a steak dinner on him. It was awesome and I was very humbled to accept the free meal. We then had an awesome time playing free mini-golf, because of the awesome benefits Dollywood gets us. Needless to say, it has been an awesome time so far.

Today was a time where I pretty much just spent time with God, rested and read the Word. We went to church in the morning and evening, but I felt like I needed to spend more time with God. The Holy Spirit really revealed a lot to me and hopefully I can come through on these convictions this summer. I am learning so much about myself and my Christian walk, and it is just day 3. I know this summer is going to get even better. Please continue to pray for me, that I may gain every ounce that I can from this trip. Thank you so much for your support and prayers I cannot tell you how much I appreciate them.

Your Growth Spurting Brother in Christ,

Lane

Just Getting Here

Hello Friends and Family,

I guess I should start out by telling you a little bit about Summer Mountain Project (SMP). It is a 10 week summer Christian program put on by campus outreach from Tennessee Tech, which I arrived Thursday May 29th. During these 10 weeks we will be learning extensively how to further our lives for the cause of Christ. The main points are evangelism, humbling ourselves, and intense study of the Word of God. Another major part of SMP is work. Campus Outreach has lined up jobs for us at Dollywood and Dollywood SplashCountry in Sevierville, TN. We will be working 35 to 40 hours a week on top of all the other activities and studies, exhaustion is inevitable. Please pray for us that we may keep our minds and souls clear that God may speak to us in amazing ways and also that God would bless us with much needed energy.

Your Growing Brother in Christ,

Lane

P.S. We are only allowed internet on the weekends, so updates will only be on the weekends. I will try my best to keep it updated.