Illumination

If I was to recount all that I have learned and experienced this past week, this blog post would probably be about 30 pages long. It is ridiculous all that God has revealed to me during these twelve days in NYC. My mind has been blown away literally every single day that I've been here. So expect to be seeing multiple posts in the next few days as I try and catch everyone up on this crazy adventure. For this first post, I really just want to share with everyone my intense love for the church that me and my team are attending during our time here in New York.

Two Sundays ago, before going to the afternoon service at Apostles Church, I was definitely skeptical of how much I would like it. Having the spectacular Fellowship Bible Church as my home church and the simply amazing Calvary Chapel as my church during school, I thought it was impossible to find a church that I would love as much as I love them. Boy, was I dead wrong! The worship there is nothing like I've experienced before. Something about the atmosphere there captured me! You could feel the Holy Spirit in that place as we all sang together with a band that just blew me away. And each sermon that I have heard has been so powerful and so relevant to me and my team's experiences as we go through this trip together. God blessed us so much with this church! I know I speak for everyone on my team when I say we long for Sunday to roll around so that we can worship at Apostles!

That first Sunday was filled with so many awe-inspiring moments. The sermon that was spoken that day was like it was written specifically for our group. The pastor, JR, spoke of the Holy Spirit and how He wants and works for people to know and love Jesus. As he spoke of the Spirit, JR went through different passages of 1 Corinthians which was really cool to hear. Before this service, our team talked quite a bit about how NYC is a lot like the city of Corinth in the Bible. So for the first church service that we all attended together to be about exactly what we have been talking about was really exciting! JR went through different verses, explaining that without the Holy Spirit, we would not be able to comprehend the gospel. The work to know and love Jesus is an ongoing process with the Spirit always assisting us.

 "We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us." -- 1 Corinthians 2:12

JR then went on to talk about our abilities to help bring others to Christ. He told us that we don't have to be the smartest, most eloquent people to help bring people to know about Jesus. We don't have to have all the answers for God to use us. When I heard those words, I knew that God was talking specifically to me and my team. Like I have said in my past two blog posts, I have a difficult time believing that I am capable of successfully leading others to Christ. The idea that it is not my own abilities that matter, but the Holy Spirit working THROUGH me, gave me such a sense of peace. I have to be confident that the Holy Spirit will help me articulate the message of the gospel and that He will help others to hear it. And the experiences that I have already had these past twelve days with speaking to strangers about the gospel clearly proves that God is in control! I have had so many great conversations with people that are hungry for something to give them hope! And that is all because of the Holy Spirit's power! Hopefully I will be able to blog about those experiences later this week because all of them are such testimonies to God's amazing timing and grace!

"Even if the delivery is bad, the message is SO good and will overpower the presentation of it!" -- JR