Post Reload - 24/03/10
By Matt Grant
Wow! To write something about Reload and confine it to only an A5 sheet of paper is quite a task, and I will do my best. For those of us who weren’t able to come to Reload, I’m sure you’ll have some friends who did go and I’m sure that they will be singing the praises of this guy called Ben Pfahlert. What I hope to do is to briefly articulate some of the reasons why Ben was good value and also look at what may happen to us after such an event.
The primary aim of Reload was “to challenge and encourage staff and students from God’s word in order that they grow in knowledge and love of Jesus, obedience to God, and service of others.” Did this happen? Absolutely. How? The servant of God, Ben Pfahlert. He spoke from the book of James and opened it up so that we could see how important wisdom is as an indication of our spiritual maturity. What was terrific about Ben was that he spoke with understanding and passion from God’s Word, doing his best – with God’s enabling − to get us to see that Christians are to live, breathe and speak the Word. We are to grow in maturity and wisdom, living distinctly apart from the world and its influence; we should consider it pure joy when we face trials of many kinds, knowing that the testing of our faith develops perseverance (James 1:2-3 NIV).
Something which struck me is that our relationship with God is not determined by our circumstances. But I’ll return to this a little later – firstly I’d like to share about the post-RELOAD experience.
The Principal of a theological college in Victoria once described the time after camps/conventions as the “post- [insert name of camp here] spiritual slump”. For us, it’s the ‘post-Reload spiritual slump’. I’m sure that we can all testify to the fact that after going to church camps, beach missions or Christian conferences − where we spend loads of time with like-minded people studying God’s word, praying together and playing together − we go through a period where we aren’t quite as excited or keen to live the gospel as we had been when we were away. We return to the hustle and bustle of life − church, bible study groups, assignments, friends − and we slump a bit. We don’t pray as much, we don’t spend quality time listening to God speak to us through his Word, we don’t have the same desire to serve our brothers and sisters in Christ.
It seems like the big thing here is communication. At camps, beach missions, etc. we are spending quality time and effort serving God and communicating with him through his Word. When we return home, we have other pressures that we allow to get in the way of communicating with God. We are overcome by our circumstances and we think that our circumstances are now dictating our relationship with God. It also goes the other way − that because at camps we are spending time communicating with God we think our relationship with him is perhaps closer than what it really is. What can we do so that we aren’t overcome by our circumstances?
1. We can be real with each other about our spiritual lives at the moment. I know this is nothing new, and it’s very personal, but we’re family. We’re also friends. I’m not saying that for everyone you meet that you tell them all your deepest, darkest secrets, but do see them as people to trust. Ask them to pray for you, that you would continue to mature and seek to live out the gospel.
2. Remind yourself of the reality of our relationship with Jesus. Verses like Romans 5:8 “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us”, or perhaps Titus 3:4-5 “but when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Saviour appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit”, or perhaps Romans 10:9-10 “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved”.
3. Pray to God. Jesus said in Matthew 7:9-11 “which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!”
Matt Grant is a 2nd year Arts student and is finding this session tougher than the last one. He wishes that his sinful nature would throw itself off a cliff and that he could live up to what he’s just written.
<< Go Go Gadget Reload - 17/03/10 | Return to the Index | What's So Good About 'Good Friday'? - 31/03/10 >>