Disclaimer: I am not taking any credit for this message. Judah Smith preached on this topic and inspired me to share. In addition, I am writing this to remind myself.
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" 2 Corinthians 5:17
Sounds like a very familiar verse right? Well let me try and share a different perspective of this popular verse. Here's a quick background. The apostle Paul is writing to the church of Corinth. He's encouraging followers of Christ with this verse
You become a follower of Jesus. You feel pumped up and passionate about Christ and the Gospel. After a few days or weeks, you go back to your old ways. This is the cycle.
- Go to a church retreat/conference/mission trip and get very passionate about God.
- Come back home to your normal life.
- Get "burned out" within a few days or weeks.
- Repeat.
You're wondering: Why do I go back to being normal again after a few weeks? Why do I not feel any different? Why is it still difficult for me to resist my old habits? Why isn't God helping me?
You're asking the wrong questions.
The weekend of Feb. 14-15th was Passion.
What is Passion? It's a huge Christian conference that occurs one time a year. I know what you're thinking, "Oh it's one of those weird, crazy religious things." Yeah, it may seem like it, but it's different when you experience it yourself.
Passion usually occurs in Atlanta, Georgia every year. However, they decided to bring it back to Houston this year. When I heard this announcement at our church, I signed up. I don't know why. I just did. I didn't think much about it. This was last semester.
After a couple months passed, Passion arrived. It happened so suddenly. I was so caught up with schoolwork and didn't realize that it was in a few days. Then it happened.
The Experience
I have never been in such an intense environment. Here's what I mean. There is no way this "religion" is fake. There's no "religion" that creates an environment where people, who have never met each other, will worship together in joy. The environment was so loving, caring, and passionate for Christ. These feelings are all genuine. They're from the heart of every individual. Christianity doesn't MAKE us act like this. There are no rules that say, "You must be happy while you worship God." We do it because we want to. We do it because we experience the love of Christ. It's all genuine and real.
I felt so encouraged to see the thousands of people who love Christ. I even met some high school acquaintances at a random McDonald's before getting to Passion. There is no way that I met them by coincidence at Passion in that McDonald's. I was reminded that "coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous."
There are so many things I could talk about here, but I'll end it here with some major points that I learned.
- Once you truly have your eyes opened, you experience God in a way that will forever change you life
- Every day is a day closer to Christ. Either we get closer to death, or we get closer to His return. Every day should be the best day of your life.
- We are made new IN Christ. Being in Christ redefines our position. We no longer have to live life trying to get a certain position (CEO, pro athlete, president, etc.). That's what society/the world tells us to do. Now that we're IN Christ, we are given the highest position. Our position IN Christ now defines how we live our life. For Him.
Everything feels so surreal. But I'm certain that this experience will not disappear like any of the other church retreats/revivals. This hit me at the right time and at the right place.
