From Philippians 1:
12 And I want you to know, my dear brothers and sisters, that everything that has happened to me here has helped to spread the Good News. 13 For everyone here, including the whole palace guard, knows that I am in chains because of Christ. 14 And because of my imprisonment, most of the believers here have gained confidence and boldly speak God’s message[f] without fear.
15 It’s true that some are preaching out of jealousy and rivalry. But others preach about Christ with pure motives. 16 They preach because they love me, for they know I have been appointed to defend the Good News. 17 Those others do not have pure motives as they preach about Christ. They preach with selfish ambition, not sincerely, intending to make my chains more painful to me. 18 But that doesn’t matter. Whether their motives are false or genuine, the message about Christ is being preached either way, so I rejoice. And I will continue to rejoice. 19 For I know that as you pray for me and the Spirit of Jesus Christ helps me, this will lead to my deliverance.
20 For I fully expect and hope that I will never be ashamed, but that I will continue to be bold for Christ, as I have been in the past. And I trust that my life will bring honor to Christ, whether I live or die. 21 For to me, living means living for Christ, and dying is even better.
Tonight, Anna and I went over to church to rehearse. We go through the songs so that she know where I will be going in the morning, also Anna proofreads the “slides” so we don’t have any spelling or gramatical errors. Since we are using EasyWorship, this only needs to be done when we add songs to the database. This evening we caught a mistake. I’m particular when it comes to presentations — I want it correct, because anything else is a distraction. Anna does a great job and so does James when he has to. I found out during Vacation Bible School that it is not as easy as it would seem.
I was asking Anna what she thought of the worship during FLAME. I forgot that she worked in the nursery/preschool class during the mornings while we were there. She reminded me of that and that the Wednesday night communion service was good. There was a wonderful spirit in that service. While we served communion, we also gave a chance for people to come and be anointed. It was a powerful time. The band played during this time and we used the song Healer.
I was greatly disheartened earlier this week, when I learned that the writer of Healer faked the illness he claimed had been the inspiration for the song. Many bloggers have already written about it. Why did I come so late to this party? I felt I didn’t have anything to contribute to the conversation until now. The verses that I quoted in Philippians came to mind as I walked from the church to the house this evening. How many times do I do things out of selfish motives — and yet, because God is God — he can still use those for His glory. Please hear what I am saying. This is not an excuse to act like that. I believe that we need to give glory and honor to God in all that we do. I pray that God will always keep my motives pure — I pray as Paul, “For I fully expect and hope that I will never be ashamed, but that I will continue to be bold for Christ…that my life will bring honor to Christ, whether I live or die.” May that be your prayer as well. My prayers go out to the writer and his family. I pray that God will work this out for His glory. I know that Healer was one of the profound moments during FLAME X. Carpe Diem!
