"You will watch a generation of Christians, OF CHRISTIANS, set the bible aside in an attempt to become more like Jesus. And stunnigly it will sound completly plausible. This will be perhaps the cleverest of all the devil's schemes in your generation. Sacrafice TRUTH for LOVE's sake. And you will rise or fall based on whether you will sacrifice one for the other. Will you have the courage to live in the tension of both TRUTH and Love?" -Beth Moore
Last week I was extremely blessed with an amazing opportunity to attend the Passion Conferences 2017. It was hands down one of the best experiences I've had in my life, and I am forever grateful that I got a chance to go.
If you're not familiar with what the passion conference, it's a conference that's been running since 1997 (the year I was born), and it's for Christian millennials. Passion features a lot of big Christian names like John Piper, Francis Chan, Beth Moore, Hillsong United, Chris Tomlin, and much more great people. It's a 3-day conference in Atlanta, Georgia. It has hands down the best way to kick off the new year.
I think the coolest thing for me about passion was the fact that over 55,000 millennials gathered in one space to exalt one name, the name of Jesus Christ. We live in a world filled with war, and everything to separate us from God and divide us from one another. Being a Christian in this generation isn't easy, neither is it the popular thing to do.
"Everyone will hate you because of me, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved." Mark 13:13
It was so encouraging to see how many people in our generation still have the love for Christ. These people come from different backgrounds, we all have different stories. People from 90 different countries. When there is everything out there to divide us in this world, it was so amazing put all our differences aside and unite over one name. That's the great thing about following Jesus, he brings the most unlikely people together in unity.
One of the coolest things about the conference was hands down community groups. Community groups are a small group, you get paired up with complete strangers from all around this country and all around this world. In these groups, you process and discuss the whole conference. It was nice because since these people are complete strangers, and you may never run into then you could be completely vulnerable and honest about your struggles and encourage each other. Through this, you'll soon get to see that the people that you thought were so different from you are struggling with some of the same things you're struggling with.
Through this experience, I no longer see this world as a zoo that I try to navigate my daily life zoo. I've realized that every day is an opportunity to share the gospel, and engage myself in something that will glorify God or further his kingdom. I've realized that often I live for things in my mind that I want to do in the future and focus on the here instead of focusing on the there. God's woken me up today and given me breath so I can live another day to his glory. I've realized that I have to live like I acknowledge and appreciate that simple truth.
This event is a must on everyone's bucket list, Christ follower or not. Come see what God is doing in this generation's hearts. I'd honestly say that week was a tiny glimpse of what heaven will be like.
"After these things I looked, and here was an enormous crowd that no one could count, made up of persons from every nation, tribe, people, and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb dressed in long white robes, and with palm branches in their hands.They were shouting out in a loud voice,“Salvation belongs to our God, who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!”" Revalation 7: 9-10
