Urgency

For those of you who've read Blue Like Jazz, you'll have an idea of what I'm talking about, and what you see in the above picture. Yesterday for our weekly outreach we set up two of these "confessionals" on either side of the Santa Monica Pier. This isn't your normal confessional in which we beckon people to come and confess their sins to us. Instead, it is us confessing our sins to them, apologizing for how we've misrepresented God and His love and the hurt and damage the church has caused in people's lives, etc. I went in extremely enthusiastic for this, because after reading about this in Blue Like Jazz, I really wanted to do one too.

I was one of the ones that volunteered to "confess" to people. Yet as I and about seven others remained under the sign while the rest went out to the beach to talk to people about this and stir up conversation, God spoke to my heart greatly. I think in the two hours we were out there, we probably had 1000 people pass by our booth and only 5 come up out of their own interest in what was going on. As people saw the sign, they turned the other way and walked away. Either they were turned off or feared or were uncomfortable with such a sign existing. The striking thing was that people didn't seem to care. As we talked to people, it didn't matter to them that there was a confessional on the beach, it was taken with a "so what?" attitude. We did have two people come to Christ, praise God! But how many more could've come?

Oh that the world would open their eyes and hearts to the God who pursues them, that He is a loving, passionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love! O that the world would be plucked out of their complacent nature, comfortable with their status and ignorance to the truth! O that they would desire One so greater than anything they have, anything they see, and anything they are! O that they would come to know that this God, my God, is the God who created the universe and created them to know Him personally! O that they would realize their fallen nature and how they can't attain salvation on their own, that it doesn't come by good works or just pure faith in God! This is the world that God saw and sees and sent His son to die for, because so mired is this world in their ignorance and complacency, that they have turned away from their first love, the ultimate provider and source of life. O that the Cross and Resurrection and the Gospel be a laser beam to their heart, piercing through all pride and injustice suffered and wealth and poverty and all! Let them come to know Christ who for them conquered the grave so we may know the Father! And let them never turn away ever again!

O that my brothers and sisters would fully realize the God we serve and how much greater His power is than anything we can attain by our own strength! O that we would realize that He is our source, salvation, and strength, and all things come from Him! O that no longer would we allow the world and Satan to discourage us, but that we would press fully on to know the Christ who makes us like Him through the Cross and Resurrection! O that we would no longer remain complacent with where we are at, secure in our surroundings and friends and family, but that we would come to hate these things because they keep us from knowing the One who loved us first! O that out of this hate we would turn to God fully and surrender all to find His love that will overflow and be reborn in purity that we can love those around us as God intended us to! O that this body would unite, rise up as believers, take hold of power, trust in the Holy Spirit to move, and life a life of reckless abandon to see the glory of God fulfilled in ways we could never imagine!!!

And O, that I would press on, fully onward to what God has called me to and to take hold of all that He's placing within me to be solely used for His glory! O that I would continue to be so lost and captured by the One who loved me first and more than anything! O that I would truly count all things loss for knowing Him and becoming like Him! O that this faith that I have that God will move, will be used in ways to spur my brothers and sisters, and that God will place me in those positions of leadership as He wishes me to be! O that nothing, nothing, nothing, will ever hold me back from knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord!