My Heart Breaks.

This past week has been a really powerful one.

God's been pulling strings in my heart, and using every aspect of my life to kindle some sort of passion, or "Holy Discontent" as pastor Mike would put it.

It probably started last week when Pastor Brian Rutton and his wife, who are missionaries to Ethiopia and surrounding area came to preach in chapel. What a powerful one it was. They're experiencing miracles there. Like, Acts-types of miracles there. People are getting healed, whole villages are being restored. Why? Because people there are so passionate about God that they go to a town where they are surely to be killed to preach the gospel. They have no one to depend on but God alone. They fast and pray, and read the Word for a minimum of a month, until they hear the voice of God tell them what to do. And villages are being saved. Miracles are happening. Enemy tribes are being restored. This is powerful.

Did you know that in Ethiopia, in order for a church to be considered a church, they have to have over 200 committed members? Like, not just people with their membership card, and tithe their 10%, these are people who are willing to go to another town themselves and plant more and more churches. By that standard, there are almost zero churches in Saskatoon, there are almost zero churches in Brandon, there are almost zero churches in Virden.

Where's your committment at? It seems that committment is a four lettered word in the church these days. Most people I talk to agree that 80% of the work done in the church is done by 20% of the people.

For my Homiletics class, I have been asked to write a sermon manuscript and submit it for marking. Yikes. I'm a very new preacher, who is just learning the ropes. But I think that I've been quite inspired to read about our function as a body of Christ. It frustrates me to think that there are rival churches out there stealing each other's 'sheep'. Don't they know that all Christians belong to the same body, whether they be Pentecostal, Mennonite, Lutheran, Presbyterian, etc?

Read 1 Corinthians Chapter 12:
⁴There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. ⁵There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. ⁶There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men.

⁷Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. ⁸To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, ⁹to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, ¹⁰to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues,^[a] and to still another the interpretation of tongues.^{[b] 11}All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines.

¹²The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. ¹³For we were all baptized by^[c] one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.

¹⁴Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. ¹⁵If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. ¹⁶And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. ¹⁷If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? ¹⁸But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. ¹⁹If they were all one part, where would the body be? ²⁰As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

²¹The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don't need you!" ²²On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, ²³and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, ²⁴while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, ²⁵so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. ²⁶If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

²⁷Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. ²

WE ALL HAVE A FUNCTION IN THE CHURCH, AND ARE REQUIRED AS CHRISTIANS TO TAKE ON OUR ROLE, WHETHER BIG OR SMALL, IN THE SPOTLIGHT OR BEHIND THE SCENES, FOR ONE PURPOSE: GLORIFYING GOD!

I've heard sermons like these preached a zillion times. But my heart is finally starting to be broken.

Tuesday was our school's day of prayer. I chose to spend my day asking God for a passion: for the word, for prayer, for the lost, for the church. Holy crap, be careful what you ask for. Ever since that day, my heart has been breaking constantly for things that I'm hearing.

Today some cool people from Vanguard Ministries talked about a street ministry that they have begun. They tell me that nothing gets accomplished without prayer. They tell me that once you begin to walk in step with God, you'll learn about the things that break His heart, and yours will begin to break as well. Wow. I can't even put into words how moved I was by her message. I'm probably even missing some stuff that she said. But WOW.

I believe it was in September when Nic and I were watching a John Bevere DVD and he said that you are never unaffected by things. Either your heart gets harder, or it gets softer.

What does your heart look like today?

Are you functioning as a Christian for the purpose of glorifying God?

Do you have a passion, or Holy discontent that God has revealed to you?

Is your heart breaking for the lost around you?

Consider these thoughts.