Wednesday, September 8, 2010

6:20. sunburns. tryouts. glory.

okay okay. IT'S WEDNESDAY! that's pretty exciting for a couple reasons. (1) wed. night worship is TONIGHT at 6:20 and i couldn't be more excited. add 7 exclamation points to the last sentence and that's about where i am. it's truly a blessing to hang out with and teach students the Gospel. i pray i do that well today. we've moved the time back 20 minutes because so many kiddos are getting out of practice later these days...that means we need a new logo, too. let the creativity flow. (2) today is a little chilly. and overcast. that's a day-maker right there. it actually feels like fall and not like my skin is about to melt off like at the game on saturday. bonkers i tell ya. sunburn galore. and (3) is simply that vandy plays lsu on saturday night and we are one day closer to redemption. espnu at 6:30, y'all. believe.

TONIGHT, we're going through perhaps one of my favorite stories in all of Scripture. like the last three weeks haven't been blowing my whole world up, we're now at the point where moses' face shines gloriously (LITERALLY...i'm serious) because he's been with the LORD. exodus 34:29-35. pretty incredible stuff. he didn't even know it at first. just kinda walked down the mountain and everybody just kinda stared. part of me thinks that he might have first asked them, "dude, do i have a booger hanging out or what?" his own friends and family were afraid. "dude looks weird." oh, and i almost forgot to mention that before he came down from the mountain, he spent 40 days with the LORD...without food or drink. and it WAS enough. repeat, He WAS enough. the LORD sustained him. i don't believe that's merely a symbol, either. i believe it actually happened. He was enough.

after everybody quit freaking out about our boy's face, moses spoke God's truth to them. interestingly enough, moses put a veil (i always picture a white wedding one...weird) over his face? WHY? it's a good question. it kept happening. whenever moses went to speak with the LORD, his face would shine. radiant. glorious. he would then speak with the people and again, the veil would go over his face. CRAZY. it seems like the glory would fade...it wouldn't last. why?

it wasn't intended to.

i remember the scariest moment of my life. at that point it was at least. i felt God was calling me to preach for a camp called crosspoint which is the little brother camp to fuge and mfuge and all the other lifeway camps. it's a sports camp. I LOVE IT. it's aimed at middle schoolers and after teaching tennis all over the country my first year, i just felt the Lord was calling me to speak. i didn't believe it was Him at first because i hated public speaking. got a "D" in my freshman speech class at samford. sweated through two shirts. BRUTAL. but, i really felt called to do this. so, i did. there were tryouts. tryouts? tryouts. "how do preaching tryouts work?" you ask. LIKE THIS...you enter an incredibly large sanctuary with a talk that you've prepared. you shake hands with a guy you've never met, but heard all about and then you walk on stage and deliver the goods. man you've just met is the only soul in the room. and he sits in the back with a laptop. the very back. last row back. and you preach to an entire room of empty chairs. he told me to pretend like the room is full. nice.

i tried. don't remember much of what i said. i just remember that the radiant face of moses was what i talked about. i don't remember any "amens" or "that's good" or "yeah boys" from the back row. when i finished, i think i just said, "that's what i got." i said that because it felt weird to pray at the end of that message, ya know?? but, i really thought it would've been pretty hilarious to pray over all the people in the room. maybe he thought i'd be extra holy if i did that. i digress.

we had a meeting in the back row. i never thought i'd see a red pen run out of ink after one use. NOT KIDDING. i sat there sweating. when i'm nervous i sweat. sorry. he told me he liked what i had to say and said some nice things. but, then he let me know i forgot the ENTIRE rest of the story. he wasn't rude. he was like an older brother. like an older brother that's about to tell you that you have just BOMBED your interview. he simply said that there's another part to the story. he talked for forever about the fading glory and the glory that doesn't fade in 2 corinthians. when i shared only one part of the story, he pulled the whole thing together. and while i was thankful he did that, i went home crushed. i shared a story when i didn't even know the ending! i was at belmont at the time, but i drove back to the 'rents house to tell them the news. bummer. but, here's the cool thing...i learned the end of the story...

in that moment with the preaching guy, i needed to be teachable. humble. listening. not speaking. inside is was so down from messing the whole thing up, but what he was telling me was REVOLUTIONARY. the veil and the fading glory of moses' face symbolized the old covenant that God made between Himself and Israel. more importantly (in my opinion), it gave a glimpse of a coming Messiah. it's another foreshadowing of CHRIST...of a NEW covenant that would last forever! and that is available now. to you and to me. pretty cool stuff. how do i know?

2 corinthians 3:7-18. ABSOLUTELY STUNNING. it's so beautiful to me how the entire Word of the Lord weaves itself together. crazy crazy good. read it for yourself - "if the ministry that condemns men is glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness! for what was glorious has no glory now in comparison to the surpassing glory. and if what was fading away came with glory, how much greater is the glory of that which lasts!" we don't need a veil. the new covenant that has come through Christ last forever. it is ever glorious and ever making us glorious through Him. we can shine. we can be radiant. the key to us having that is spending time with the LORD. i'm not saying that my face will be burning after i meet with the Lord and people will stare because i'm some kind of weirdo. what i am saying is that the new covenant has the power to change my oft hard heart to the point where i'm truly focused on Him and truly joyed with His presence in my life to the point where His glory is on my lips. it becomes Him instead of me. He fills me. He satisfies. He is all.

oh, and crazy thing is that God works despite our presentation. one of my favorite things about preaching. i got that job. He used it to radically change my life. have faith and cling to what He says. trust it. trust Him.

g

ps. secret song for wednesday?? okay, i'll give it to you. none but jesus. it's a hillsong tune. brooke fraser sings it. it's on repeat right now.

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