[p11] what makes sense.

After morning CG was another main session! Charlie Hall led worship this time (his goatee = awesome, almost as awesome as the Crowder, haha). One of the songs he sang was Matt Maher's "Christ is Risen", which I love. When we got to the bridge, I started bawling.

O death, where is your sting?
O hell, where is your victory?
O church, come stand in the light,
Our God is not dead--He's alive!

I don't know what it was, but the worship at Passion really touched my heart in so many ways, and tears regularly streamed from my eyes during pretty much every worship set, especially on Saturday. Sometimes I would just look around as I sang and once again be struck in awe of how many people were worshiping God in spirit and in truth, just as He calls us to. Many times, I would just really be convicted of the words I was singing; the lyrics were always so beautiful. I love all of the songs on this year's Passion: Here For You CD.

Francis Chan came to speak to us Saturday morning, which was also pretty exciting. Near the beginning of his talk, he suddenly and unexpectedly broke down on stage and began to cry, and it was so moving to see his heart break for those (at Passion) who did not know Jesus. In the same way, it reminded me that our desperation and heart for the lost can't even compare to how God feels and yearns for them, and it convicted me of the urgency of praying for the lost, sharing the gospel with them, and living a life worthy of the gospel as a witness to them. Like Francis said, as badly as we want people to fall in love with Jesus, no matter how perfectly we set up the situation, we cannot change their hearts. Only He can do that.
In his talk, Francis stressed the importance of looking at our lives and weighing them against the gospel and seeing what does and doesn't make sense. He shared about his travels to India and China and some of the stories of persecuted brothers and sisters over there. When he shared with fellow believers in China about the church in America, he said that they laughed pretty hard and then picked up the Bible and said, "You got that from reading this book?"
Not gonna lie, that's pretty convicting. And discouraging. Why is the church in America so dead, so lacking in the Holy Spirit? More thoughts on that sometime later...but oftentimes, it makes it so hard to witness to others living in America. Yet, if God is calling us to stay and minister in the U.S., we cannot run away to other countries on the premise of mission trips (not denouncing mission trips in any way), as difficult as it may be.