George's shirt: Ken and his wife, Linda, go to this big church camp every year. It's a camp for high school age kids but there is a boy there with down syndrome named George who they let come every year even though he's older. George loves Ken and Linda (and really, who doesn't?). So the one summer, it was really hot. There were a few days in a row where it was over 100 degrees. During worship on the third day of this stretch of heat, Ken noticed that George was the only one in the front row and everyone else was a few rows away from him. He wondered why on earth that was the case. Everyone loved George but he didn't know why they were all sitting so far away from him. Ken looked a little closer and noticed that George was wearing the same shirt that he had on for the past three days. He could see the mustard, ketchup and other stains on his shirt from every meal that they had eaten those past few days. He was drenched with sweat- no wonder no one was around him... he probably smelled horrible. So Ken had this idea. He thought to himself, I'll pull George aside and take his messy shirt and have Linda wash it for him. But Ken heard God speaking to him. And He said, "no, Ken, I want you to give George your shirt." Ken said he tried to argue with God... but that never works out. So he walked over to the side of the building and called George outside. The smell of George was horrible. Ken said, "George, can I have your shirt?" George held his shirt tight and said, "no. my shirt. George shirt." And Ken said again, "George, would you like my shirt?" George's eyes lit up and he agreed. So Ken pulled the shirt off George's back- the shirt stuck to him because of the sweat. Then he took off his own shirt and gave it to George. George walked back into the room- beaming and saying "Pastor gave George his shirt. I have Pastor's shirt!" Ken smiled and looked down at his own self and said, "Okay God, what now?" God replied, "Wear his shirt." He tried to argue again but he knew it was pointless. So he picked up the dirty, smelly, sweaty shirt and put it on. And when he put it on, he heard the voice of God saying to him, "Just like this, I took your dirty, messy shirt and gave you my pure, clean robe. And I wore your sins and your guilt and shame." I thought this was such an amazing story and it spoke so much to me. I love the picture that it put in my mind.
The Heart Transplant: When someone gets a heart transplant, that means that someone has to die in order for another person to get their heart. In the first heart transplant, a 70 year old man got a 19 year old's heart. It was a successful procedure, however, three months afterwards, the man died- not because the heart failed. The heart was working fine. He died because his BODY rejected the new heart. The same thing goes for our heart with God. When we accept Christ, we get a new heart. But will we let our old ways tear down our body and destroy our new heart of God? For women, it's more difficult for a heart transplant to work because they have had children and their immunity is more complex because they carry the immunity of the children that they have had. In the same way, we "sleep with" the world- we follow the world's patterns and such- and the more we do that, the greater immunity we build and the more likely we are to attack the new heart that God has given us. When you get a heart transplant, you have to change your lifestyle. You can't go the places you used to go. You can't do the things you used to do and you have to take your medication everyday... because if you don't, the body will react against your new heart. The same way goes for God. When we get our new heart, we can't do the things we used to do and we can't go to the places we used to go. And we need our daily dose of God everyday so that we don't fall back into the pattern of the world and reject the new heart God has given us.
I'm not sure that I've explained that well or not. It's hard to type. But I hope you got the point. the concept was so interesting and it made so much sense when he was talking about it.
Anyway, all in all, it was an amazing week and I wish Ken and Linda could stay with us longer. They completely changed everything for me and I'm so grateful that they took the time to come and speak to us.
Tomorrow we start our new lectures on Hearing the voice of God with our school leader, Jason Solari. I'm pretty excited about it! We're also going to find out what our outreach options are! If you could keep me in your prayers that God will speak to me and I will go wherever He leads me, that would be amazing. I'm very apprehensive about it!... And SO excited!
ps. WOOHOO BLAZERS BOYS SOCCER! you are awesome.
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