Hello to everyone who is either interested in, or went to, or watched online, Passion 2012! It was seriously an incredible time of worship, fellowship, conviction, joy, clarity, and inspiration.
I could go on for days about all that I learned and experienced, but the main reason I am writing this blog is to encourage y’all to pray. And this blog’s call for what to pray for is threefold:
First, I want you to pray that what God did in and through the conference would not just be of one week’s significance, but that the Word that was preached, and the worship that was led, and all that was experienced would really take root in peoples hearts, and that God would continue to raise up this generation for His glory—a generation who is truly characterized by Isaiah 26:8—one where His name and renown are the desire of our souls.
Secondly, I also want to encourage you to pray for the missions and ministries that will happen because of the generosity of others at Passion—which totaled over 3 million dollars in donations.
Pray for the people that these missions will reach, and that through the church’s outreach of love and stand for justice, God would open their hearts to the beauty and value of the gospel, and that they may come to know Him. Indeed, since we who are saved have experienced the incredible outreach of love and satisfaction of justice and redemption by God, how much more then shall that drive us into the same action—seeking the redemption, freedom, and utmost welfare of others? So pray that these missions will be effective in installing freedom and justice, and that people would be reached for the gospel.
And lastly, my third point is essentially embedded in the meaning behind our RDU Passion Tshirt, which was designed by Jonathan Edwards, the leader of our group.
As you can see, it says, “I am 1 out of 114,000”. And you might be asking, “why 1 out of 114,00?” And you’re right, there were only 40-some thousand at Passion 2012 in Atlanta. But that’s the thing—its not talking about all the people from Passion. It’s talking about my home, and where I am invested in all throughout the year. Currently, I am living in the triangle of North Carolina, which is basically the region of Chapel Hill, Raleigh, and Durham—and this triangle comprises of 114,000 college students, whereby I am one of them. Therefore, the underlying message of this shirt is an urge to direct our focus back to where we live.
What are we going to do with Passion now that we are home? Once we are off the mountain, how does that change the way we live in the valley? And this leads me to my third-fold point: Ephesians 6:19-20, which reads:
“pray for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel…that I might declare it boldly, as I ought to speak.”
So, thirdly, pray that God would make us bold, for the sake of His glory and for the sake of the utmost joys of all peoples.
So to summarize,
1) Pray for those who were at Passion 2012, that God would continue to work in their hearts
2) Pray for all the missions that will be financed through people’s generosity, that freedom may be installed and that the gospel would be extended to the darkest areas of injustice
3) And pray that we might boldly, unashamedly declare the gospel wherever we are, for the glory of God, and for the utmost joys of all peoples.
And to conclude, I wanted to end on this verse, since it kinda wraps up what this blog is all about.
“Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” -Ephesians 3:20-21
