Hungry

We are all hungry for something. We all crave something. As seen from class discussion, most of us hunger for success so that we can be filled by our parent's or our friend's approval. Does anyone else find it curious that the greatest fear of most women is to end up alone at the end of the day or at the end of our lives? Why is that? It's because we ask for friends to fill us. We would all agree that women are very relational. Little girls want best friends not batman action figures. We seek out social groups that make us feel included, loved, needed and wanted by other people. But somehow we always end up wanting more. If we make a good connection with a friend, we will want the same connection the next time when we meet again, never satisfied until our need for affirmation and acceptance is filled. But it never is. We possess a bottomless well of longing which can only be quenched by the never-ending fount that is Jesus Christ.

In Matthew 5:6 it says that "those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be filled."  At the surface it would be easy for most to stereotype us and assume that the only thing a typical college student at UGA could hunger and thirst for is downtown Athens cuisine and vast quantities Miller Light. But something is happening on our campus. Ministries, churches, and small groups in Athens are growing at astonishing rates. More than ever before, students are hungry and thirsty for the Lord, for His love and for righteousness. There has been physical healing, restoration of broken hearts and realization of God's very present love. It is a season of the Lord's favor. As we hunger and thirst for Him to come, He is giving more and more of Himself to every student who seeks Him out. We cannot be filled by anything else. Our souls long for Him whether we realize that it is Him we want or not. Nothing else will do. So seek. Find. Be satisfied. 

(First Wesley service of 2009 at Tate 2)

New beginnings

It is finally the beginning of a new semester at UGA. New freshmen, new living situations, new classes, new buildings, new friends, new teams, new, new, new, new. Just writing "new" that many times makes the word look and sound differently. We all talk about this new football season, the new fall semester, the new administration, our new class schedules etc. But what does "new" actually mean? The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines it as "different from one of the same category that has existed previously" or "of dissimilar origin and usually of superior quality." There is so much newness going on at UGA, in Athens, and all over the world. Things are happening in Athens that have never previously taken place. The Lord is doing a new work here. In 2 Corinthians 5:17, Paul says "therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has gone and the new has come." In this passage "new" can be translated to mean "recently made and fresh." I believe as Isaiah did that God is saying to us "Look! I am doing a new, refreshing thing!" This "new thing" that the Lord is doing is "of superior quality" to the work that He has done here in the past. The purpose of this blog is to follow everything that the Lord is doing and what his followers are doing for Him. Or at least, as much as I can keep up with.