Hanbit International

I don't have a lot of time to compose a full blog post but I wanted to share about church yesterday! I really didn't know what to expect so I went in with an open mind. The first thing that really stood out was that I was greeted in the parking lot. And it wasn't an elder or an official greeter that went out of their way to say hello to me! It was a regular church attender! And it wasn't just them! When I got inside it was like people swarmed to meet me and make me feel welcome! The worship was really solid, Christ and God focused, and the sermon was great! The main pastor and preacher are away so it was a visiting pastor. Next week it will be a visiting pastor also but the preaching is solid. Yesterday it was about God using ordinary people to do extraordinary things and that the fact that we are ordinary should encourage us rather than discourage us because God likes using ordinary people rather than people with amazing talents or abilities.

After services I met many other people including a girl who graduated from Liberty around the same time as I did and a guy who went to Virginia Tech! I just felt God's providence there! :-) Then a few of us went to help out at the kid's program and I helped them put on a puppet show about Peter seeing the vision of all the animals and then going to preach the gospel to Cornelius. After this, we went to Andy's house where a group of about 6 or 8 of us discussed the story about Boy Jesus staying at the temple. What struck me was that these people ask hard questions about their faith. The main question of the night was "Did Jesus make a mistake in staying in the temple?" We talked for a long time about the fact that Jesus made mistakes in His learning process but that mistakes must not be equated with sin. It was refreshing and I was shocked at the insights some of them had into something I've glossed over many, many times.

As a whole, I was struck by the emphasis placed on obedience to God's word and striving wholeheartedly to become the people Christ longs for us to be. But it's not slavish obedience they were preaching! It was obedience borne of grace and of love and I loved that. The challenge coupled with the assurance. But yeah! It was a great day!