An Exercise That Requires Almost No Work

I'm not talking about sit-ups or pull-ups or running laps. In fact, if you're within reach of pen, a piece of paper, and a lighter or some scissors, this exercise can be done from the comfort of your chair as you read this! It's an exercise in visual learning...

We're all visual learners - our minds work in pictures. To prove the point, here's a quick test:

If I said the word "couch," what do you think of?
You probably think of your couch: the color, the texture, that Kool-aid stain...
Here's what I think of:

(That's the couch in my office.)




Here's what I (and probably you) did NOT think of:

God made us to be visual people. That's how we work, so we need to do an important visual exercise. One that will help us remember an important lesson.


Here's how it works...
Grab a piece of paper and a pen and draw a line all the way down the center of the page. On the top of one column, write "Unsaveable People" and on the top of the other column, write "Impossible Situations."

Now, fill out the list appropriately.

In the Unsaveable People column, write the names of people that you've convinced yourself can never be saved. They can be anyone still living: celebrities, co-workers, friends, family members (the more you know them, the better). Be honest. I know you have some of those people in mind. It might take a few minutes to think of some, but I'm sure you can.

In the Impossible Situations column, write a basic description of certain events that you're convinced will never happen or are impossible. I mean serious stuff, not like "Bill Gates will never own and iPhone" or "Steve Jobs will never own a Zune." I mean stuff that maybe you've given up praying for or not really attempted to pray for because you don't want to be disappointed when your prayers aren't answered. It could be anything: "My parents will never get back together," or "My mom will never be healed of cancer," or "My son will never get off of drugs," or "I will always be addicted to porn."

Once you get it filled out and are pretty confident with it, you'll need one more thing. It can be anything (or multiple items, if you prefer) that can destroy paper: scissors, a lighter, a paper shredder, a food processor, a coffee bean grinder, etc. Be creative. This is where the visual part of your mind really kicks in.

Now, before you get to the destruction, pray. Thank God that NO ONE is unsaveable for God (2 Peter 3:9, John 3:16). Thank God that nothing is impossible with Him (Luke 1:37). Ask God to forgive you for ever writing someone off as "unsaveable" or condemning something to the "impossible" side of your list.

Now, for the part you've been waiting for:

DESTROY that list.
Cut it, burn it, shred it, slice & dice it, tie one end to one car bumper and the other end to a car bumper going the opposite direction, and tell those drivers to DRIVE! Whatever will help you remember (and not burn down your house or hurt people in the process), DO IT!

When you're done, spend some more time in prayer for those people that you now realize are "saveable" people and those events that you remember are "possible" with God.


Need some Biblical examples?

UNSAVEABLE PEOPLE:
Saul of Tarsus
The thief on the cross next to Jesus
A bunch of useless, uneducated fishermen...

IMPOSSIBLE SITUATIONS:
Walking on water
Feeding 5,000 people with a little kid's lunch
Dead men living
Paralytics walking
Lepers not having leprosy
A virgin getting pregnant...


I hope you get the point. Your list meant nothing to God. He's not held down by the things we think can't be done, so don't hold yourself down by those things either!

UNIGHT #5 recap

What a night tonight! We hit up Lettie-Kendall Park tonight for our 5th of 8 UNIGHT Summer Evenings in the Park. It's hard to believe that we only have 3 left now! Tonight was the best night of ministry we've seen thus far and the best response we've had as well. People came from all over for Jeremy's famous burgers. He definitely is the grill master. We've never gone through more than 60 burgers in all 4 previous outreaches, so when we packed up tonight we figured that 70 burgers and 60 hot dogs was more than enough. We were wrong. After only an hour in, we hade gone through almost all of them and had to run to the grocery store to get more! That's a great problem! We ended up cooking over 100 burgers and 85 hot dogs tonight - the people just kept on coming! So cool.

The park was great, especially for the kids (and the older "kids" that had kids of their own) - it had a sweet water fountain area that people come from all over for. As people showed up, we greeted them with a free meal and Bible - they loved it. People saw our signs and fliers all over and some even stopped in the street to ask what we were doing. When they figured out that it was free, they were all over it! For most of the night, the entire parking lot was full and people were having to park on the street (another great problem)!

The best part was the ministry that occured tonight. One guy sought me out and told me before he left, he wanted me to pray for him. I told him I'd love to, so after he ate, I found him and went to talk. I ended up sitting down at a picnic table with him and 4 other people where I was able to lay out the simplicity of the Gospel to them. A couple of them had the typical answers when I asked where they would be spending eternity. They hoped they'd go to heaven. When I asked them how they thought they would make it, it was the other typical answer: they're pretty good people. I'm a straight-shooter and I told them that the Bible disagreed with them on that. I opened up the Bible I had given to them and went through Romans 3:23 (all have sinned), Romans 6:23 (the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life), and Romans 5:8 (God demonstrated His love by dying for us while we're still sinners). Tina, the lady sitting across from me, really caught it. I told her we could pray right there to commit her life to Jesus and she could know where she'll spend eternity. She loved that idea, so right there at a picnic bench in 90% humidity, I prayed the sinner's prayer with Tina! Awesome! After she left, I scooted down and talked with Ray, who, after talking for a while, realized he couldn't put Christ off any longer and decided tonight was the night! He too committed his life to Christ right there at the picnic table!

It was an incredible night of seeing God move in hearts and being reminded of what a privilege it is to reach out to hurting people. May God continue to use us in a powerful way as we do our best to reach this community!

Click HERE to check out the pictures of UNIGHT #5 and make sure to swing by awakenchurch.org for more info on where we'll be next week!