Encounter.

Colossians 1:27-28
27 To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
28 We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ.

It was another incredible Christian event! Acquire the Fire is an annual Christian conference was inspirational speakers, worship time, skits, and an altar call. It's one of those moments where although you've generally been on the up and up with God with some "downs," you go up a few extra notches in your relationship with God. I plan to spend several days talking about what I learned during the weekend which was themed: Encounter. All forms of love were discussed.

There's always something that inspires me at these events. There were at least 7,000 people packed in the Sun Dome of Tampa, with a majority being students. It was no coincidence that everyone who was there went either. God called everyone of us to go. It's really something to be with your own generation jumping up and down and screaming for Jesus. I'd have to say at least at some point during the weekend EVERYONE was engaged in worship.

This is all so fascinating because, although we're one body of Christ, certain circumstances in life occur. We still have problems. We absolutely can't work it out alone - without God! There was a survey done at ATF among the Christians and nearly one-third of the students said they have cut themselves in the past; and about half of the students said they have had thoughts of suicide at some point in their life. I mean, seriously, those statistics just broke my heart.

I wrote on my facebook status over the weekend: "hanging out with the good 'ole JC at Acquire the Fire!" I needed to do a bit of explaining to my mom when I got home. She didn't know what that meant. I said, "I was hanging out with Jesus!" It literally felt like he was so close all weekend long.

Although today's Bible verse wasn't mentioned at the conference, I did read it after I returned home. I think it sums up our role back in the real world: now that God has made his presence known in all who attended, we must teach everyone the good news so that they may be perfect in him.

Starting tomorrow I'll post some great songs each day from the bands at Acquire the Fire. Today, however, I'm going to share with you "Up and Up" by Relient K. This is a bit of a fast worship song, but enjoy it. I pray that from here on out we'll all be on the up and up. That is, we can't losing God anymore. May we hold onto our fire for Christ!



P.S. If you have trouble with the video stopping and starting, keep the video paused, and let it "buffer" (load) as it's called for a while. You will see the red bar along the bottom advance (speed depends on your Internet connection). Wait until that bar gets pretty far along (I'd say more than halfway) before you play the video and it shouldn't pause.