chapel with alec hill

every wednesday, the NSC holds chapel in the lunchroom. each session of chapel is usually opened with a song or two followed by a speaker that has some connection with intervarsity. this week, the speaker was alec hill, the CEO of intervarsity. while his talk was less about his own personal experiences, he shared about the company's statistics from this year (the fiscal year just ended june 30). now, alec hill is actually a pretty big deal in the christian evangelism world. he was just signed on the board of christianity today, a major christian magazine, and he's the CEO of intervarsity, which as 860 chapters throughout north america. since he has just signed on as a board member of christianity today, as he was reading through last month's issue, he noticed about 9 instances of intervarsity, and it was incredible how big of an influence intervarsity is having on people. one of the instances he mentioned was a man he knew who worked in the white house as one of president obama's advisors of faith (or something like that). president obama asked for pointers from the christian aspect as he was writing his speech for cairo, and this man asked alec for his opinion. alec told him what he thought and a couple weeks later, president obama's speech included the very two things that alec had mentioned.

later, alec went on to talk about the statistics of the fiscal year. there have been about 8 campuses that have had 30+ conversions, including smaller chapters like the one at the university of rhode island. he also mentioned that aside from the year that billy graham was involved, this was one of the best years ever in the history of intervarsity. all the numbers for the multi-ethnic and greek ministries were up significantly. and, in light of the recession, while the NSC has had to make some sacrifices, giving for on-campus staff were up. it's amazing that God has really working and providing for His people.

this was just a really refreshing message after researching so much on revelation, eschatology and the end times. it's a wonderful message that God will provide, and a proper response of thankfulness and praise is long overdue.

mass

i spent the weekend hanging out with celeste, and i even went to mass with her. it's been interesting that in my research and study of eschatology, there has been a lot of negative feedback about the catholic church, such as the pope being the antichrist (or his assistant). naturally, as i sat through mass, i was very wary of my environment and looked around the cathedral for satanic or anti-christian icons. i know this sounds absurd and out of line. and then i looked around at the people in the pews, mindlessly reciting the prayers and the responses to the priest. i wondered how many people in the entire building were actually saved, and i wondered how many of these people attended mass only to be considered "good" catholics. i felt so bad for the people because (even though i didn't know for sure), it seemed like they didn't really know Jesus or have a relationship with Him.

it was interesting that the message was about evangelism though. and not to be looking down or judging catholics or anything, but i have never met an evangelistic catholic. but it reminds me of how many times we hear sermons and often forget about them immediately. the weekdays following a sermon about loving our enemies, we often hurt our best friends. or the day after a message about forgiveness, we hold a grudge against someone who has hurt us. we are often too quick to forget what we just heard. as humans, we sin so easily, and do not even recognize or realize that it's sin. we even often forget that our purpose in life is to worship God. our rebellion against Him through sin reveals our forgetfulness.

something else interesting that i never experienced before was as the priest was listing prayer requests, the congregation responded with "Lord, hear our hurt". as i heard this repeated after every request, it really sank in. i thought of how hurt people really are. people long for love so badly and seek all these earthly ways to try to fill the void that only God can fill. they seek love in all the wrong places, and i, myself, am guilty of this too. i think we all are. this is why we need God. only His love is enough for us; there is nothing else on this earth that can satisfy our spiritual thirst like His love.

click here for my study of revelation