I have a friend named Sean Quereshi who I have known for the last four years. Sean was born into a Muslim family and has been a devout Muslim for the last 21 years of his life. This is his story and testimony of how God changed his life:
"May 22nd, 2010. The night that Jesus opened my eyes and I could see for the first time was unlike any other. Spent the day talking to a good friend about how we sometimes miss God’s big picture for us and had to catch myself from time to time because I would start talking about Jesus and how good He is. Haha so Jesus didn’t just show up on one night and rock my world, but instead he took an icepick and slowly started to chip away and unfreeze my heart and reveal His love for me. But at Midnight Worship, everything seemed perfect and even if you didn’t believe in God, you couldn’t deny a spiritual presence in the room. The message was good and the music just sang in tune with every bone on my body.
But somehow despite the loudness of the place praising Jesus, a stillness swept over me and I drifted into a childhood memory. I have a terrible memory so this is literally the only childhood memory I can remember and I strongly believe there was a reason now why I remember it so vivdly. I was 4 years old and we were visiting Pakistan. I went with my dad to go buy some bread and a local outdoor market. I’m not sure how I got distracted, but for a child my age it probably wasn’t easy. I somehow lost where my father was, but then saw a man that was dressed exactly like him so I started following him home. When he got to his house, he closed the door behind him with me still standing outside. I was so confused, so I started knocking and that slowly turned into pounding as I couldn’t understand why my father wasn’t answering my distressed call. After awhile, I left and somehow made it to a dark alley and tears started flowing from my eyes, as different thoughts ran through my head: my father doesn’t love me, maybe I did something wrong, why wasn’t I a better son. I’m not sure how long I was there until I saw a bright light defeat the darkness around me. It was one of my father’s relatives on his motorcycle so thankful that he found me because my father was worried sick about me being lost. I can still remember what I said when my father found me, I said in hindi, "Sean goomo, baba dunliya" or in english "I was lost, but my Father found me."
The impact of that illustration is that even though I was seeking and knocking and praying God would open the door for me, I wasn’t knocking on my real Father’s door. Instead my Father knew me, but I had lost Him for 21 years and laid crying in a dark alley trying to fix myself up so my father would like me again. But “No one knows the Father except the Son and to those to whom the son chooses to reveal to Him.” That relative who came and wrapped his arms around me was Jesus and he took me back home so that I could rejoice with my true Father.
I opened up my eyes at Midnight Worship and tears were rolling down my face and I thought the whole time I had my arms crossed around me, but they were at my side, something else was holding me tight. My Father was holding me tight. At this point, I turned to my friend next to me and asked him what I had to do to be saved and he prayed over me and I surrendered myself to Jesus around 1:50 am on that late Friday night."
This image of God our Father absolutely made cry. I praise God for his grace that has continually been poured down. May God's name continue to receive glory as his story is passed on. I am super stoaked that I can now call my friend Sean a brother in Christ. Share his story; he wants it to be shared.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
A Dear Goodbye
Today, I said goodbye to an incredibly dear friend. I am awful at goodbye's, and today I think it is important for me to look back on a friendship that has meant a lot to me. As many of you know, Annette Fetzer is leaving the Wesley Foundation to follow the Lord's calling in Knoxville, Tennessee. I was a sophomore involved in the Wesley Foundation when I first met Annette. Throughout countless situations these last four years, I have had the priveledge of sharing the gospel and allowing God's movement with her. I cannot begin to express nor did I quite realize the impact she has had on my life until these last few days when I reflected back on our friendship. There is power when we reflect back on our lives because as I recount the moments in our friendship, God has used this friendship as a means of showing God's grace to me wherever I was at. Here are 10 powerful, fun, cute(sometimes) stories from the time I got to spend with Annette.
10.) from the first moment I stepped onto the leadership team at the Wesley, Annette always encouraged me to be "out of the box" with my ministry. This phrased has encouraged me constantly to be a minister, witness, and leader who relies on God's leading rather than the common lifestyles of pastors before me.
9.) Sometimes you just don't say anything. In africa, I had to gaurd the bathroom door for Annette because the door did not have a solid lock. It just wasn't Annette's day. Not only did she have explosive diahrea, the door seperating us had a large crack between the door and the floor allowing all sound to travel from the bathroom into the hallway. I flatly denied my ability to hear her for months!
8.) When we were in Malawi in 2007, Annette was leading a trip which was a team member. During one of the first nights of the trip, our team was having a time of worship together. Annette received a vision of the bible falling open in my hands, and the word of God being proclaimed. I was to be a minister of the good news on that trip. For years I had been called into ministry, but it was not until I received this vision where I fully stepped into the preaching gift which God had given me.
7.) Annette's thunder and lightning. Many of you have seen Annette's thunder and lightning flexing biceps. Let's just say thunder and lightning are no match for a braided, red-bearded man on a soccer field! Thanks Annette for letting me disprove the laws of physics, and even smiling as I did it.
6.) her counsel. God has blessed her with such an incredible amount of wisdom. Her ability to unpack my emotions in the moment and apply it through conversation towards my spiritual formation is simply life-giving.
5.)through working together, I have truly seen the beauty in the kingdom. For those of you that really know me, you know that I am a easy-going guy who loves to look at the big picture. for those of you that really know Annette, you know she is an incredible detail-oriented, administrative personality. Before I got to work with Annette, many times I resented people's personality's who would become so caught up in the small things that the big picture would often be missed. I learned sometimes the big picture wouldn't happen, if I didnt take the time to attend to the details. I saw how annette empowered and encouraged my personality even though it is distinctly different. Needless to say, this will forever change the way I handle a staff when I am in leadership positions in the future.
4.)Exorcism of demons....I do not want to get into a lengthy story here. In a beautiful moment in Malawi, I saw a demon cast to the foot of the cross. I saw the enemy defeated, and the Lord's provision, mercy, and unfailing love. I shared that moment with Annette, and now know beyond the shadow of a doubt that the gates of hell will not prevail against his church.
3.)Annette has been there for many of my sermons that I have given whether in the US of A or Africa. After every sermon I continually remember her affirmation of my calling. I don't remember it because she said it. I remember the affirmation because I know God used her her words as a deep sense of affirmation in my spirit. Looking back on some of the sermons I have given, I needed affirmation.
2.)Leading a trip to Rwanda with her this past summer. I could put about 10 meaningful experiences just from this trip alone. This was one of the hardest trips of my life happening during one of the hardest seasons of my life. We spent a month in a foriegn country doing a mission trip where we weren't always doing things. This trip I learned their was a huge difference in leading by action compared to being responsible for people and leading them. I had to make decisions constantly that people didn't like. I received flack for it, and as a huge people person, I crumbled under the stress. Annette repeatedly stepped up in my defense, encouraged my leadership, and helped me learn from my mistakes. She helped encourage me to be strong and take a stance on the things I needed to take a stance on. This experience of leading a mission trip was drasticly different than going on one. I am so thankful for Anette's leadership to help guide my leadership.
1.)Laying hands on two women's stomach's in Rwanda and learning both barren women now have been healed and are pregnant. The holy spirit is powerful and active. Our God truly is a healer. Annette encouraged the gift of healing that I have recieved.
Annette you have been a faithful servant, and a powerful minister of God's grace. I look forward to staying in touch and hearing all the ways God will provide in your life. I love you!
10.) from the first moment I stepped onto the leadership team at the Wesley, Annette always encouraged me to be "out of the box" with my ministry. This phrased has encouraged me constantly to be a minister, witness, and leader who relies on God's leading rather than the common lifestyles of pastors before me.
9.) Sometimes you just don't say anything. In africa, I had to gaurd the bathroom door for Annette because the door did not have a solid lock. It just wasn't Annette's day. Not only did she have explosive diahrea, the door seperating us had a large crack between the door and the floor allowing all sound to travel from the bathroom into the hallway. I flatly denied my ability to hear her for months!
8.) When we were in Malawi in 2007, Annette was leading a trip which was a team member. During one of the first nights of the trip, our team was having a time of worship together. Annette received a vision of the bible falling open in my hands, and the word of God being proclaimed. I was to be a minister of the good news on that trip. For years I had been called into ministry, but it was not until I received this vision where I fully stepped into the preaching gift which God had given me.
7.) Annette's thunder and lightning. Many of you have seen Annette's thunder and lightning flexing biceps. Let's just say thunder and lightning are no match for a braided, red-bearded man on a soccer field! Thanks Annette for letting me disprove the laws of physics, and even smiling as I did it.
6.) her counsel. God has blessed her with such an incredible amount of wisdom. Her ability to unpack my emotions in the moment and apply it through conversation towards my spiritual formation is simply life-giving.
5.)through working together, I have truly seen the beauty in the kingdom. For those of you that really know me, you know that I am a easy-going guy who loves to look at the big picture. for those of you that really know Annette, you know she is an incredible detail-oriented, administrative personality. Before I got to work with Annette, many times I resented people's personality's who would become so caught up in the small things that the big picture would often be missed. I learned sometimes the big picture wouldn't happen, if I didnt take the time to attend to the details. I saw how annette empowered and encouraged my personality even though it is distinctly different. Needless to say, this will forever change the way I handle a staff when I am in leadership positions in the future.
4.)Exorcism of demons....I do not want to get into a lengthy story here. In a beautiful moment in Malawi, I saw a demon cast to the foot of the cross. I saw the enemy defeated, and the Lord's provision, mercy, and unfailing love. I shared that moment with Annette, and now know beyond the shadow of a doubt that the gates of hell will not prevail against his church.
3.)Annette has been there for many of my sermons that I have given whether in the US of A or Africa. After every sermon I continually remember her affirmation of my calling. I don't remember it because she said it. I remember the affirmation because I know God used her her words as a deep sense of affirmation in my spirit. Looking back on some of the sermons I have given, I needed affirmation.
2.)Leading a trip to Rwanda with her this past summer. I could put about 10 meaningful experiences just from this trip alone. This was one of the hardest trips of my life happening during one of the hardest seasons of my life. We spent a month in a foriegn country doing a mission trip where we weren't always doing things. This trip I learned their was a huge difference in leading by action compared to being responsible for people and leading them. I had to make decisions constantly that people didn't like. I received flack for it, and as a huge people person, I crumbled under the stress. Annette repeatedly stepped up in my defense, encouraged my leadership, and helped me learn from my mistakes. She helped encourage me to be strong and take a stance on the things I needed to take a stance on. This experience of leading a mission trip was drasticly different than going on one. I am so thankful for Anette's leadership to help guide my leadership.
1.)Laying hands on two women's stomach's in Rwanda and learning both barren women now have been healed and are pregnant. The holy spirit is powerful and active. Our God truly is a healer. Annette encouraged the gift of healing that I have recieved.
Annette you have been a faithful servant, and a powerful minister of God's grace. I look forward to staying in touch and hearing all the ways God will provide in your life. I love you!
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Hallelujah You make ALL things new
Two weeks ago I traveled over 20 hours to Wilmore, Kentucky which is the home of Asbury Seminary. Asbury Seminary has a rich spiritual tradition which includes a documented revival in the 1970's(go google Asbury College Revival). I began to read how a routine chapel service turned into an incredible revival service because students began to share their testimonies and brokenness. This chapel service resulted in over a week's worth of solid 24/7 worship and confession. Reporters from various local news channels would enter the sanctuary and would be so overwhelmed by the Holy Spirit that they would soon fall from the floor. Classes were cancelled(how awesome is that), lives were changed. I continued to read. I read how a group of students who were a part of the revival at Asbury went and shared all that the Lord was doing to a small Moravian church. Sure enough, revial broke out at the Moravian church, and they experienced a revival with 24/7 worship for over 50 consecutive nights. There are many stories similar to this one where students in 1970 simply went out and shared how God moved at Asbury. The result was time and time again God stirring the hearts of His people in city after city and nation after nation. God continues to this day to use the revival at Asbury in 1970 as present day tool of encouragement towards God's tranformation.
Another revival story which I myself have experienced. In the town of Ruston, Louisiana, I remember when our youth group was touched by the Holy Spirit like never before. About 20 of 100 students involved in our youth group had just returned from One Way Church Camp in Happy, Texas(the town without a frown!). These 20 students, myself included, had felt something so real during the previous week. We were ready to bring the true real world, constant communion with his Holy Spirit, back to the other 80 students who were just having a normal summer. We had a service that Sunday night where students gave testimonies and passionately worshiped together. But, the most powerful moment was at the end of the service. Jennifer, the assistant youth minister, stood up and proclaimed, " The God at One Way camp, and the God who is here tonight in our midst are both the same. In the same way you see how your friends have encountered Jesus this past week, Jesus is longing to encounter you tonight." The altars were full, lives were changed, our youth group was forever changed.
These are the kinds of stories that get my heart pumping. It is the kind of stories that encourage me to begin to dream God size dreams. What do these stories have to do with the campus of Texas Tech? I have spent 5 years on the campus of Texas Tech, and this last semester was truly special. God sent workers into the harvest like faithful servants have been praying these last few years. God raised up an army that boldly spoke the good news to the depot district, to the Sub, in apartment complexs, or wherever his Spirit led. I saw God radically transform believers and unbelievers alike. God brought unity to the body of christ. I can continue, we can continue to go on and on about all the work God has done. Some of us have experienced God's movement ourselves. Some of us have simply seen and heard how God has done miracles on the campus. Regardless, we KNOW God is active and moving. We are a part of a movement that is bigger than ourselves. Well, the semester is over, and the majority of the students of Texas Tech and the body of believers have left the city of Lubbock to return home for the summer. As a person who works in a college ministry, it is an easy tendency to already look forward to the middle of August when everyone returns. I think about how we can keep the perverbial revival ball rolling so everyone will be excited about what God is still doing at Texas Tech. I realized that in many ways I was keeping God's revival boxed up in the city of Lubbock at the campus of Texas Tech. The story of the Asbury revival began with people sharing how God was moving in different cities. The futility of my thinking in how inconvienent the timing of God's movement was right before summer became apparent. What an advantage of being a college student on the campus of Texas Tech. God literally sent hundreds of believers into the mission field from the city of Lubbock the day that school ended. You have a charge to share with your friends, families, and strangers a God who you radically experienced in Lubbock, Texas this past semester. You have a charge to experience and share this same God to the cities of Dallas, Wellington, Abilene, Sugarland, Pine Cove. God is longing to pour himself out in miraculous ways in your cities. God is longing to move in Dallas like He is in Lubbock. Are you longing for God to move in your city or are you longing to return to Lubbock? Whether you are in Lubbock, Louisiana or Luchenbach, God is longing to unconditionally pour out his love on you and the people around you. Will you be faithful to His call? His purpose? His Heart?
The God you experienced at Midnight Worship, Underground, Paradigm, is the same God that is present in your life. In the same way God has transformed your life this semester, continue to allow God to transform all of you.
Another revival story which I myself have experienced. In the town of Ruston, Louisiana, I remember when our youth group was touched by the Holy Spirit like never before. About 20 of 100 students involved in our youth group had just returned from One Way Church Camp in Happy, Texas(the town without a frown!). These 20 students, myself included, had felt something so real during the previous week. We were ready to bring the true real world, constant communion with his Holy Spirit, back to the other 80 students who were just having a normal summer. We had a service that Sunday night where students gave testimonies and passionately worshiped together. But, the most powerful moment was at the end of the service. Jennifer, the assistant youth minister, stood up and proclaimed, " The God at One Way camp, and the God who is here tonight in our midst are both the same. In the same way you see how your friends have encountered Jesus this past week, Jesus is longing to encounter you tonight." The altars were full, lives were changed, our youth group was forever changed.
These are the kinds of stories that get my heart pumping. It is the kind of stories that encourage me to begin to dream God size dreams. What do these stories have to do with the campus of Texas Tech? I have spent 5 years on the campus of Texas Tech, and this last semester was truly special. God sent workers into the harvest like faithful servants have been praying these last few years. God raised up an army that boldly spoke the good news to the depot district, to the Sub, in apartment complexs, or wherever his Spirit led. I saw God radically transform believers and unbelievers alike. God brought unity to the body of christ. I can continue, we can continue to go on and on about all the work God has done. Some of us have experienced God's movement ourselves. Some of us have simply seen and heard how God has done miracles on the campus. Regardless, we KNOW God is active and moving. We are a part of a movement that is bigger than ourselves. Well, the semester is over, and the majority of the students of Texas Tech and the body of believers have left the city of Lubbock to return home for the summer. As a person who works in a college ministry, it is an easy tendency to already look forward to the middle of August when everyone returns. I think about how we can keep the perverbial revival ball rolling so everyone will be excited about what God is still doing at Texas Tech. I realized that in many ways I was keeping God's revival boxed up in the city of Lubbock at the campus of Texas Tech. The story of the Asbury revival began with people sharing how God was moving in different cities. The futility of my thinking in how inconvienent the timing of God's movement was right before summer became apparent. What an advantage of being a college student on the campus of Texas Tech. God literally sent hundreds of believers into the mission field from the city of Lubbock the day that school ended. You have a charge to share with your friends, families, and strangers a God who you radically experienced in Lubbock, Texas this past semester. You have a charge to experience and share this same God to the cities of Dallas, Wellington, Abilene, Sugarland, Pine Cove. God is longing to pour himself out in miraculous ways in your cities. God is longing to move in Dallas like He is in Lubbock. Are you longing for God to move in your city or are you longing to return to Lubbock? Whether you are in Lubbock, Louisiana or Luchenbach, God is longing to unconditionally pour out his love on you and the people around you. Will you be faithful to His call? His purpose? His Heart?
The God you experienced at Midnight Worship, Underground, Paradigm, is the same God that is present in your life. In the same way God has transformed your life this semester, continue to allow God to transform all of you.
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