Friends, Worship and Hope...

Today was the first day of RAVE, the summer youth program that's held at the church I attend in Calcutta. My friends from the Youth Alive team of my church in Hyderabad are one of the special ministry teams for this event. So awesome to see what God is doing in these kids lives, some of whom I prayed over in special prayer session all those years ago. And my pastors, Younus dada and Milton anna, two very special guys who have a God-given passion to speak the name of Jesus into the lives of youngsters.

We had an amazing session of worship today. The fact that you can go before such an amazing and HUGE God, just as you are with all your faults and shortcomings, and be made new again in His presence, is truly AWE-INSPIRING!

Got to wondering, along the course of the evening, how we as young people today can be so fickle at times. I mean there are these people who've never given me a second glance all these weeks as i went into church and came out of church, but were jumping up and down and shaking my hand and introducing themselves today because I was from the "hyderabad team". LOL! Little do they know and I didn't have the heart to tell them I was from Calcutta and have been attending this church for a year now! I hope I never do that to anyone in the future and if I've done that in the past, my sincerest apologies. Told one of the girls that I was just gonna bask in their limelight and get some of the star glitter to rub off on me!

Was also thinking how amazing it is to have friends around who know ME. I mean not the tough "I'm a really wicked person, don't mess with me" exterior that I portray to the world and some of my friends here, but the hungry little girl who really loves Jesus at the heart of hearts and longs to worship Him freely. Had this mental picture of how these times of praise and worship are like my therapy session with God where I just lie back on the couch and tell Him about what's going on in my life and then He speaks back into my life. Truly liberating it is.

There are so many things in my life I want to change. I really do. I'm tired of being two people. I really want to get back to the phase in life where my heart was not dry but I was so in touch with what God wanted for my life.

The message tonight was about Hope. A recurring theme was the story of Lazarus being raised from the dead. A thought struck me: Jesus allowed Lazarus to be in the tomb for 4 days. He knew how dead he was. And He wept. Because even though an amazing miracle was about to happen, Jesus' friend was dead and that hurt Him, saddened Him. So He wept. How many times have I brought God so much grief in my ways that I have caused Him to weep? But he brought Lazarus back to life. He told him to get up and come out. He set him free and brought him back from the very grave in which his body had festered for 4 days.

He is the same Jesus who can do that in me even today.