Fully Restored
Blessed to call Passion City Church home. It still doesn't feel real that PCC is the place I get to say I go to church. I've been around the Passion movement pretty much my entire Christian life. As a high school student Louie Giglio was the "speaker" at Big Stuf (church camp) each summer, when I became a senior in high school and early college I use to attend 7|22. A college Bible study he taught at NorthPoint Church. Not long after that I started attending Passion Conference, and recently I've had the joy of serving at Passion 2013 and 2015. Like many others the music and messages that have come from Passion/268 Generation/Six Steps Records have blessed my heart.
So it's crazy taking in calling PCC home. When people ask how long I've been part of Passion it's a difficult question to answer sometimes. Love this place and it's people and all that Passion is doing, and I know I've only dipped my toe in what God wants to do through this House--and my small part in it.
One of things that I love about Passion is our commitment to the Scriptures. To not only preach it, but raise peoples Biblical literacy--which I am super passionate about. It breaks my heart and it quite shocking the number of people who profess to be believers and followers of Jesus but never read their Bibles. It doesn't makes sense to me! You don't try and drive somewhere you've never been without some sort of map/directions. How do we expect to navigate this Christian walk without studying/knowing and obeying the Word of God?
That said, I love that Passion is committed to teaching and preaching the WHOLE of Scripture and asking us to role up our sleeves and dig in ourselves. No one can live on one meal a week, and we shouldn't expect our hearts, minds, and souls to make it on only an 1hr 1/2 of preaching each week. So we are doing 33-days of calling and influence as House.
Today was the first day and I am already blown away by the faithfulness of the Lord. I could see how if you didn't know that the Bible is not in chronological order that this might confuse some people. But if you look ahead in Daniel 1:1-2 then what I am about to share in Ezra 1:7-11 will make much more sense.
"During the third year of King Jehoiakim’s reign in Judah, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. The Lord gave him victory over King Jehoiakim of Judah and permitted him to take some of the sacred objects from the Temple of God. So Nebuchadnezzar took them back to the land of Babylonia and placed them in the treasure-house of his god."- Daniel 1:1-2
Then we look back at Ezra 1:7-11...
"King Cyrus himself brought out the articles that King Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the Lord’s Temple in Jerusalem and had placed in the temple of his own gods. Cyrus directed Mithredath, the treasurer of Persia, to count these items and present them to Sheshbazzar, the leader of the exiles returning to Judah. This is a list of the items that were returned:
So it's crazy taking in calling PCC home. When people ask how long I've been part of Passion it's a difficult question to answer sometimes. Love this place and it's people and all that Passion is doing, and I know I've only dipped my toe in what God wants to do through this House--and my small part in it.
One of things that I love about Passion is our commitment to the Scriptures. To not only preach it, but raise peoples Biblical literacy--which I am super passionate about. It breaks my heart and it quite shocking the number of people who profess to be believers and followers of Jesus but never read their Bibles. It doesn't makes sense to me! You don't try and drive somewhere you've never been without some sort of map/directions. How do we expect to navigate this Christian walk without studying/knowing and obeying the Word of God?
That said, I love that Passion is committed to teaching and preaching the WHOLE of Scripture and asking us to role up our sleeves and dig in ourselves. No one can live on one meal a week, and we shouldn't expect our hearts, minds, and souls to make it on only an 1hr 1/2 of preaching each week. So we are doing 33-days of calling and influence as House.
Today was the first day and I am already blown away by the faithfulness of the Lord. I could see how if you didn't know that the Bible is not in chronological order that this might confuse some people. But if you look ahead in Daniel 1:1-2 then what I am about to share in Ezra 1:7-11 will make much more sense.
"During the third year of King Jehoiakim’s reign in Judah, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. The Lord gave him victory over King Jehoiakim of Judah and permitted him to take some of the sacred objects from the Temple of God. So Nebuchadnezzar took them back to the land of Babylonia and placed them in the treasure-house of his god."- Daniel 1:1-2
Then we look back at Ezra 1:7-11...
"King Cyrus himself brought out the articles that King Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the Lord’s Temple in Jerusalem and had placed in the temple of his own gods. Cyrus directed Mithredath, the treasurer of Persia, to count these items and present them to Sheshbazzar, the leader of the exiles returning to Judah. This is a list of the items that were returned:
| gold basins | 30 |
| silver basins | 1,000 |
| silver incense burners | 29 |
| gold bowls | 30 |
| silver bowls | 410 |
| other items | 1,000 |
In
all, there were 5,400 articles of gold and silver. Sheshbazzar brought
all of these along when the exiles went from Babylon to Jerusalem."- Ezra 1:7-11
Anyone else jumping up and down besides me? The Bible teacher in me is trying very much to not write a 10-page paper on why this is so exciting. But trust me, if you go do some more digging around you'll see this beautiful picture that God does what he says--not only in consequences to sin, but in grace and restoration.
Why should this make us excited?! King Nebuchadnezzar took, King Cyrus returned
If there is one thing this shouts it is the faithfulness of our God to redeem and restore. The LORD had restored what was taken--down to the last detail. We have a God who is into the details, and not one detail of our lives is lost on him. He doesn't miss one single thing. We have a God who FULLY and so FAITHFULLY RESTORES!!!
"Behold, I am making all things new."- Rev. 21:5
"God had made everything beautiful for its own time."- Ecc. 3:11
Heaven must receive him until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets.- Acts 3:21
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