Ignite that Passion

This past weekend I went to the Passion conference in a suburb of Washington D.C. It was a great trip with some challenging and encouraging messages. The music was great and we had some really good worship through song. I heard the like of Chris Tomlin, Charlie Hall, Matt Redman, Louie Giglio, and my boy Francis Chan. There are so many ways that I could go with this post that I'm gonna try to avoid chaos by giving 3 thoughts:

1. Got to see Francis Chan in person. I have heard this guy preach on podcasts but haven't heard him in person. I didn't think it was a high likelihood that I would get to see him preach in person since he is a pastor at a church in california which is several minutes from here. When we came in for the morning session I was hyped cause I knew it was his morning to preach. We got pretty good seats that were fairly close to the stage. Down a few rows and to the left there were some reserved seats that were empty. During worship I looked down there and I saw Francis' bald head glowing. I was hyped cause he was right there. If it had not been a serious time of worship I probably would have gone down and given the guy a hug. He was just standing there taking it all in, watching as thousands of college students were lifting there hands and lives in praise. He would stand for a few minutes and then pray. He stood back up and then a few minutes later prayed again. As he walked up to the stage I was anticipating this great feast that I knew he was about to serve up from God's Word. He spoke on a few verses in Galatians and talked about how we have the Holy Spirit in us if we are believers. He spoke about how we are not slaves but are considered sons of God. He was asking if we truly believe that that if we were standing before the throne of God and asked Him if He knew us that He would say, "Oh yea, I know Stephen Braswell. I love that guy. He is so great." What amazing thoughts to meditate on that are promises from scripture. Francis always stays true to the word. Get this dude's podcasts.

2. Women have an evident passion for Christ are extremely beautiful. Hear me out on this. I have seen some women on campus who are physically attractive. When these same girls open their mouths, garbage usually spews out and they instantly lose any attractiveness they once had. There were a couple of women who made an impact on me this weekend. First was Christy Nockels. She was singing with Christ Tomlin and sounded great. There was one song, Hosanna, where it was just her singing. Her voice was amazing and the lyrics were packed with truth such as: "break my heart for what breaks yours" and "show me how to love like you have loved me". Nockels was so passionate as she sang this song. You could tell that she was saying these words directly to God and these words were the cry of her heart. She was an attractive woman but when you saw the passion that was in her heart that clearly was for the Lord she became beautifully gorgeous. Sam was a woman from China that had her life dramatically turned around by the message of Jesus Christ. She was so passionate about Jesus. She knew that He loved her and she loved Him so much. Sam was full of joy and had the biggest smile on her face that no one was going to take it away because her Savior had put it there. Again, she was pretty but when she was given a mic and her passion poured out, her beauty was as great as her smile. Men look at outward appearances but God looks at the heart. These women's hearts were gorgeous and this made them more attractive than any make- up possibly could.

3. I love the spirit of Passion and what is stands for. Growing up in church I have been to many a conference and retreats. There are many good ones out there but they all seem to promoting themselves. They sell stuff with their name all over it likes things anywhere from t-shirts to pencils. Before every session someone usually gets up and promotes whatever camp or conference it is and might even promote a sponsor. That's cool and all but Passion had a unique and refreshing attitude. Louie made a point to get up and say they it isn't about Passion. It's about the glory of God and he said that Passion is just a small part of what God is doing. He said that Passion's purpose was not to come into a city and try to start something new. Passion wants to come into a city and find out what God is already doing and be apart of the work that is being done. Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman, and Charlie Hall could all be making promoting themselves and their own music at this event but rather you see a love and unitedness among them. You never hear a word about individuals but rather they are there to bring glory to God and it is truly all about Christ.

It was a great weekend and I highly recommend this conference to anyone. I would love to go back and am considering going to atlanta in a few weeks where Passion will be holding another weekend. I would really love to go to one of their worldwide events in Uganda or Hong Kong. Anyway, the weekend was nourishing and it definitely ignited my passion.