Dear Friends,
We’re going to have to postpone our cookout again. The weather channel is predicting thunderstorms this afternoon. Instead (since everything is frozen anyway) we will wait until the November 11th home football game and tailgait together. Sorry for the change in plans. Hope you have a good day anyway!
Sami
Dear Friends,
Hopefully by now you got our notice about the postponement of our South Lawn Cookout due to rain. We will be out tomorrow 1pm- 5pm on South Lawn with 360 burgers, 360 hotdogs, drinks, and tons of chocolate candy to give away. So come on down tomorrow and get fed. It’s our little way of sharing God’s love.
Solid Rock Café – New Series Starts Thursday!
This Thursday night (free food @ 6:30pm, program afterwards) we are beginning a new series where we examine what it means to be United Methodist, what are our beliefs and how did we get them, as well as looking at John Wesley and why he is so important as a founder of Methodism. This is a great time to come and bring your questions about who United Methodists are. This is particularly good even if you are just curious about how faith expressions differ among denominations. Feel free to join us, even if you’ve never been before. For more info call 842-2880.
Now For Sami’s Ramblings About Jesus
Tomorrow we will be on South Lawn handing out free food. Ever since I was a poor, starving college student I have always associated free food with grace. To me, that’s what grace is: nourishment that comes from unexpected places, given without price. It is so easy to get caught up in the rat race of having to create your own life, manage your own affairs, assure your own success. There is so much pressure in this world to perform, to produce, to prove. There is no freedom in a life like that.
But there is tremendous love and freedom in Christ, in God’s grace, in simply finding oneself fed on the way to the next thing on the agenda. Something about those surprise encounters with grace seem to change the agenda. The need to perform, to produce, and to prove, just doesn’t seem so important anymore. What becomes important is simply being in the Love that seeks and finds us. My heart yearns to be found that way. My heart yearns to be a part of God’s finding of others, who are lost little sheep like me. And somehow this makes it all the more real to me.
My very dear friend often says, “The process is love; don’t hinder the process.” And yet, I find myself getting in the way so many times. I am so thankful that God is bigger than me. And able to work around my stubborn headed willfulness. Because sometimes I even turn the gift of being surprised by grace into another agenda item full of performing, producing, and proving. Lord have mercy on me!
Well, He does. I guess what I most want to say in this rambling message is that God’s love is real. And if you need a simple, tangible reminder of that, one you don’t have to earn, one you don’t have to buy, one you can simply receive without any cost or price, then stop in and eat a hamburger. I will join you in remembering as I bite into mine, because I need those reminders too. Maybe together we can know that God’s love is really enough, and the gift of the life we have really is good.
Blessings,
Sami
Sami Wilson
Campus Minister/Director
WKU Wesley Foundation
United Methodist Campus Ministry
842-2880
www.wkywesley.org
Dear Friends,
It’s cold outside! If your folks are coming down for homecoming, now is the time to have them bring your heavy coat! But it is also a beautiful time as well. The leaves are changing and there is a crispness in the air. It’s all good; at least if you can stay warm.
This week is a different kind of week because of the Homecoming festivities.
We are partnering with the BCM (Baptist Campus Ministry) to build a float for the Homecoming Parade this Friday. You are invited to work on the float with us Monday – Thursday, 3pm till midnight at the WKU Ag Center whenever you can make it. Be sure to bring a pair of scissors!
HOMECOMING ACTIVITIES!!!!!
Tuesday Night—Movie Screening and Float Preparation!
We will meet at MMTH for the screening of our film that was entered in the Two Day Film Challenge 2006. For those of you who worked on this project it will be a fun time. For those who are just curious it should be awesome to see what your friends have been up to. Afterwards we will go to the Ag Center to work on the float.
Thursday Night—Meal and Program (Prayer of Dedication for Float) and Float Preparation!
We will meet at our usual time (6:30pm) for our meal at the Wesley Foundation. Then after a short devotional time and prayer we will head out to the Ag Center to work on the float together with BCM. Come and join us for free food and fun!
Friday Night—Parade, Street Fest, Big Red’s Roar!
The Homecoming Parade is at 5pm. We will meet at 4:15pm at the Wesley Foundation and go watch the parade together. You can call the Foundation at 842-2880 for more info on where we will gather to see the parade. After that we will enjoy the Big Red Street Fest (5:30pm Preston/South Lawn) and then go to Big Red’s Roar @ 8pm. Be sure and wear your Wesley Foundation T-shirts!
Saturday Afternoon—Tailgating and Game
We will be camping out in the Valley with a couple of vehicles on Friday night to reserve a space in front of Gilbert, McCormack, and Rodes for Saturday’s Tailgating. If you are interested in parking your car with us, let me know! On Saturday at 11am we will gather in front of the valley to begin cooking burgers and dogs. We will hand out as much as we’ve got until it’s gone, so stop by for some free food!!!! We will stay until about 3:30pm, and then we will pack up and go to the game!
Now for Sami’s Ramblings About Jesus:
Water. It’s important stuff. Since I have been pregnant this time around, I don’t go anywhere without my water bottle. And I find that things go a lot better with me when I am drinking water on a regular basis, which reminds me, I’m feeling kind of parched! If I don’t get enough water during the day, my legs and feet cramp up in the middle of the night. Or my big belly with a baby in it (and I do mean BIG!) will tighten up on me and make any kind of movement difficult. Or I will find myself out of breath and lightheaded, and I will have to lie down on my side until it passes. This is just an amazing time in my life when the extra physical demands upon my body MAKE (as in “He makes me to lie down in green pastures”) me aware of how much water is necessary to keeping everything going. Our flesh needs water. We cannot do without it. When we neglect that need, serious consequences take place. Our bodies start to kick us.
Likewise our spirits need water. We cannot go without the water of God’s Holy Spirit without serious consequences happening in our lives. And what affects our spiritual selves, affects everything else we are connected to. I love the promise that Jesus gives to the woman at the well:
If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water. . . . Those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life. John 4:10-14
She says, “Give me this water.” When was the last time you heard the promise of what Jesus offers and asked Him to give it, to be it for you? I think all too often we settle for the water of the flesh, and never even realize there is water of the Spirit, unquenchable water that gushes up from within us, sustaining us, equipping up, empowering us, uplifting us, and connecting us to God Almighty who loves us more than we could ever know. As I look at the way most of us live our lives (by doing a bunch of stuff to live up to impossible standards), I see so much cramping up of the spirit, difficultly of real movement, running out of breath, and incredible fatigue. This is not what Jesus promised when He offered us Himself!
I have been under so much conviction in the last few months to return to that place where God’s Spirit flows freely within me. I cannot experience it when I am bull-headedly trying to live up to some standard or unrealistic expectation. In fact, the Spirit doesn’t flow for me where I am trying to earn anything. It only flows from within me, in the way Jesus describes, when I purposefully expose myself to grace . . . God’s grace. That place where I am loved, and I don’t have to earn it, I don’t have to live up to it, I don’t have to manufacture it, I don’t have to manipulate myself or others to get it. It is that place where I must simply sit in it and ENJOY it, letting Jesus’s love fall all over me. And then the serving part isn’t such a struggle. It just naturally results. I want to share His love with others because I have been given His love to share. I know myself as loved. I know how to speak value into other lives because I know my own value, apart from what I do and totally connected with what He does for me. This is the water that never runs dry. It is the Water of His Holy Spirit.
My heart for you is that you would experience this artesian spring of Life welling up from within you too. That you would know it is okay to not be perfect, it is okay not to have it all planned out, it is okay to be human after all. It is okay to just . . . be . . . His.
You are His. The blessing comes in knowing it. Gosh you are so loved.
Peace on the journey from another pilgrim.
Sami
Sami Wilson
Campus Minister/Director
WKU Wesley Foundation
United Methodist Campus Ministry
842-2880 www.wkywesley.org sami@wkywesley.org
Dear Friends,
Amazing how quickly the weather can change! Hope you are finding a way to stay dry on these windy, rainy, fall days!
Here is what is going on this week:
Worship
Tonight at Soul Feast we will enjoy a Taize' worship service. This is a meditative prayer service that is filled with music, quiet reflections, scripture readings, and community prayers. We will meet @ DUC, room 340 at 6:30pm.
Weekly Meal & Program
Thursday for our Solid Rock Cafe' we will meet at the Wesley Foundation at 6:30pm for a meal and program. Since it was too cold last week to watch "Glory Road" on the lawn, we will watch it together in-doors at the Foundation after dinner. We will also think together about the ways we see the gospel represented in the themes presented by the movie. Just come and take a study break. We'll pull out the popcorn!
Now for Sami's Ramblings About Jesus:
It is the coolest thing that just happened to me. I'm sitting outside on the front porch of the Wesley Foundation, writing this e-letter, and one of my students walks by from one of my classes. We just had the coolest conversation about faith. It's not something we can talk about in class, in a secular university. But as he reminded me, it is something we can live. You and I are living words of Scripture. We can live in such a way that people who are in the world and of the world will look into our lives and see a different quality there than what they experience personally. It is true that when we "abide in Christ" that abiding has a tangilble expression in how we live our lives. Boy this excites me so much. I love seeing the power of the gospel really become good news for people.
When I lived in Florida, I was an associate pastor at a large church. I led a weekly ladies prayer group affectionately known as "the Naggy Ladies." (Someone else named us, but we liked the name and kept it). As one person put it, we nagged God until something happened. The thing that so inspired me about these dear friends is that we would leave our prayer time and each of them would go into their lives in the secular world. Some of them taught school, some worked in insurance agencies, some worked in very profit oriented businesses. Each of them had to live out the majority of their lives on, what I like to call, the front lines. What continued to amaze me in all the years we met and prayed together was how powerfully God used each of them as change agents in the circumstances they lived in. And our little prayer group began to get a reputation. People who would never step foot inside a church began to ask each of the ladies to pray for them or specific needs in their lives. God used each of them to bring the light of Christ to dark corners of the world. Indeed each of them were living Scriptures that shared the hope of Christ in tangible ways. What is even coolest of all is that they are still doing it today.
As I live and breathe and work as a campus minister at Western Kentucky University, I find myself in the same position my dear Florida ladies were and are in. As I meet students in all different places and circumstances on campus, I get to share the gospel on the front lines. Often not by preaching. But by trying to live in a Christ like way. I really do admire and envy students who are people of faith. You my friends are able to do this in ways that I can only imagine, because your whole lives are steeped in the front lines. I want to say to you, do not be discouraged. Just live the Christ light within you. You are here for a purpose. And you can be a vessel of good news poured out for others, even when you have to be careful about how you share it. Live it first. And know that by living it you are initiating that hunger and thirst within others to have that Christ light within them to. And they will not go long without asking why you are the way you are or how to get what you've got. This is what it means to be salt and light.
Know that Jesus loves you, and I do too.
Blessings,
Sami
Sami Wilson
Campus Minsiter/Director
WKU Wesley Foundation
United Methodist Campus Ministry
842-2880
Dear Friends,
I just got back from lunch with a dear friend of mine. She is one of those people who helps me connect to the world beyond myself. I hope that each of you have safe places in your life that help to transport you beyond the immediate here and now. I always find I am refreshed and ready to step back into my day to day life afterwards. Praise God for that!
Here is what’s going on this week:
Worship Tonight: Soul Feast!
We are doing something a little different tonight for worship. Last week we looked at what it means to take the love of Jesus beyond our own four walls. This week we are going to do that—literally! We are going to prayer walk campus. Meet in front of Fresh Food Company at 6:30pm. From there we will go two by two to pray for campus. It should be awesome!
Thursday’s Free Meal and Bible Study: Solid Rock Café!
We will be finishing up our movie series on the Lawn this Thursday. We will begin at 6:30pm with dinner at the Wesley Foundation. Then we will have a program that focuses on the God’s challenge to us to appreciate and celebrate diversity. The title of our discussion is “What Color Is Your Rainbow.” We will follow this with a showing of the movie “Glory Road” on the South Lawn at DUC (8:30pm). So bring lots of blankets and warm clothes and join us for a challenging and worthwhile evening.
Now for Sami’s Ramblings About Jesus:
This past Sunday I was blessed with the opportunity to bring the message at Broadway UMC. It was so awesome to see how a word of encouragement that God had laid on my heart met with what God was doing in lives of folks that I had not met yet. I love that about the way God works. He knows what needs are there, and uses ordinary people of faith to meet them, working in such a way that only He can take the credit. It reminds me of something that someone in Gulf Port, Mississippi said to our group who went to do Hurricane Relief last Spring: All we have to be is available; God does the rest.
We might think that leadership changes the world, or courage, or intelligence, or super-human strength, or money, or influence, or ___________________. But really, the thing that really, really changes the world is the gift of our available-ness, to God. What if our concept of being “available” was no longer associated with whether or not we were in the market for a love relationship and instead was related to how available we are to the Living God? What if the conversations surrounding availability went something like: “She’s totally available. Wonder how long it will be before her life becomes an incredible adventure? You know God doesn’t waste any time. Give Him and inch of availability and He turns it into a mile. Did you see how that guy really made himself available? Look at him now! It’s like he’s a totally different person. God has totally transformed everything in his life, and he is, I don’t know, radically on fire for this new thing God started! It’s like he could change the world or something!” Could you imagine how the world we live in would be a different place? How things would change if people, just believers even, were to radically release their own agendas and came to God as if their lives were a blank check that He could fill out any way He wanted? Wow! The implications stagger me!
Of course this comes from someone who struggles with availability everyday. Especially when I think I know what God has in mind, but I get so intent on doing whatever “it” is that I forget to fellowship with HIM. I do get glimpses though. Of when God does something really cool, and I get to be a part of it. Like when a message that was on my heart to give connects with a life, that I had no way of knowing would bring a positive impact the way it did. Only God could know that. Only God could connect dots that I can’t even see.
So be encouraged. Know that He is connecting dots in your life too. And live with me the challenge of being available. Maybe together the sum of our availability will be greater than our individual parts. And we will see God’s glory in a way we never imagined.
Blessings,
Sami
Sami Wilson
Campus Minister/Director
WKU Wesley Foundation
sami@wkywesley.org
Dear Friends,
I just got back from lunch with a dear friend of mine. She is one of those people who helps me connect to the world beyond myself. I hope that each of you have safe places in your life that help to transport you beyond the immediate here and now. I always find I am refreshed and ready to step back into my day to day life afterwards. Praise God for that!
Here is what’s going on this week:
Worship Tonight: Soul Feast!
We are doing something a little different tonight for worship. Last week we looked at what it means to take the love of Jesus beyond our own four walls. This week we are going to do that—literally! We are going to prayer walk campus. Meet in front of Fresh Food Company at 6:30pm. From there we will go two by two to pray for campus. It should be awesome!
Thursday’s Free Meal and Bible Study: Solid Rock Café!
We will be finishing up our movie series on the Lawn this Thursday. We will begin at 6:30pm with dinner at the Wesley Foundation. Then we will have a program that focuses on the God’s challenge to us to appreciate and celebrate diversity. The title of our discussion is “What Color Is Your Rainbow.” We will follow this with a showing of the movie “Glory Road” on the South Lawn at DUC (8:30pm). So bring lots of blankets and warm clothes and join us for a challenging and worthwhile evening.
Now for Sami’s Ramblings About Jesus:
This past Sunday I was blessed with the opportunity to bring the message at Broadway UMC. It was so awesome to see how a word of encouragement that God had laid on my heart met with what God was doing in lives of folks that I had not met yet. I love that about the way God works. He knows what needs are there, and uses ordinary people of faith to meet them, working in such a way that only He can take the credit. It reminds me of something that someone in Gulf Port, Mississippi said to our group who went to do Hurricane Relief last Spring: All we have to be is available; God does the rest.
We might think that leadership changes the world, or courage, or intelligence, or super-human strength, or money, or influence, or ___________________. But really, the thing that really, really changes the world is the gift of our available-ness, to God. What if our concept of being “available” was no longer associated with whether or not we were in the market for a love relationship and instead was related to how available we are to the Living God? What if the conversations surrounding availability went something like: “She’s totally available. Wonder how long it will be before her life becomes an incredible adventure? You know God doesn’t waste any time. Give Him and inch of availability and He turns it into a mile. Did you see how that guy really made himself available? Look at him now! It’s like he’s a totally different person. God has totally transformed everything in his life, and he is, I don’t know, radically on fire for this new thing God started! It’s like he could change the world or something!” Could you imagine how the world we live in would be a different place? How things would change if people, just believers even, were to radically release their own agendas and came to God as if their lives were a blank check that He could fill out any way He wanted? Wow! The implications stagger me!
Of course this comes from someone who struggles with availability everyday. Especially when I think I know what God has in mind, but I get so intent on doing whatever “it” is that I forget to fellowship with HIM. I do get glimpses though. Of when God does something really cool, and I get to be a part of it. Like when a message that was on my heart to give connects with a life, that I had no way of knowing would bring a positive impact the way it did. Only God could know that. Only God could connect dots that I can’t even see.
So be encouraged. Know that He is connecting dots in your life too. And live with me the challenge of being available. Maybe together the sum of our availability will be greater than our individual parts. And we will see God’s glory in a way we never imagined.
Blessings,
Sami
Sami Wilson
Campus Minister/Director
WKU Wesley Foundation
sami@wkywesley.org
Dear Friends,
Gosh, it’s gorgeous outside! Hope you’ve gotten to enjoy it. As I was walking up the hill from lunch I saw a young woman sitting on the side of the wall drawing. She was looking at butterflies playing in the flowers. How beautiful is that!? Sometimes we just have to sit and watch the butterflies. I hope your day was filled with a special moment like this.
Tonight at Soul Feast we will be joined by Broadway UMC’s praise and worship team. They have a really hip, acoustical sound. They are awesome, and I know you will enjoy them. So meet at 6:30pm in room 340, DUC. The message tonight centers on the last part of our mission statement: Taking the Love of Jesus Beyond Our Own Four Walls. I believe the heart of Christ longs for those who most need His love, and He wants us, needs us, to share that love. Come find out how you are an important part of this mission.
Since it’s fall break, we will not meet this Thursday.
Now for Sami’s Ramblings About Jesus:
As I have spent time with the Lord in my quiet times, I have begun to get a sense of God’s presence in a way that has been inaccessible before. Or rather, spending time with Jesus, just for Jesus’s sake, not to study up on my next message or lesson, or because I am desperate, has opened in me an awareness of who He is in my life, rather than constantly dwelling on who I need Him to be. One of my favorite passages of scripture comes from Ephesians, where Paul explains that the power of God that raised Christ from the dead is at work in us and through us (1:17-22). But what caught my eye this morning was the following:
I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, . . . Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. Ephesians 3:16, 20-21
The thing that fell all over me with a freshness that really opened my eyes was this sense of God’s power strengthening us in our inner person. That God cares so deeply for us and answers the questions we live by giving us strength, and possibility. I love that I haven’t even begun to imagine what God can or even desires to accomplish in my life and the lives of those around me. I love that God is ready at any moment to lift the veil of unknowing and reveal that thing that we cannot even dream about, because our minds cannot conceive of that kind of wonderful.
I guess what I have been suffering from was a sense that my God was too small. Gosh! (favorite word of the day, in honor of Napoleon Dynamite) who is this God who can part the Red sea!? Who is this God who can bring manna from heaven!? Who is this God who can defeat the entire nation of the Midianites with an army of 300!? Who is this God who can provide great favor to Nehemiah in a foreign king’s court so that he not only returns to rebuild Jerusalem’s walls, but the king sends the supplies to do it!? Who is this God who continues to speak life into our lives, with the power of the resurrected Christ!?
The real question I have to ask myself is, “who have I given Him a chance to be?” It’s so easy to look at the storm and never see the Man walking on water, much less walk on water myself.
So, I invite you to accept this challenge with me: Give God a chance to surprise you, to speak into your life and your circumstances with the power to raise the dead, with the power to “accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine.” To Him be glory!
Blessings,
Sami
Dear Friends,
I just wanted to let you know of this exciting event that will be happening soon – like October 20th! Having Christian students from various organizations get together and just fellowship has been a burden on my heart since I got to Western. We have done it in small ways, but I believe God is opening doors for us to really connect and celebrate what, or WHO rather, that we all have in common . . . Jesus!
Here is the info from Kaelin:
Hello Everyone
Just wanted to say Praise God for all that he is doing and is going to do and has done on Western's Campus! My name is Kaelin Vernon and I am working along side of you for our Father and Lord Jesus Christ ! God has placed it on my heart to bring unity to our campus so that the world would see a unified body in Christ and not a divided one. I have spent many months praying over Jesus words on John 17 and feel that we have done a poor job of showing Jesus through Unity here on earth! Last spring with the help of a few students we started a Unity council on Monday mornings at 9:00am in Fresh Food in DUC. In this time we have prayed together we have poored our hearts out to one another and we have planned to do things together during the semester.
We had a successful spring semester with Water Wars but now we are in the Fall and our event this semester is an All Campus Ministry Campout. Your student leaders who have been coming to the meeting on Mondays have gotten their sign up sheets to bring back to your groups so that we can get a head count and know how much food and other arrangements to plan for! The campout is Friday October 20th we will meet at 4:00pm in front of Diddle arena and go to a farm here in Bowling Green. This will be an over night event so sleeping bags are required anything else that can be donated to helpout will be appreciatted. The cost of this campout is a whopping $5.00 per person and their name and money is due October 16th at the Unity council meeting at 9:00am. If some of you do not have a sign up sheet or need more information please call me or email me. We will have lots of fun stuff planned for the evening also dinner and breakfast will be provided. This event will end Sat. morning at 9:00am. Please encourage your students to come and get to know each other!
The Habitat chapter on campus is building a home here in town and our students thought it would be a great idea to help out more in our community. So we are planning a All Campus Ministry Habitat day in November where we can all get together and help build a house and tear down some spiritual walls.(Acts 17:24)
Again I want to thank you to those of you who have sent your student leaders to the Unity council, I have had an awesome time getting to know them and it strengthens my faith when we are about our Father's business.
If you have any questions or would like to talk and pray together please call me or email me, what ever way to get in touch with me please do so.
I love you all and am very Thankful for your work
Grace and Peace
Kaelin Vernon
Merge Ministries
270-535-1232
Dear Friends,
Hope your week is going well and you are getting a chance to enjoy this wonderful fall weather!
Solid Rock Café Tonight:
Tonight we are being hosted by St. James UMC (United Methodist Church) for dinner. We will meet at the Wesley Foundation at 6pm and travel from there to St. James (which is located on Fairview Ave.).
If you would like to meet us there instead (about 6:30), here are directions:
Coming from campus, turn right on the 31-W Bypass. Stay on this road until you reach Fairview Avenue. (It will be right past the Gatti-Land, Dollar Tree shopping center.)
Turn right on Fairview Avenue. St. James UMC will be on the left.
Afterwards we will return to campus to watch our Movie on the Lawn which is “RV” starring Robin Williams.
Tailgating this weekend!
Meet us on the lawn in front of the valley (Rodes, McCormack, Gilbert) this Saturday for tailgating 3pm-6pm. We will have free food and generally have a great time hanging out!
Now for Sami’s Ramblings About Jesus:
The theme of our worship time on Tuesday night was “Discovering Who We are in Christ.” I had chosen a particular verse to focus on as a reminder that we are vessels filled with God’s power. It comes from 2 Corinthians 4:7: “But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us.” As people who belong to Christ, it is important to remember that we are vessels of something powerful, wonderful, beautiful, so beyond ourselves. But what has lingered with me since Tuesday night, the thing that has not let me rest, is the next part of the scripture. It goes on to say this:
We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may be made visible in our mortal flesh. 2 Corinthians 4:8-12
This is one of those bad news/good news things. When we follow Christ, we can expect to be afflicted, perplexed, persecuted, and struck down. Yeah, I know. That sucks. It would be nice if we could read the whole “but we this treasure in clay jars” part and just stop there. But there is a reason that that particular sentence is followed by the ones which come after it. It’s just part of life. Life doesn’t stop being life just because we stop belonging to the world and instead belong to Christ. Yet acknowledging this truth, also seems to take its power over us away. Especially when we consider the difference Christ does make in our experience of the “this sucks” parts of life.
The promise is that when we are afflicted, that affliction cannot crush us. It will push us just so far, and then the presence of Christ pushes it back. When we are perplexed, we may not know the answers, but we cannot be driven to despair by the not knowing. It is the factor that makes our faith stronger (you know, the whole walk by faith and not by sight thing). And when we stand in faith, Jesus is able to work in ways we cannot imagine. We may be persecuted, but we are never forsaken. Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ that is in Christ Jesus. And even if our very best friend in the whole world was to suddenly leave, Jesus will never leave us nor forsake us. Sure we can be struck down, but we can always get up again, because the resurrection power of Christ picks us up, every time. So no, we cannot be destroyed. Jesus always has the last and best word. Nothing and no one who belongs to the world can promise any of those things. The world can just promise the affliction, perplexion, persecution, struck down part.
It is one thing to read these promises. It is another thing to accept them. It is one thing to accept these promises as fundamentally true. Another thing to believe in them. And it is one thing to believe in them, and quite something else to live them. How do we go from that place of just reading words off the page to really digging deep and living them into real life? The truth of my own life is that I forgot. I used to know what it meant to live them. And then I got busy and went to something more along the lines of accepting them as true, maybe believing, but not really living them. And God is calling me back again to the place of digging deep.
Here’s the challenge. Can we dig deep into the presence of Christ? He is with us always. And the way we know the power of His presence, not just the fact of His presence, is to spend TIME with Him, allowing Him to speak to us, sitting in the realization of His promises, and then mentally applying them to all those situations that make us feel afflicted, perplexed, persecuted, and struck down. The question we must ask ourselves is this: Have I given Jesus any room in my life to show me that He is greater than the challenges I face?
Know that I am on the journey with you. But more importantly, Jesus is there too.
Blessings,
Sami
Dear Friends,
Just wanted to let you know we have a very special service planned tonight. Worship will begin in room 340 at DUC at 6:30 pm.
Our theme tonight is on discovering who we are in Christ. Maybe you haven’t ever “accepted Jesus into your heart” and you’re curious about why anyone would want to. Maybe you’ve been a Christian a while and are feeling burnt out by the whole faith thing, and you really need to be refreshed and reminded of the gifts that come with belonging to Him. It never ceases to amaze me how easy it is to forget to find my identity in Him. So come and join us for an evening of worship and refreshement.
This is why we call it Soul Feast,it really does feed the soul!
Blessings,
Sami
Sami Wilson
Campus Minister/Director
WKU Wesley Foundation
Methodist Campus Ministry
842-2880, sami.wilson@wku.edu
www.wkywesley.org
Dear Friends,
It’s been a beautiful day! Hope you have had a chance to enjoy the sunshine!
Here’s our activities this week:
Soul Feast:
Woship tonight @ DUC, room 340 at 6:30pm. We will begin to gather around 6pm. Tonight we are being led in worship by Lee Young from State St. UMC. We will be doing a Taize’ worship service. This is a prayer service filled with meditative singing, community prayers, and a silent meditation on the names of God. This is in preparation for next week when we will focus on what it means to discover who we are in Christ. First we have to understand who Christ is, who God is. Please join us!
Solid Rock Café:
Free Meal and Bible Study on Thursday, 6pm @ Wesley Foundation. Our program will focus on what does it mean for us to have a second chance. This is the theme we are looking at from the movie “Walk the Line” which tells the life story of Johnny Cash. Afterwards (8:30 PM) join us on DUC South Lawn for a showing of “Walk the Line.” Remember to bring your own blanket!
Now for Sami’s Ramblings About Jesus:
Yesterday I got to go to my ladies prayer group at the local church I attend. As I spent time in prayer I began to get a sense that God was asking me to look at different circumstances in my life differently. While on the one hand it was a frustrating thing, on the other it really gave me a sense of freedom. As I prayed for different circumstances, I began to sense that God was using those circumstances as a tool in His hand to bring forth a quality in my life that I haven’t been able to produce on my own. I began to also get a sense that He really is in control of my circumstances, that He is actively engaged, and that He is not nearly as freaked out about stuff that comes up as I am. It was almost as if the Holy Spirit was saying to my own spirit (in that wordless way that just kind of happens, call it a nudge I guess): “Don’t fret about this, the conclusion is known. You just trust that my purposes in these circumstances are bigger than the obvious ones you see. I am working ALL things for good, and there is some good I am producing in this for you too.”
Here is a scripture that rings so true: “I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ” (Phillipians 1:6). And also this one: “…it is God who is at work in you, enabling you to both will and to work for his good pleasure” (Phillipians 2:13). And then this one: “To this end we always pray for you, asking that our God will make you worthy of his call and will fulfill by his power every good resolve and work of faith, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
I want you to get a hold of this. (Believe me, I’m tying a knot and holding on myself!) It is God who is working to produce something glorious in us and through us that we cannot even see yet. Think of those people you admire, who have that Christ-like quality of surety, a strength that cannot be tempered or robbed, a joy and peace that exists in the midst of turmoil, a solidity that no one and nothing can destroy. Wow! That is what God is doing in us! And often-times He uses things we don’t understand to produce the qualities of character that the world tries to copy but ultimately cannot comprehend.
So hang in there with Him. He is doing a good work! And you are the work He is most proud of, especially as He sees the face of His beloved Son reflected in character He is developing within your life. This is what it means to grow in grace. Grow boldly my friends!
Blessings,
Sami
Dear Friends,
Hope you are all staying dry today. The rain is so . . . . wet! I knew I should have worn my boots instead of tennis shoes, but I opted for cute outfit instead of dry feet. Oh well. Live and learn.
This is what’s on the schedule this week:
Soul Feast
Worship:
Tonight @ DUC (Tuesday). We will meet in room 308, since 340 is occupied. We’ll start at 6:30pm, but feel free to come and hang out at 6pm. Faith UMC is coming to lead worship this week. Our message will center around what it means to “Create a Safe Place for Students to Meet Jesus.” This is part of our mission statement. So come and find out more about who we are and why we do what we do!
Solid Rock Café
Free Meal and Bible Study:
Thursday @ Wesley Foundation. We’ll begin gathering at 6pm and then eat and have our program. This week we are looking at how friendship shapes our lives, especially friends who have the common bond of faith. Then we’ll travel down the hill and set up our Movie on the Lawn @ DUC south lawn. We will be showing “Napoleon Dynamite” at 8:30. Bring a friend!
Now for Sami’s Ramblings About Jesus:
I’ve been thinking lately about what I want to say to those brave souls who took me for University Experience. (Yay! I’m teaching two classes this semester!) I want to tell them to live their lives fully, to “be all that they can be,” to discover what they are most passionate about and then do it with all their heart. As freshmen, it’s a good time to hear that message, because so much of their college careers are still before them. They can shape their time here into anything they want it to be.
But I think about this message for all of us, whether we are freshmen in our first semester of college or not. It is so important. Because each of us can make a difference. Even if we’ve never lived passionately before, we can do it now. We can invest ourselves in excellence. We can give the best of ourselves to this life and live it well.
I love that scripture that says, “Render service with enthusiasm, as to the Lord and not to men and women” (Ephesians 6:7). If I were to make a gift of my life, I would want it to be a life that was lived with lots of heart. I would want it to resemble the same single-hearted devotion and expression and enthusiasm for living that we usually associate with famous animal actors, like Lassy, Flipper, Black Beauty, Sea Biscuit, and Old Yeller. I believe Jesus did that. He lived His passion. And His passion was people. And He expressed His passion for us in a way that defies all human (I want to hang on to life at all costs) reason: He gave up His life so that in His death we could see the love of God that sacrifices everything to save us. His passion became the Passion, displayed on a cross. If He did that for me, couldn’t I do something with excellence, for Him?
I’ve determined that the only things we can really make a difference in are those that we are passionate about. Where is your passion? Are you living in some way connected to it? Are giving your all to it? It may not be what you do all the time, but hopefully in some part of your life you feel fully alive. Hopefully you sense that you can express something of yourself to the world you live in with enthusiasm. And hopefully you can render this living life to its fullest as a gift to God who has already given you His everything already. Just think of it this way, that thing you are passionate about is really God’s way of doing something awesome in the world. And He chooses to do it through you: “I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship” (Romans 12:1).
Blessings,
Sami
Dear Friends,
Just wanted to remind you of volleyball on Monday nights at Christ UMC on Cave Mill Road at 8pm. Call 842-2880 if you need a ride. Or meet at the Wesley Foundation @ 7:45pm!
Blessings,
Sami
