From Kara: The Lord continues to draw my heart close to his with a variety of speakers and teachers that I have been blessed to listen to. I pray many of the things I'm hearing and chewing on will transfer to the prayer room as well. This past week we had a variety of speakers including the following that were all powerful, many of which focused on the transforming power of the Lord. Here is a sampling of people and events we experienced:
-Peter Loth was a Jewish WWII Holocaust survivor that experienced a myriad of atrocities(both during and after the war) and whose family lineage can be found in the Holocaust museum in Washington DC. He has spoken internationally and has authored "Peace by Piece," his own biography and journey of forgiveness towards the Nazi regime. The underlying message he sought to bring was forgiving those who have hurt us as Jesus has (whether "small" or "large" offenses). It was a powerful testimony and one I am blessed to have listened to in person.
-Tom Cole and his wife are founders of the inner healing ministry "Pure Heart," a happily required course for IHOP interns. He came to talk about the course and gave us a summary of his own testimony, which included experiencing emotional distance/disconnection from his biological father, two accounts of sexual abuse he sustained by men he knew when he was a child, struggling with homosexuality, living as an openly homosexual man for many years, experiencing the love that Jesus had for him through a believing woman he worked with, who also invited him to church and was soon saved. This was a powerful testimony of how the Lord can use us as his tangible hands and feet to lead others to truly know him.
These were two speakers that stood out. IHOP also hosted a youth focused conference this past weekend that we helped out at, "Fascinate." This conference called youth around the nation to a devoted and consecrated life and calling out strongholds that distract, affect time management, those things that can subtly make long roots in one's heart (including adults): media and social networking sites, which was the theme during the section I attended. The call was to help increase a fascination with Jesus and increase a long lasting devotion/intimacy with him. Oh yeah! And we were able to have a time to be prophesied over(encouragement/edification/strengthening)by more vetran staff students of IHOP.
As you may have noticed, this is all a bit random and scattered. In a way, this is how my brain feels right now...but in a positive way. There is so much that I want to sit, process, and chew on. These themes of forgiveness, inner healing, and consecration continue to roll around in my skull. (Even more so, we are being BLOWN AWAY by a teaching/study on Revelation by Corey Stark--leader of the "Intro to IHOP" section of IHOP. Thesis: Revelation is all about Jesus. Wow! Good, good stuff). I desire to take these things, among others, to the prayer room and often times I have a hard time pulling from the Rolodex of teachings/themes to meditate and contemplate. (And I realize now that this blog may be more for my processing rather than for your ease of reading. Forgive me for that!)
And then, what I really just need to do is quiet my mind and put the Rolodex away and be as Mary, listening to her Rabbi; sitting and gazing at Jesus (Luke 10:40-42). Because, really, it's all about him. Lord help me to make this a reality. Even when I'm scattered, random and distracted, help me to gaze. Because as our teachers eloquently stated, when we behold Jesus we become like Jesus. Amen.
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