Hello Friends! As seems to be typical with most novice bloggers I have fallen behind! I don't even know what week I am writing about so I have just titled this post Todd White week, because he was our speaker for the week last week and my oh my was I blown away by all that he had to share with us. If you haven't heard of Todd White before I highly recommend you look up some of his teaching or evangelism videos on YouTube. We had only heard rumours of him from Jody's brother and wife so we didn't totally know what to expect.
Todd is a man filled with the power and love of the good news of Jesus Christ and it seems to exude from every part of his being when he speaks or even walks into a room. A little summation of his testimony: Todd grew up in a lot of dysfunction, was in a bad relationship, had a child, and was addicted to drugs and alcohol. He had just gotten into a fight with his girlfriend and left the house with suicidal thoughts ready to give up on life all together. He ended up flipping open a phone book and a list of churches was the first page to open and he decided to call one of the churches in a desperate attempt to search for meaning in life one last time. He ended up getting saved when the pastor reached out to him and discipled him even in his addiction and dysfunction. At first his life didn't change and he continued to struggle with sin, even though his desires changed and he now started to feel conviction for his wrong choices. With the help of his pastor he realized that he needed further help in the area of his addiction and ended up going to Teen Challenge. There he had a radical encounter with Jesus where he was told in a dream that he would never struggle with addiction again and that he was to go home to his family and devote his life to serving God. Todd has never looked back and lives his life in a way that is completely devoted to serving God, loving others, and sharing the Good News with a powerful ministry of love and healing.
Todd is definitely a captivating speaker, but as soon as we heard that he had struggled with addiction and gone to Teen Challenge, our ears really perked up! The intensity of love and freedom that this man walks in is so encouraging and got both Jody and I fired up to return to our first love, Jesus! Here are some of the main points that stuck with me through Todd's teaching.
1. "I'm free from me which makes me free from you. I owe you nothing but a debt of love." Todd walks in an incredible freedom from the fear of man (christianese for "he doesn't care what anyone thinks of him"). He lives to please and serve God and he knows that that has the potential to offend people because the bible says it will. The amazing thing about him though, is the intense love that he walks in. He is a big burly guy with long dreadlocks- honestly, he looks a bit scary! But you can literally see the love of God in his eyes when he talks. Jody and I have both caught a vision for what it means to love people with the fierce and awesome love of Jesus and living only for the approval of God, not of other people.
2. Identity!!! Even though Todd is well known as an evangelist, he told us that he doesn't really like to talk about evangelism much because that will naturally flow from a heart that know's who his heavenly father is. I was reminded how essential it is to be rooted and grounded in our knowledge of the love of God- to know that we are chosen, adopted, beloved, children of the King of Kings, redeemed, forgiven, holy, blameless in his sight- and all of this because of the blood of Jesus, not because of any good that I have done! I realized that I didin't really believe a lot of these things. If I really thought about it I believed that God was just tolerating me but that I was never quite measuring up. I now know and stand on the truth that God loves me SO much and that he has chosen and adopted me into his family, not based on my own merit, but just because he wants to pour his love out on me and have an intimate relationship with me. It is out of this amazing revelation of God's great love that I can serve God and pour his love out on others with ease and free from wanting to receive anything back because I know where the love comes from in the first place.
3. "I didn't learn God through going after the miraculous, I learned God through going after him every day in the midst of great persecution." -Todd White
Todd shared many amazing testimonies with us during his teaching time. He fearlessly shares the love of God with everyone he comes into contact with. This includes at the grocery strore, at the gym, at family reunions, you name it, the guy is just one ball of muscles and dreads exuding love for Jesus. He has a powerful healing ministry and will often ask people if he can pray for physical healing in their bodies and sees miracles all the time. Of course in this sort of bold evangelism he also encounters a lot of opposition and people who don't want anything to do with him. But as he kept reminding us, "I'm free from me so I"m free from you," meaning he doesn't mind if people mock or ridicule him because he knows the love of his father and lives to please him alone.
Tomorrow I will add an extra post telling some stories of how God moved when we hit the streets with our new freedom and boldness in the Lord! Friends, let's let God define our identity so we can be free from ourselves, free from others, and free to love and serve God in boldness and power! Jesus loves you SO much!!!
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