I was praying that God would speak to me about India. With the holidays behind me, I was ready to start focusing on this opportunity and start preparing my heart for how God will use me those 2 weeks. Francis Chan is one of my favorite speakers and he had an amazing message at Passion 2011. It really helped get me a little focused missionally. Here are some notes from that talk.
Only God is sovereign.
“We are nothing but people/man that is nothing in comparison to a holy God who deserves all the glory.”
“We deserve your wrath, and you gave us your son.”
Philippians 1:27 – ”Let your manner of life be worthy of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”
“We must preach the Gospel to ourselves”
“Satan is climbing to the top to be like God. Jesus lived a life to be humbled to reconcile us back to God.”
“Live in a manner that is worthy and suitable so that we are a good picture of the Gospel”
“If I literally believe that people are in torment in hell, then can people look at your life and see that you are saved from hell”
“We cant’ call ourselves Christians and not live it. That doesn’t make sense anywhere outside of America.”
“American Christianity is the weird one. The Chinese and Indian experiences are far more in line with true Christianity than American consumer Christianity.”
What is tough is to look at your world now and identify what is wrong.
Does your life make sense in light of the gospel.
Is your life in balance with God’s word?
– notes from Ben Terry’s blog http://www.benterry.com/
Living a life that Matters 
“American Christianity is the weird one. The Chinese and Indian experiences are far more in line with true Christianity than American consumer Christianity.”
This comment does not sit well with me. I truly agree with the comment, there is more persecution in other countries than here in America, however this statement makes it sound like it is the people in America’s fault, 100% fault. I believe with the birth of TV and technology and the “fast paced” way America became in the 50’s, most of America did lose site of God and family values. That was almost 2 generations ago, however now many people are being born into an American culture and growing up in consumer Christianity. I am not trying to pass the blame, Im simply saying now its harder for the current generation to not only recognize they are a part of consumer Christianity, but rise above it, or in order to be like Jesus, humbly bow below…serving daily.
Lauri Barkman