Last summer I had a chance to go to a Toby Mac concert. I\u2019m a lover of christian music and so I couldn\u2019t wait! I enlisted my two daughters to go with me and, since we all grew up listening to christian music, they were in.<\/p>
It was a little different than what I expected. I was the minority being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, but listening to Toby Mac was incredible.<\/p>
In the middle of the concert, Toby got a break and they brought in a preacher. He was all about saving the children in Ethiopia. He had been there and could verify the funds were actually going to the children. After his speech, he asked for donations. He used this phrase: \u201cWe\u2019re not collecting money, we\u2019re collecting people.\u201d<\/p>
This phrase stuck with me. Oh I loved the concert. We sang together all the way home but I couldn\u2019t shake the phrase, collecting people.<\/p>
Then, as I was thinking about it, I felt, in my heart, that is what God cared about. It wasn\u2019t about the money, the things, the places, the priority or power. It was about collecting people. His people.<\/p>
Matthew 23:11\u00a0 But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant.\u00a0 OR,\u00a0Mosiah 2:17 When you are in the service of your fellow beings, you are only in the service of your God.<\/p>
This really was a turning point in my life. It wasn\u2019t about all the things I thought I could do to show favor to God. It wasn\u2019t about \u201cbecoming\u201d. God would take care of that. What he wanted me to do was love His people, and, in extension, love Him.<\/p>
As we take this journey to find God, let’s do it together. Let’s take a page from Jesus playbook and love each other. Help each other. Serve each other. Walking in His footprints of love helps us grow closer to the Savior. To know Him better.<\/p>
Friends, we were never meant to do this journey alone. We need each other. Lets make the effort to find the Lord, together.<\/p>
<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Last summer I had a chance to go to a Toby Mac concert. I\u2019m a lover of christian music and so I couldn\u2019t wait! I enlisted my two daughters to go with me and, since we all grew up listening to christian music, they were in. It was a little different than what I expected. I was the minority being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, but listening to Toby Mac was incredible. In the middle of the concert, Toby got a break and they brought in a preacher. He was all about saving the children in Ethiopia. He had been there and could verify the funds were actually going to the children. After his speech, he asked for donations. He used this phrase: \u201cWe\u2019re not collecting money, we\u2019re collecting people.\u201d This phrase stuck with me. Oh I loved the concert. We sang together all the way home but I couldn\u2019t shake the phrase, collecting people. Then, as I was thinking about it, I felt, in my heart, that is what God cared about. It wasn\u2019t about the money, the things, the places, the priority or power. It was about collecting people. His people. Matthew 23:11\u00a0 But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant.\u00a0 OR,\u00a0Mosiah 2:17 When you are in the service of your fellow beings, you are only in the service of your God. This really was a turning point in my life. It wasn\u2019t about all the things I thought I could do to show favor to God. It wasn\u2019t about \u201cbecoming\u201d. God would take care of that. What he wanted me to do was love His people, and, in extension, love Him. As we take this journey to find God, let’s do it together. Let’s take a page from Jesus playbook and love each other. Help each other. Serve each other. Walking in His footprints of love helps us grow closer to the Savior. To know Him better. Friends, we were never meant to do this journey alone. We need each other. Lets make the effort to find the Lord, together.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1439,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[43,44,42,40,41,51,45],"class_list":["post-1405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-thoughts","tag-blessings","tag-fingerprints-of-god","tag-god","tag-hope","tag-miracles","tag-prayer","tag-tender-mercy"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebighopeletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebighopeletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebighopeletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebighopeletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebighopeletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1405"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thebighopeletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1405\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1440,"href":"https:\/\/thebighopeletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1405\/revisions\/1440"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebighopeletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebighopeletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebighopeletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebighopeletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}