Blume challenges teen girls to love God - Word&Way

Blume challenges teen girls to love God

Blume - York

By Jennifer Harris

Word&Way News Writer

Using the TV show “Amazing Race” as a metaphor, Clella Lee asked attendees of Blume, a Kansas City missions event sponsored by national WMU, July 10-13 for teenage girls and collegiate young women, what it would look like in the “amazing life” if they really loved God. Contestants on the CBS TV show complete a number of difficult tasks during the course of the race.

The first step, she said, is learning how to live the amazing life. “The amazing life is abiding communion with God. You must love God.”

What does it mean to love God?

Lee pointed out that when a girl likes a guy, she is thrilled at even the possibility of seeing him down the hall or across the room. “You think ‘I am in love,’” she said. “When you realized he didn’t love you, did you miss the tingly feeling? No! You missed the relationship.”

The kind of love God requires is not a part of your life, it is your life, Lee said. It requires undivided loyalty, undivided faithfulness and undivided obedience.

She reminded the crowd that God is incomprehensible, immanent, infinite, immortal, immutable, transcendent, supreme divinity, self-existent, self-sufficient, sovereign, omnipresent, omniscent, omnipotent, holy, personal and triune.

“After hearing what love is and who God is, you should be saying, ‘Do what?’” Lee said. “’I’m supposed to love a God like that? I can’t even remember all those words. I can’t even pronounce half of them. How can I love a God like that?’”

Lee re-called a song her son taught her. “My God is so high, you can't get over Him, / He's so low, you can't get under Him, / He's so wide, you can't get around Him / You must come in by and through the Lamb.”

“I want you to understand that’s it,” she said. “All you have to know is that your God is so high, so low and so wide, there is only one way to love Him. You must come into Him through Jesus Christ. Don’t be divided, don’t be loyal to anyone or anything else and don’t obey anyone else.”

How can a person love God that way? God has told us, Mitchell said. “He said ‘Love God — love Me — with all your passion, soul, prayer, muscle, strength and intelligence.’”

Leeasked each of the girls to think of a new way to show love to God. “Tomorrow, today, when you go home, knowing who God is and what love is, what is a way that you could attempt to show Him how you love Him?”

A clip from the recent theatrical release “Amazing Grace” featured the story of William Wilberforce on his quest to end the slave trade in Britain. Mitchell showed a clip depicting a group urging Wilberforce to join the fight against slavery. One woman observes that Wilberforce has been trying to make a decision between doing the work of God or political activism. “We humbly suggest you do both,” she said.

As part of Blume, girls were given an opportunity to put their faith into action by learning about five ministry opportunities. Representatives from the five groups shared information about their organizations during the general sessions.