He is Superior

This past week = the book of Hebrews! CRAZY

So Hebrews has been my favorite book for awhile now. God hit me really hard with that book when I was on outreach in Cambodia last year.

I'm not sure if it was from all the rain this week or from my unfortunate sugar crash from the weekend, in any means it was a rough start to the week. I was so excited about this week and studying Hebrews, but it felt like I couldn't even keep my eyes open let alone retain all the information that was being thrown at me. It was a very frustrating disappointing start to my week.

Anyways I pushed through that and tried to take in all that I could because honestly it was AMAZING to be able to put yourself in the shoes of the original reader and really understand the point of the book and why it was written, it really does change your perspective.

Pretty much the main idea of this week and the book of Hebrews is - Jesus is Superior. No matter what the situation is, no matter who it is, Jesus is superior so just move forward towards him because there is nothing to go back to. I think God is going to be constantly bring this up in my life because it is very easy to fall back into the traps of our old lives, but the whole point to Hebrews is that everything falls short when it comes to Jesus, so drop everything that may hold you back for becoming more like him and run what is already marked out for you by Jesus himself. This book was written to people going through much worse persecution then we could ever imagine, so pretty much stand up - be strong and keep freaking going! There is nothing else to fall back on, so stop looking behind you.

Live Out Loud

I don't think I will be able to explain how much God is doing right now, I'll do my best.

We studied the books Titus and Philemon this week - amazing. Honestly we read through them first and I had no idea what the point of the books were about, Philemon went right over my head. Titus was good but still I wouldn't have said 'life changing'... well that changed.

Philemon is about how in the end Philemon has a choice to make... to do what the world thinks is right or to do what is godly. Paul is asking him to take back a slave that had ran away and to take him back as a brother in Christ, but two important details are that a master has the right to kill his slaves if they run away and get caught, also Philemon was in a higher leadership position so many people would be looking at him to see what he did. I think that Paul knew this and was all part of the plan to proclaim Gods love even more.

This is why I think that: by Philemon taking is slave (Onesimus) back as a beloved brother and give him the freedom to do Gods work Onesimus would have to chance to reach so many people (thus farthing the Kingdom), by the amount of forgiveness that Philemon would have given to Onesmius would have pushed Philemon to be challenged in an area in this life that he wasn't over strong in and making him stronger for Christ (thus farthing the Kingdom), AND everyone around in the church, in the city, and most slave owners would see the love and grace of Christ shinning through him (thus farthing the Kingdom)!!!!! Do we see a theme?

AND THEN

The book of Titus...

"DECLARE these things; exhort and reprove with ALL authority. Let NO one look down on you." (2:15)

The world is out of order and we now must live in away that is godly by having knowledge of the truth. God has already redeemed us so we need to give back to him the only way that we can... our lives. Thats really all he is asking of us.

God has been teaching me so much this week about being okay with the challenges he places infront of me. As some of you know I have been having a hard time with the whole school thing, my biggest weakness is reading aloud and we only read the whole bible aloud... no big deal! ha but honestly God is moving in my world, he is showing me little glimpse of what might come which is so encouraging. Also one of the DTS students Jess (who is from Calgary) has become one of my closest friends here, she is amazing and has such a beautiful relationship with God and is so in love which really makes me want more out of God. Just so great! so life is good Australia is good! God is AMAZING! I'm really excited for this coming week .... Hebrews (only my favorite book)

BCC Thus Far

Bible Core Course January 2010

"What has God gotten me into" has been the question that I have asked myself over and over again for the past week! I am going to start out very honest with how I was and am feeling about this school. I have always hated reading aloud ever since I remember, I have struggled with school and marks throughout my education, and I have the worst memory ever! All of these things come in to play every day in this course. We will read through the WHOLE bible aloud at least once and go in to inductive study with about 14 books, the homework load is large, and remembering small details from the book are key to so many questions that come up during class. So as you can imagine its been a bit overwhelming and have already had my first of many breakdowns!

Aside from that though I am SO excited about what this will look like in my life at the end of the school, God has been constantly reminding me that this school and the next three months are NOT about how smart I am or how much work I get done, its about how much I understand his work and gain the knowledge of using certain tools to dig deeper and deeper into his word, and to be able to do that for the rest of my life. This course isn't about A's or B's but about how I allow his work to affect my life and by that change the world for his Kingdom.

We studied the book of Acts this week and I must say my view of the bible has already start to change and become way more open. I think the biggest that God has shown me is how understanding the context of the stories and teachings has a HUGE impact on what you actually take away from it. It is so easy to twist the word of God into say what we want it to say and even throw against other people to make yourself look more holy or whatever it is that people do with the word, that isn't actually hearing what God is trying so desperately to say.

As for my classmate (just the one) Her name is Chelsea and she is amazing! I can honestly say that i think we are going to make the best team ever in this course. The things I struggle with she is great at and the things She struggles with I have some talent in! its going to be good. My school leader Jonathan is dry, sarcastic, at times "ballin", and SO knowledgeable with the bible. He has this desire to know more and to know the truth of what it says by actually studying the culture and striving to know what was going on at that time to gain more understanding on why the book was even written. AMAZING! Also Ryan who is the other staff on our school (making it the four of us) has become someone who is incredibly relatable in many situations that I find myself in. He has such a big heart and is so easy to talk about anything with, and is really actually okay with me crying (balling) when things get to be a bit much to handle. Soooooo pretty much we've got a dream team going on over here in Townsville Australia =)

God is doing really big things and has already started his work in me and feel SO lucky to be here and study the word for hours everyday with people who are so supportive and just freaking smart.

thats all for now I will do my best to update this more (life is kind of crazy) but I will make it work! Ready for a new week and a new book!!

Australia update

So after what felt like years traveling across the world me and my classmate Chelsea arrived in Sydney and got a day to venture around - pretty much the best thing EVER! Such a beautiful city with so many different parts to it, it was a good long day.

Next day we arrived in our new home for the next 6 months (2 years for chelsea)! That was a very hot overwhelming day for me. People were so nice but I think the biggest thing that hit me was the fact that I was at a different base. I know it sounds dumb but I didn't realize that in a way I would have to be apart of a new family in YWAM (wasn't in Hawaii anymore) so I must say it was very hard for me to step out and truly be myself for the first couple days. But needless to say I got over that and started really seeing this place as my home!

For the first couple days there were a ton of people on base with the october DTS (who were getting ready to go out on outreach) and then all there staff, plus the new January DTS all arriving so it was definitely a full house. It was kind of sad, right when I was getting use to having everyone around more then half the base leaves for outreach. Oh well it gives me a real chance to spend time with the January DTS and do my best to pour into them, I'm also really excited to be able to watch a DTS from the other side. It is such a life changing experience and it will be just so amazing to see God move in all of the lives around me (and also in me).

People here are amazing, i had forgotten what the love of Jesus pouring out of everyone and the boldness of living out his will looks like in people. So amazing and So encouraging.

I have had many amazing conversations with people and so many moments with God that allows his Holy Spirit to be at work. It is still crazy to me how much I lost a hold of this will while I was at home, it was just so easy to live under the radar and not be bold for Christ.