A week of creation in creation!

For the week of Genesis we were able to join the DTS for a week of camping! Now if I am being honest I was not very excited at the thought of having to do homework with no quiet (cool) place to work in and having to be dirty living in a tent. The funny thing is, is that by the time it was time to leave I had never been so ready to get out of base and out of Townsville (Romans was a bit rough on me).

So overall camping was really good, it gave me a real chance to get to know the DTS group (they were going through a pretty live changing week) and being out in the middle of the Australian bush gave me a chance to breath.

Going into this week it felt like I was at a really weird place with God, it was getting really hard to find “real” time to be with God. A huge part of me really thought that as soon as I was back into YWAM my relationship with God would get back to normal in snap of a finger – yeah, that didn’t happen. I definitely felt like I was hitting a wall, which was actually really hard after learning so much about what God has done for me and all the truth that I was learning. But I would say that God showed up, not with a big show but with his simple beauty.

Probably one of the best weeks ever, I definitely wasn't saying that while was there but honestly it was just one of those moments in your life that don't come around often!

The hardest part about it all was that the week before with Romans was very challenging on a spiritual level and I was having a hard time depending or even focusing on my relationship with God. It didn't help my attitude that the first day we got there I had heaps of homework to finish from Romans and then the following day we had to read through all of Genesis.... 4 and half hours - dang! Honestly though the moment we started getting into the work, learning context, history, all that jazz God started to really show up in my view frame.

Genesis has changed so much in me, I have never actually wanted to know anything about that book or the other 4 that go along side of it but honestly I cant even begin to explain how beautiful God is how much he met me in that time. With the Old Testament there is so much background you need to know to get the full impact of the word, and that is something that I have a really hard time doing (getting all the details).

The biggest thing that I have taken away from this week I would say is the simplicity of God's never changing, never dying love for me. He started to speak to me in away that I often don't let him talk to me - while I'm just "being" I had nothing to bring to him, nothing to offer but God saw that and he said "just BE" it is so simple yet so hard to do. I always think of how much I need to do for God, or that I need to me in a good, happy, holy place to be able to go to God, and that is SO not true, seeing the leaders that God picked in the most crucial time (the start of everything) choosing someone like Jacob to me named Israel the father of God's people, makes me believe and take confidence that God is able to pick me if I'm willing to obey. Such a beautiful picture. I am going to add my Final application on the bottom on this because it is really a God inspired application and I just feel like it shows where I'm at with the beauty of the Lord.

It’s hard for me to picture how God sees me.

To imagine his heart towards me.

But it is even harder to fathom that I am the center of Gods eye, that he has created everything in this earth so that I would have a way to be close with him.

Feeling the wind on my face, rain on my arms, the grass between my feet - its all him.

To look out and see his power through the mountains and his small beautiful detail in every flower.

I stand in awe at the works of his hands but do I understand that he stands in awe of me.

He loves what he has made and sees it as good, but he is in love with me.

Yes he loves seeing his creation, but only because I am standing in the midst of it. That my love towards him is what he longs for, to be a part of this life that he has given me.

The book Genesis is so much more then stating creating, it is drawing this beautiful picture of God. Through ever story, every man/leader, and every situation God is showing himself to us.

Giving us examples of how he can be in our lives if we only let him.

Lets give him that space in our life to move and to dance and to bring glory to his Kingdom....

God you have opened up my eyes to see your face,

you have opened my ears to hear your voice,

you have awakened my mouth to taste your beauty,

and you have opened up my heart to feel the vastness of your heart.

My Lord, My God, father to everything I know - Here I am.