Evangelism

This week we had Brigida, one of our staff, teach us on the topic of Evangelism. In the weeks in which I had come to know this wonderful woman of God, I grew to appreciate and love her but I had my doubts on what she was going to be teaching. Evangelism to me had always been about preaching to people and getting them to accept Jesus as their Savior and repent of everything they had ever done wrong in their lives. But, as I learned during this week, evangelism is meant to mean something quite different.

I can be bold when I want to, but I'm not the type of person to just randomly strike up a conversation with anyone I meet, especially when involving Christianity. I'm learning to step out of my comfort zone and to talk to people about my faith in a way that conveys truth and authority instead of a "Bible bashing believer". God was able to show me this week, that the best way in which to share my faith is following the example Jesus laid out. How did he reach out to people?

Jesus reached out to people by: loving on them, being open to everyone who came to him (regardless of gender, background, occupation, etc.), being humble, being bold, comforting them, healing their hearts and physical bodies, and being a light to them. Honestly, when God showed it to me in those terms and that evangelism really is that simple, I was thinking "come on, all this time you've just wanted me to love people, talk to them, and be there for them no matter what?!?".

We can make the Gospel so complicated and make evangelism sound so scary and difficult, but it doesn't have to be! The Gospel is basically:
God created us to be with Him.
Our sins separate us from God.
Sin cannot be removed by good works.
Paying the price for our sin, Jesus died and rose again.
Everyone who trusts in Him alone has eternal life.
Life with Jesus starts now and lasts forever.
That's the Gospel in a nutshell, and you don't have to go to Bible school to learn that. Now, evangelism for me isn't scary. It's a chance to share God's love with people which I should be doing day to day anyway. I am learning to walk in love and follow Jesus' footsteps, and it has been so good!

Thank you for reading!

Prayer requests: Safe travels as my fellow students and I being our outreach journeys on Friday, health, finances for those who still need them, to remember everything we need to pack (!), and for an excitement for the things God has in store!

If you would like to support me please email me at amyt.dr@gmail.com

Christmas Down Under!

Outreach!

Part of my six month Discipleship Training School involves going on outreach for 8-12 weeks! During this time, the whole DTS (depending on the size) divides into groups to go out and serve in another country or in the country in which they have been learning. I get to tell you where my DTS of thirteen students is going and what my group will be doing!

We have been split into two groups based on where we feel God has called us, one group in going to Borneo and the other to Vanuatu (a group of islands not far from Australia). My group of seven (plus two staff) is going to.....Borneo! I am so excited to be a part of what God is wanting to do there! We will be working alongside other missionaries in the area doing: street ministry, hiking to some villages from the city we will staying in, teaching others what we have been learning, a drama, and whatever else they have planned. We are going to be a blessing and to love on the people we meet there.

We fly out this Friday, and will be gone until the eighteenth of March. This is where my team and I need your help if you would like to be part of what God is wanting to do in the hearts of the people we will meet, and in our own lives. How can you help?
- Prayer! Health, open hearts, to serve not to be served, finances for each one of us, loving and ministering to the people there and to each other, and anything else that comes to mind. Each and every prayer is heard and appreciated, and my team and I thank you in advance for them all!
- Support! I am missing over $2000 in outreach fees. I am trusting in God to provide for it all, and if you would like to prayerfully partner with me in this time, please email me at amyt.dr@gmail.com.

Thank you for reading, I thank God for each and every one of you. I am so excited to be a part of His great plan and to see all that he is waiting to do!

Spiritual Warfare

This week's teaching with Tom Hallas on Spiritual Warfare is probably my second favorite week in lectures so far. This great man of God, who has been with YWAM for many years, taught with the wisdom and experience of grandfather who loves stories. After a week of struggling to learn something in the lectures, it was time to be refreshed.

Spiritual Warfare to me in my imagination was a huge war going on between God and the Devil, they were constantly warring with each other. My role in this battle was to be a member of God's army, but what could I do? Now I know that spiritual warfare is actually a battle of ideas, and bringing them under submission to God. Ideas about God, about others, about myself, about angels and demons, and about the truth, etc. According, to many of our teachers over the last few weeks, spiritual warfare is best portrayed through the book of Ephesians.

Ephesians 1-3 is about sitting. Sitting is the act of knowing our place beside Jesus and sitting with Him at the right hand of God. How is this possible? Because, each one of us have been adopted into God's family so that we are able to walk in authority. (But, we aren't on walking yet so hold on!) God longs to be our Father, and Jesus made this possible through the Cross by allowing us to become righteous in His eyes. Our sin was removed so that Christ could extend his title as the eternal Son of God to us. We have been, and are called sons of the living God. But, why sons? I'm not a boy. It has nothing to do with gender, and everything to do with authority! (Galatians 3:26-29) We are no longer slaves, but heirs of the Kingdom of Heaven through Christ Jesus! Live as a son of God and a co-heir with Christ and find your identity within that framework.

Ephesians 4-6:10 is about walking. There are six basic points to follow as you walk:
1. Humility: be willing to acknowledge the truth and help others find the truth.
2. Unity: Have common agreement with one another amidst the diversity of how we think.
3. Tongue: Everything rises and falls on what you say, how you say it, and the result therein. (Content + Process = Result)
4. Sexual Freedom: We have identity beyond our gender! Find liberty in the fact that you are fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalms 139:14). By surrendering everything to God and thanking him for how each one of us is created, we can be kind and polite to one another.
5. Submission: You are no longer a slave through the authority you receive in God. Learn to acknowledge appropriately the roles that the people around you play in your life. (This has been a huge lesson for me.)
6. Honor your parents: The Bible tells us that we will be blessed with a long life and health when we honor our parents. Tom put it in a very clear framework: "have humility concerning your origins; if you reject your origins, you reject your life." This is a key foundation to finding freedom. [Yes, mom and dad I am growing in this. :)]
7. Authority Figures: We need to be overflowing with love and free of a judgmental spirit. I have been learning to respect all authority figures in my life, because when I disrespect one with my attitude they are all affected.

Ephesians 6:10 onwards is about standing. We need to learn how to be witnesses for God and represent his character and nature. A good example of this is the book of Job. Job is used as the basis of many sermons for many different reasons, but one thing I learned this week is what a great example of a court this book gives us. We are the judge as readers of this book, God is the defendant, Satan is the accuser, and Job is the witness. In between the beginning and end of this lengthy book we have a whole lot of bad theology handed out by Job's friends, but that need not be our focus. Job cried out to God concerning what happened, but God could not fill Job in because in order to be a true witness of who God is Job had to be clueless. The way this was portrayed gave me a new perspective on the book of Job. Am I willing to be a witness for God, regardless of the circumstances? Are you?

If you would like to support me please email me at amyt.dr@gmail.com.

Thank you for reading!

Holy Spirit

To be honest this was one of the hardest weeks for me. Not because our teacher, Paul Richards, was not good at bringing the point across, more because I didn't feel like I was learning much of anything. For me this week, was more about the little things and so this post might jump all over the place.

- When I am struggling, God will bring people around me that have overcome that obstacle so that I can learn how to overcome it as well.

- God likes details, he doesn't want to leave things in general terms.

- Am I open to God leading me in new directions?

- Do I believe that God can move right where I am and in what I am doing?

Keep your eyes on the destination you want to reach. If you want to reach Jesus look to him, if you want to reach the next best paying job or a good relationship look in that direction. What you choose to follow is where you will end up. What am I looking at and where do I want to go?

There are times in life where God will draw us away from where we are in order to teach us new things. In his goodness, he know that it is very difficult for us to learn certain lessons of life in our present environments. For example, in my life the things I am learning here on DTS I would not have been able to learn at home. I love the people at home, don't get me wrong, but in an environment of people who didn't know you beforehand and who are all desiring to grow in God in their own ways it has been much easier for me to be open. Don't think that you have to do a DTS in order to grow in God. DTS is what has worked best for me but, I have experienced change that does not require a fifteen hour plane ride. Every person is unique in the ways they interact with others, so trust God to speak to you in any and every situation.

Thank you for reading, I know this post was a little different.

If you would like to support me in prayer or finances, email me at amyt.dr@gmail.com and I can give you details about how you can do that.

Lordship

    This week we embarked on a road trip to go camping with another DTS in the mountains. Excited to meet our new speaker, and to go camping with sixty plus other people, I was not completely prepared for what I encountered. Mark Parker was our speaker, and he is about as out of the box as a early fifties man can get. He was not afraid to get in your face, or to jump around, or to blast his music, or to get people interested in dating his sons, but most importantly he is completely out there for God and making him Lord.

   What is lordship and why is it important?
In order to know Jesus as Lord, we first have to know him as Savior. Why do I need to know him as my Savior first? Because, I cannot acknowledge him as Lord when the Holy Spirit is not dwelling in me (1 Corinthians 12:3). What are the differences between knowing Jesus as my Savior and knowing Him as my Lord?

Savior - I believe in Him: - Knowing God and accepting His love - Receiving and feeling that love - Jesus is my world - He died and his blood washed away my sin - He is a redeemer - He loves me

Lord - I will follow Him: - I have experienced/met with God, therefore I respect him - I know Him - He is King and invites me to be a part of his world - He rose again gave me the Holy Spirit - I have been given life and am made holy - I love him

Throughout this week I learned the importance of making Jesus the center of everything in my life, and finding my identity in Him. I opened up to God, and he helped me realize that he was not Lord of my life. For years, I have tried to find my identity in relationships with boys, friends, and family. Being myself had not been an option for me, because I did not think I was good enough. I tried to act like other people to the point that I nearly stole their identity and I lost many relationships as a result. Thank you, God, that is all in the past! During this week, I accepted Jesus as the First Love in my life. He will come before anyone or anything, and I am committed to believing and being present in him.

   Know what I am about to say may sound ridiculous to some of you, but that's okay. At the end of the week, each of us students and whatever staff wanted to join made commitments to God and to each other that could last anywhere from a month, to a year, to several years, keeping it realistic. Some such commitments went along the lines of continuing to work with YWAM, or giving up pop, or supporting an individual financially, or reading the Bible before breakfast, etc. My commitment was a little different. On December 6,2013 I made a promise to God that I would not date for a year, but that I would dedicate this year specifically to knowing him as my First Love and the source of my identity. You can burst into laughter at the absurdity of it all, or do whatever you like, but that's what I am going to do. That is not to say that I will not seek God for any of the other years of my life, but this one is His and no one is going to change my mind.

Thank you for reading!

I would appreciate your prayer as I continue to seek God. If you would like to support me financially please email me at amyt.dr@gmail.com and I can give you details.

Character and Nature of God

I hardly know where to start. This week's teaching with Chris Twinn has probably been one of the most impactful times for me so far. Hopefully, you will learn at least a fraction of what I learnt about God during my time with this amazing man. I may jump around a lot, but I hope God reveals himself to you through it all.

Moving on:
The tree was not put in the garden of Eden as a source of temptation.  Adam was the caretaker, or priest, of the garden and if you study the Old Testament you realize that the priests offered tithes to God, and sometimes after they had sacrificed it a portion would be given back to them from God. The purpose of the tree was to act as a tithe to God, and then through that God would bless Adam. Unfortunately, due to not knowing the word of God in context, the only commandment in place was broken and the first misrepresentation of God's character took place. Knowing the Scripture inaccurately is worse than not knowing it at all.

God's character is who he is, and nature is what he is.

God's word is truth, because it is unchanging, unlike fact which is constantly fluctuating.

James 1: 16-17 and 1 John 1:1-5
- God is light, and he doesn't have a shadow. In order for a shadow to be created there has to be something brighter than you.
Genesis 1
- This world was established on light. Light can change and pass through matter. Darkness is the absence of light.

Rainbow around the sun after Church one day!

God is Spirit
Ephesians 2
- Heaven is a spiritual realm and Satan is a spirit, but he was kicked out and now has to operate in a physical/natural realm. We wage spiritual warfare against the devil, who wages soul warfare (heart, mind and body) against us. In order for Satan to have a stronghold over a city or nation, he has to have enough people in the same place who believe the same things in their minds and whose emotions are aligned.
Jesus disarmed Satan of the weapons that Adam gave him (Colossians 2:15).

God is Love
In our world today the definition of love is "give me", but God tells us in John 3:16 that his definition of love is "giving to others".  The moment we seek to acquire something in return when we say "I love you", it ceases to be love.
We are called to love the Lord with all that is within us (Matthew 22:37-40). So, if God wants us to give us all of our emotions from our soul (Psalm 103), how are we supposed to love the people around us? We love them through our spirit (Galatians 5:22-23), or the outpouring of God's love in us. When we do that we have no sense of rejection, because our spirits have no sense of rejection only our souls. (That takes some time to think over.)

My Heavenly Father is love, and he asks me to shine his light. My responsibility is to show love which is part of the basis of God's character, not to evaluate how others show love.

If you want to read some other things I learnt this week:

Definitions:
Righteousness - Right standing before God through the blood of Jesus Christ. He did not come to carry our sin, but to become our sin, in order for us to become his righteousness. How righteous was the Son of Man?
Religion - Begins the second time you do something that God told you to do once, or returning to the familiar without God's guidance.
Faith - Following God's guidance in the unfamiliar.
Born again - Meditating on God's word to rewrite our old memories/old life, not to lose the memories we had previously. It's like a computer hard-drive, nothing is ever completely deleted, it is just written over when the computer needs more space. The whole purpose for this is to get our spirit to stop arguing with the Holy Spirit.
Wicked - Twisted truth. Comes from weaving wicker baskets.
Humility: To agree with the truth.

Cool fact:
The Jews do not say the name of God in Hebrew, and if they write it down it cannot be erased because it is so sacred. In Hebrew every letter has a picture, musical note, and several other interesting things attached to it. God's name in the English version of the Bible is LORD, but if we look at the imagery in Hebrew it is a hand, an eye, a nail, and another hand. God's own name is a picture of the Cross! He shows and tells us through his own name how far he would go for us!