What can I say but what an amazing week once again! God is doing so many things in our lives and teaching us so much as we open up our heart to him!
This week our lectures were on 'Intimacy with the Lord, fear of God and the Nature and Character of God.'
What I learnt from this week was to learn to desire God more and to desire to go deeper in a relationship with him... and if we don't feel our desire in our heart for more of God, to ask for it and he will help us to want him more!
The scripture that God highlighted to the teacher 'Kevin Norris' this week was Ephesians 3:17-19:
And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,
may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,
and to know this love that surpasses knowledge— that you may be filled to the measure of all the fulness of God
I don't understand this yet but we were really encouraged that God loves us so much! - so much more then we can fathom - but God does really want everyone in the world to know how much that he loves them!
We looked at who God is and what we get from him and what we give to him: (these are not the only things but some)
CREATOR:
What we get:
Origins, purpose, creation, gifts
What we give:
Stewardship, worship, glory to god, diligence, gifts
MASTER/LORD:
What we get:
Forgiveness, mercy, grace, eternal life, inheritance, freedom
What we give:
Confession, life, respect, honour, submission, thanks and praise
SAVIOUR/JUDGE:
What we get:
Guidance, security, protection, provision, direction, orders
What we give:
Service, gifts, Glory,
FATHER:
What we get:
Comfort, wisdom, strength, teaching, inheritance, discipline, identity
What we give:
Respect, honour, love, time, obedience
FRIEND:
What we get:
Encouragment, support, loyalty, heart to heart, advice, fun , love , trust
What we give:
Encouragment, support, loyalty, heart to heart, advice, fun , love , trust
HUSBAND:
What we get:
Love, intimacy, romance, fun, adoration, captivation, gifts, commitment, unity , security, protection, joy, vulnerability, trust.
What we give:
Submission, faithfulness, adoration, captivation, vulnerability, trust, Love, intimacy, romance, fun, adoration, captivation
There are so many more things you give and recieve through our rlationship with God and some of the things you receive are the same as what you give. God desires a love relationship with us - the intimacy side is not like the physical sexual stuff that you get in earthly relationships like between a husband and wife - it is pure and God desires to love on us - even as I write this I don't fully understand this or have this in my life yet but it is something that is worth chasing after and being willing for!
God can help us to be willing if we arn't willing in our life right now.
As you go down the list of who God is you see that as we come to father, friend and husband, it is more intimate and personal.
Another way we can recognise a glimpse of the love has for us is by looking at the desires in your own heart , e.g when you desire marriage and you get flutters in your stomach sometimes whenyou are with a guy or girl - God sayes he feels that way for us but a million times stronger then what we could feel towards anyone else.
The earthly marriage is an example of how God desires to have relationship with us - the love that is shared between a husband and wife is an illustration of Gods love he desires to share with us.
Even as I write this I still barely know what this is like but I want to want to desire it more and experience it mroe and walk in it more!
Here are some scriptures that talk about us being the bride of Christ and his friend:
ISAIAH 62:5
HOSEA 2:19,20
JEREMIAH 31:32
EPHESIANS 5:31,32
LUKE 5:33-35
SONG OF SONGS 4:9
It was really cool this week to because Kevin Norris explained the significance of the way Jesus lived and did things on Earth and the illustration of the church being the bride of christ and marriage:
-Jesus first miracle was when Jesus turned water into wine at a wedding
The jewish wedding planned out like this:
-Selection of the bride - God chose us
-Mohar (price paid) - Crucifixion
-Engagement contract (wine) - Passover feast, being saved and waiting till the 2nd coming
-Mikvah (ritual bath) - Baptism - (holy spirit)
-Groom leaves to prepare a place - John 14:1-4
-Groom arrives - Jesus second coming
-Wedding ceremony
-Wedding feast
We were also encouraged to read the bible like a 'love letter' because that is what it is - it is testifying to all Jesus has done for us so that we could be forgiven and have relationship with oru heavenly father, and saviour.
We also were encouraged about he God is a relational God and we looked different scriptures abotu how he related to people. God gave me an illustration to do with this that...'God is not an eight ball with a limited amount of solutions to our sturggles and problems and questions, etc... but he is alive and we can have a relationship with him like we can with our freinds and family and we can talk to him and hear his thought and his heart' JESUS IS ALIVE!!!! :D
God wants us to be genuine with him in that.
Sometimes in worship we get encouarged that it is a choice - and that isnt wrong but if you are genuinly struggling, or you are mad with God because you feel he didn't answer your prayer or something like that, God wants us to tell him how we are really feeling, but then not just focus on our frustration, but also remember who God is from things he has done in the past and who the bible says he is and even how you have seen the goodness of God in other peoples lives.
Proverbs 18:21
The tongue has the power of life and death,
and those who love it will eat its fruit.
Hebrews 10:23
Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.
It is ok to struggle, but in those times it is powerful to confess our hope in God and hold fast to it in those times because there is power of life and death in our tonge and the words we speak.
When we focus on who God is, then we can find strength in him to choose to worship and follow him all the days of our life - even when it is hard! God will be our strength if we just trust him!
We have had realy cool ministry times this week too :)
We had a time of talking about the being given the gifts of the spirits , specifically tounges and we had a time of just experience the holy spirit move in our lives and it was really cool seeing the spirit do diffenent things and showing his Joy, peace and love to us!
God is an exciting God and we don't have to understand him because it is not possible, but we also don't need to be scared of what he wants to do through all of our lives of everyone in the world! If we let him.
God is continuosly at work here and it is really cool to be taught everyday by him!
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More exciting news.......Tomorrow morning we are going camping for 2 weeks!
It is a place called ' hidden valley ' and I have heard it is really beautiful!
I know that we are making Dampa and apparantly there is only one bathroom for 26 girls lol but I don't really know a whole lot more.
That means that I won't be able to be in touch with anyone for 2 weeks but I will write an update when I am back!
We will still be having lectures during camping and it is going to be so cool!
We will be being taugh on 'Lordship' for the first week - I hope we have campfires :)
I am sharing a tent with two other girls, Asta and Rachel so that will be really fun!
My bag is all packed and I am basically ready to go camping now - just have to make sure I don't forget last minute things :)
And I hope we can go swiming too lots! :D
We also had our first evangilism night this thursday night - I peered up with Katie and we got to talk to one couple and they were really nice! We got to share about YWAM a bit and just get to know them!
I hope there will be more opportunites the more we do it :)
Godbless :)
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