Hello Readers of this Bog
I just wanted to start this blog with some scripture before getting into talking about my week.
Ephesians 2:4-8 “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, make us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.”
Romans 8:1-3 “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh,”
Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord”
This week in class we had the privilege of Kerby Anderson coming to teach us Tuesday - Friday. He is from Probe Ministries and does their radio broadcasting shows. He was an incredible speaker and so knowledgeable. He walked us through a ton of information on a variety of subjects.
On Tuesday our three subjects were Truth Decay, Reliability of the Bible, and the Millennial Generation.
On Wednesday our three subjects were Islam, Hinduism-Buddhism, and Mormonism.
On Thursday our three subjects were Media and Worldviews, Is Jesus the Savior, and The New Atheists.
On Friday our two subjects were Intelligent Design and Bioethics.
I enjoyed listening to him talk about each subject and bring to light so many new things about each that sparked everyone to think more about how they will effect us in ministry, or in our future jobs.
I would love to share with you all some highlights from some of the talks that I really enjoyed.
This information is from Kerby Anderson and His PowerPoints that he gave us
Kerby Anderson explained Pre-Modern, Modern, and Post-Modern in this way and it really made since to me
Three Umpires explaining Pre-Modern, Modern, and Post-Modern =
“There’s balls and there’s strikes, and I call ‘em the way they are.”
Pre-modernism – God-centered universe, revelation, truth is absolute.
“There’s balls and there’s strikes, and I call ‘em the way I see ‘em.”
Modernism – Enlightenment, science, truth is relative.
“There’s balls and there’s strikes, and they ain’t nothing until I call them.
Postmodernism – loss of hope for truth, truth is created.
We are living in a Post-Modern culture and by knowing more about what the culture believes about truth then you will be able to minister to the people around you better. He then continued to tell more of how our Post-Modern culture sees truth. He says they see truth as no absolute and that Christian Missionaries are destroying culture because of their push for all to believe in their truth. They believe in Religion Pluralism in that all religions have some truth to them. They are skeptical of people you claim to know the full truth. The biggest word for our culture today is Tolerance. Tolerant for all other believes and okay with others believing different things.
When Kerby Anderson talked about the different religions I particular was interested in the Islam religion. Here are some of the stats that Kerby Anderson gave us
Worldwide - 1.5 billion Muslims (~ 25%)
- Middle East: 380 million
- North Africa: 115 million
- Indonesia, Pakistan & Bangladesh: 550 million
That is a huge number of people.
The definition that Kerby Anderson gave us
Islam (“submission”) is the religion of all who believes that Muhammad was God’s prophet.
The 5 Pillars of Islam are these
• Shahada - repetition of the creed: “There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is His prophet.”
• Salat - prayers
• Zakat - almsgiving
• Sawm - fast of Ramadan
• Hajj - “pilgrimage” to Mecca
He talked more about their culture and the 5 Pillars then expressed ways for us to witness if we encounter people from this culture and belief
1. Show them Jesus in the Qur’an (Sura 3:42-55 and Sura 19:19)
2. Show them they can read the Bible (Sura 10:94, Sura 4:136, Sura 5:65-66)
3. One of the main methods at the first is called the Camel Method in which they ask the Muslim believer to read Sura 3:42-55 and ask them questions about the Jesus it is talking about. Then ask them about paradise and if they would like to live in paradise after death.
4. The key verse in Ephesians 4:8-9 because they believe in good works verses bad works to get you into paradise. So if your good works out weight your bad works then you will go to paradise
When Kerby Anderson talked about Millennial Generation it was very interesting. These will be the parents of the youth we would be ministering to, we need to understand their parenting styles so we can partner with them as we minister to their children. Here is some of the most interesting information about the Millennial Generation.
Born between the years of 1980-2000. (Yes that includes me!!) They are the largest population of 78 Million, yes more than the Baby Boomers who were 76 Million.
They have these Psychographics according to Kerby Anderson
Diverse, most Educated generation, Relational (social media), Hopeful, Pragmatic, Narcissistic (self-absorbed), Uninhabited, Safest generation, and a Secular generation.
They have the name of Helicopter Parents or Snowplow Parents because they want to be involved and make the path of protection and everything perfect for their children. They Hover to make sure everything will be great and okay for their children.
One word to describe this generation is Flexibility. They want a job with flex hours and working conditions. They want their world to revolve around a thought of flexibility in everything they do.
These are just a few of the nuggets of thought that Kerby Anderson shared with us this week. I really enjoyed all he had to talk about and I do feel more prepared to defend my faith with different cultures and religions. I also have an interest to know more about certain aspects of his talks.
I hope you had an amazing week and we are headed to Enid for Thanksgiving Break! Remember it is a time to be thankful for all that we have. God has given you something to be grateful for so thank Him for it. Pray for the people struggling to find that one thing and help them see God’s provision in some way!
Friday, November 22, 2013
Friday, November 15, 2013
The Gospel
Hello family, friends and anyone else that may read this blog!
I am beyond words excited for this post!! I am going to talk about THE GOSPEL.
If that scares anyone I pray that you consider continuing to read but don't by any means feel pushed to read, but I hope that you do. I am going to share my experience with the Gospel and also inform great truths from Matt Chandler about the Gospel. He came and spoke to us this week about the power of the Gospel and how it should still relate to us now as believers and then gave compelling truths of what the Gospel is and how to give the fullness of the Gospel to non-believers. This post may take some time to read because of the truth that is packed into it and the length as well. So with that said, I am going to get right to it.
We as an Institute Class got the awesome opportunity to have Matt Chandler be our teacher this week. His topic was The Gospel. He was with us for three days and it was jammed packed with preaching from the Bible about what the fullness of The Gospel is.
If anyone is reading this and they have absolutely no idea what I am talking about then read this paragraph. The Gospel is the good news, John 3:16-17 and Romans 6:23. The Bible is a book written by the one true God to tell of His creation (us), man’s sin(Fall), calling His people and their history (Israel/Jews), the redemption of mankind through the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus, through death on a cross then the resurrection of life after three days (Gospel), and then the spreading of the hope and salvation of sins we can receive from the faith of Jesus through the letters written to explain Christ following living (disciple). That is the very very short version of the Gospel and now you are ready to go more in detail with me rewriting what Matt Chandler taught us this week.
These are the small take a ways I have from the incredible truth revealing 9 hours of Matt speaking. This by no means is everything that he talked about but what I would like to share with you these things because they have affected me in some way.
Matt Chandler took two approaches/views to teaching us about the Gospel.
1. A view that was up close and he related it to like a walk in the park.
= God - Man - Christ - Response
2. A view that was further back and he related it to being in the air looking at a town
= Creation - Fall - Reconciliation - Consummation
So now I am going to go back to the first viewpoint of the Gospel. It was so much fun to listen to Matt share about the fullness of God. I didn’t realize how unaware I was of the fullness of who God is. He took us to the passage of Romans 11:33-36 and walked verse by verse about the character of God.
BUT before he did this I was blown away by this truth - God Likes Us. I understand that God Loves Me and that is why He sent His Son to be the Savior for my sins and I was taught the song - Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so…Yes Jesus Love me and so on But I thought I had to be good, I thought I was becoming that person God and Jesus would love one day. The sanctification process is us going through refinement to be more like Christ and we don’t understand that during that time we are still liked and loved by God because of who Christ is Ephesians 2:1-10. God likes us now and wants a relationship with who we are now. The Gospel is not us cleaning our self up and then telling God we are good enough, because of what we did, for Him to save us. NO, we are liked now.
Okay back to God and Romans 11:33-36. Matt walked us through and I loved it but don’t have enough time or space or length for your attention span to write about all the verses in detail. So, because of that I will rewrite the truth that hit home the most for me when Matt spoke about God. God is for God. Okay, I did know this but not the fullness of it what so ever. God is for God. Wow, even with me writing it right now I am amazed by those three words and four-word phrase. God is for God. Psalm 23:1-3 “…For His name’s sake.” 1 Corinthians 10:31 “…do all for the glory of God.” And once I start to wrap my small brain around this truth I begin to see how it affects me.
1. Glad obedience to the Lord - this is because He doesn’t take things away from me rather He is leading me to the fullness of pleasure. If I know my boundaries of pleasure that are ones that give fullness than I will enjoy them - the boundaries push me to seek God and His Glory. That is when I have true obedience and pleasure in life.
2. I get over myself. I am such a selfish being. All humans are it is the sin that is in us to get what we want, when we want it and through any means to get it by. This is a frustrating process because you automatically wake up expecting the day to be about you in some way. This hit me so hard as a type A personality who literally plans my full day out. When I understand that God is for God and the fullness of that I see how I am so selfish and insufficient outside of God’s will and it leads me to die to self. This is then when I start to understand that freedom in life is through God being for God. It isn’t about me it is about God.
From there we talked about man. Matt took us to Romans 1:21-32 and walked verse by verse through this passage to explain the sinfulness of man and the outcome for it and the response that God has for it. Matt explained how through these verses we understand 3 very important aspects of man’s character.
1. We prefer the creation over the Creator.
2. We believe we are smarter than God and in essence believe we are better than God.
3. We fail to acknowledge God as the giver of all things.
Also Matt explained how God response was letting men decide for themselves what is right even though He wanted them to seek Him. And our rejection of God lead to the men and women removing Him from their lives, and falling into some deep sin. Homosexuality, Murder, Malice, Arrogance, Disobedience to Parents, Untrustworthy and others. All together man is sinful and each of us have sins that display the three points up above and ultimately we are separated from God because of our choice to seek freedom and satisfaction else where from God. Our sin separates and fractures the relationship God desires with us.
Because of our sin God has two different responses that we can choose from for our personal lives and how we want to be punished for our sin. Remember God is for God so because we as sinners have defiled His name there is punishment for that act of defiance.
(This order is not significant and don’t look into it further than me just talking about one and then the other, both are important to understand God better)
1. Hell
2. Christ
Hell, is the total reject of God. Luke 16:19-31. Hell will not be a fun place Matthew 18:8-9 and there are two ways to view Hell as Matt taught us. Internal Torment and The Degree that God Sees Sin as Offensive to Him. Hell is the absence of God and we know this from the beginning of this post that God is everything Romans 11:33-36.
Christ Jesus
• Jesus is the Son of God = Matthew 1:21-23, Mark 1:1, Luke 1:34-35 & 3:22, John 1:1
• Jesus is the Son of man = Matthew 1:1, Luke 1:31-32, John 1:14
• Jesus is a gift of grace from God = Romans 6:23 & John 3:16-17 & Ephesians 2:4-8 & Romans 3:21-26
• Jesus is perfect = Hebrews 4:15 & 1 John 3:5
• Jesus is the sacrifice of our sin = Romans 8:1-3 & 1 John 4:9-10 & 1 John 2:2 & Ephesians 5:2 & Romans 3:21-26
• Jesus is our way of salvation through faith alone = Colossians 1:19-23 & Philippians 3:7-12 & Hebrew 5:9 & Romans 3:28
• Jesus is our righteousness = Romans 5:18-21 & Philippians 3:7-12
Okay, That is so awesome!!!! I love that we are given as a gift - salvation from the punishment of our sins. WOW!! I don’t do anything physical for it and I don’t have to act a certain way, all I am called to do is have Faith in who Christ Jesus is. That is it - Galatians 2:16.
This faith is the very thing we do to die to our sinful character. Remember we as sinners prefer creation over the Creator, think we are smarter than God hence better and hence don’t need Him in our lives, and we fail to acknowledge Him as the giver of all things. In short, SELFISH and PRIDEFULL and NEARSIGHTED and ARROGENT and ________ (Insert your sin that makes you rule and not God, for me it is CONTROLING.) So Faith is us contradicting our sinful character and allowing Christ to be the bridge to bring our relationship right again with God. With Jesus we experience true freedom.
This is so powerful and I hope you understand a little better the power or that an aspect of the Gospel has resonated in your heart to exam more in your own personal walk with the Lord or make this now apart of your life for the first time.
I want to tell of the great new of Jesus Christ our Redeemer, our Savior, our Righteousness, our Sacrifice, and our Gift from God. Matthew 28:19 “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.” Telling the Gospel even to believers is needed. We so easily forget what it is we are doing with our lives. We start to fall into making it about us, so being reminded of the Gospel is an essential part of being a disciple of Jesus Christ.
I now need to make sure my grader knows my answers for the assignment question for this week.
What are three things that I think someone needs to know about salvation?
1. God likes us
2. God is for God
3. Faith alone in Christ is the redemption of all sin
I talked about these three things throughout the blog post and it is bolded and under it is more information of why I think it is important to know.
Thank you for reading if you did and I hope and pray that God spoke to you, not any of my words written. Don’t be afraid to ask God to reveal areas in your life that you are not living in faith and rather in sin. It is a humbling experience.
I am beyond words excited for this post!! I am going to talk about THE GOSPEL.
If that scares anyone I pray that you consider continuing to read but don't by any means feel pushed to read, but I hope that you do. I am going to share my experience with the Gospel and also inform great truths from Matt Chandler about the Gospel. He came and spoke to us this week about the power of the Gospel and how it should still relate to us now as believers and then gave compelling truths of what the Gospel is and how to give the fullness of the Gospel to non-believers. This post may take some time to read because of the truth that is packed into it and the length as well. So with that said, I am going to get right to it.
We as an Institute Class got the awesome opportunity to have Matt Chandler be our teacher this week. His topic was The Gospel. He was with us for three days and it was jammed packed with preaching from the Bible about what the fullness of The Gospel is.
If anyone is reading this and they have absolutely no idea what I am talking about then read this paragraph. The Gospel is the good news, John 3:16-17 and Romans 6:23. The Bible is a book written by the one true God to tell of His creation (us), man’s sin(Fall), calling His people and their history (Israel/Jews), the redemption of mankind through the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus, through death on a cross then the resurrection of life after three days (Gospel), and then the spreading of the hope and salvation of sins we can receive from the faith of Jesus through the letters written to explain Christ following living (disciple). That is the very very short version of the Gospel and now you are ready to go more in detail with me rewriting what Matt Chandler taught us this week.
These are the small take a ways I have from the incredible truth revealing 9 hours of Matt speaking. This by no means is everything that he talked about but what I would like to share with you these things because they have affected me in some way.
Matt Chandler took two approaches/views to teaching us about the Gospel.
1. A view that was up close and he related it to like a walk in the park.
= God - Man - Christ - Response
2. A view that was further back and he related it to being in the air looking at a town
= Creation - Fall - Reconciliation - Consummation
So now I am going to go back to the first viewpoint of the Gospel. It was so much fun to listen to Matt share about the fullness of God. I didn’t realize how unaware I was of the fullness of who God is. He took us to the passage of Romans 11:33-36 and walked verse by verse about the character of God.
BUT before he did this I was blown away by this truth - God Likes Us. I understand that God Loves Me and that is why He sent His Son to be the Savior for my sins and I was taught the song - Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so…Yes Jesus Love me and so on But I thought I had to be good, I thought I was becoming that person God and Jesus would love one day. The sanctification process is us going through refinement to be more like Christ and we don’t understand that during that time we are still liked and loved by God because of who Christ is Ephesians 2:1-10. God likes us now and wants a relationship with who we are now. The Gospel is not us cleaning our self up and then telling God we are good enough, because of what we did, for Him to save us. NO, we are liked now.
Okay back to God and Romans 11:33-36. Matt walked us through and I loved it but don’t have enough time or space or length for your attention span to write about all the verses in detail. So, because of that I will rewrite the truth that hit home the most for me when Matt spoke about God. God is for God. Okay, I did know this but not the fullness of it what so ever. God is for God. Wow, even with me writing it right now I am amazed by those three words and four-word phrase. God is for God. Psalm 23:1-3 “…For His name’s sake.” 1 Corinthians 10:31 “…do all for the glory of God.” And once I start to wrap my small brain around this truth I begin to see how it affects me.
1. Glad obedience to the Lord - this is because He doesn’t take things away from me rather He is leading me to the fullness of pleasure. If I know my boundaries of pleasure that are ones that give fullness than I will enjoy them - the boundaries push me to seek God and His Glory. That is when I have true obedience and pleasure in life.
2. I get over myself. I am such a selfish being. All humans are it is the sin that is in us to get what we want, when we want it and through any means to get it by. This is a frustrating process because you automatically wake up expecting the day to be about you in some way. This hit me so hard as a type A personality who literally plans my full day out. When I understand that God is for God and the fullness of that I see how I am so selfish and insufficient outside of God’s will and it leads me to die to self. This is then when I start to understand that freedom in life is through God being for God. It isn’t about me it is about God.
From there we talked about man. Matt took us to Romans 1:21-32 and walked verse by verse through this passage to explain the sinfulness of man and the outcome for it and the response that God has for it. Matt explained how through these verses we understand 3 very important aspects of man’s character.
1. We prefer the creation over the Creator.
2. We believe we are smarter than God and in essence believe we are better than God.
3. We fail to acknowledge God as the giver of all things.
Also Matt explained how God response was letting men decide for themselves what is right even though He wanted them to seek Him. And our rejection of God lead to the men and women removing Him from their lives, and falling into some deep sin. Homosexuality, Murder, Malice, Arrogance, Disobedience to Parents, Untrustworthy and others. All together man is sinful and each of us have sins that display the three points up above and ultimately we are separated from God because of our choice to seek freedom and satisfaction else where from God. Our sin separates and fractures the relationship God desires with us.
Because of our sin God has two different responses that we can choose from for our personal lives and how we want to be punished for our sin. Remember God is for God so because we as sinners have defiled His name there is punishment for that act of defiance.
(This order is not significant and don’t look into it further than me just talking about one and then the other, both are important to understand God better)
1. Hell
2. Christ
Hell, is the total reject of God. Luke 16:19-31. Hell will not be a fun place Matthew 18:8-9 and there are two ways to view Hell as Matt taught us. Internal Torment and The Degree that God Sees Sin as Offensive to Him. Hell is the absence of God and we know this from the beginning of this post that God is everything Romans 11:33-36.
Christ Jesus
• Jesus is the Son of God = Matthew 1:21-23, Mark 1:1, Luke 1:34-35 & 3:22, John 1:1
• Jesus is the Son of man = Matthew 1:1, Luke 1:31-32, John 1:14
• Jesus is a gift of grace from God = Romans 6:23 & John 3:16-17 & Ephesians 2:4-8 & Romans 3:21-26
• Jesus is perfect = Hebrews 4:15 & 1 John 3:5
• Jesus is the sacrifice of our sin = Romans 8:1-3 & 1 John 4:9-10 & 1 John 2:2 & Ephesians 5:2 & Romans 3:21-26
• Jesus is our way of salvation through faith alone = Colossians 1:19-23 & Philippians 3:7-12 & Hebrew 5:9 & Romans 3:28
• Jesus is our righteousness = Romans 5:18-21 & Philippians 3:7-12
Okay, That is so awesome!!!! I love that we are given as a gift - salvation from the punishment of our sins. WOW!! I don’t do anything physical for it and I don’t have to act a certain way, all I am called to do is have Faith in who Christ Jesus is. That is it - Galatians 2:16.
This faith is the very thing we do to die to our sinful character. Remember we as sinners prefer creation over the Creator, think we are smarter than God hence better and hence don’t need Him in our lives, and we fail to acknowledge Him as the giver of all things. In short, SELFISH and PRIDEFULL and NEARSIGHTED and ARROGENT and ________ (Insert your sin that makes you rule and not God, for me it is CONTROLING.) So Faith is us contradicting our sinful character and allowing Christ to be the bridge to bring our relationship right again with God. With Jesus we experience true freedom.
This is so powerful and I hope you understand a little better the power or that an aspect of the Gospel has resonated in your heart to exam more in your own personal walk with the Lord or make this now apart of your life for the first time.
I want to tell of the great new of Jesus Christ our Redeemer, our Savior, our Righteousness, our Sacrifice, and our Gift from God. Matthew 28:19 “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.” Telling the Gospel even to believers is needed. We so easily forget what it is we are doing with our lives. We start to fall into making it about us, so being reminded of the Gospel is an essential part of being a disciple of Jesus Christ.
I now need to make sure my grader knows my answers for the assignment question for this week.
What are three things that I think someone needs to know about salvation?
1. God likes us
2. God is for God
3. Faith alone in Christ is the redemption of all sin
I talked about these three things throughout the blog post and it is bolded and under it is more information of why I think it is important to know.
Thank you for reading if you did and I hope and pray that God spoke to you, not any of my words written. Don’t be afraid to ask God to reveal areas in your life that you are not living in faith and rather in sin. It is a humbling experience.
Thursday, November 7, 2013
Wow is the only way to describe it!
I am sorry I haven't posted in a long time! I don't have any other excuses other than = WOW have I learned a lot and been jam packed with preparing for my huge project - that is due to day by the way!! I am going to present an Overview of the Bible in 30 minutes. (that is not a lot of time at all) I am beyond excited to present what I have worked so hard on. I still have things I know I want to change and add to it but for today I will give what I have done and do it to the best of my ability. I am nervous but still excited. I am taking a break from practicing it to write this post. I actually have an assignment due in a blog reflection that is due by monday. I have time right now and wanted my mind off the project for a moment to relax.
Last Friday I had my student speech - every friday we have student speeches over a passage of scripture that we are going over in our precepts of Abraham. It was my friday to present and my scripture was Galatians 3:10-14. It was a lot of fun to research this passage more in-depth and prepare a 15 minute talk to an audience of our choice. I choose to talk to High School Aged Believers - so like at a K-Life. My main point to hit home in these verses was Jesus as our Redeemer. I gave the illustration of locking my keys in my car like I always do and said I needed a redeemer and went from there to talk more about the text, The Law, Faith, Jesus our Redeemer and tying them all together.
The weekend consisted of all hours working on Bible Overview Outline. I did take the evenings to spend with people. I went to Dana's BBQ for dinner on Friday, Saturday was with my host home, and Sunday lunch was with The Wades - newly married friends here at The Institute.
Monday was a regular scheduled day with precepts and a lifeline statement (Homosexuality) and then a teacher in the afternoon. This weeks subject was Marriage and Family.
Our teacher on Monday afternoon, talked about Emotional Intelligence and how that relates to the work place and marriage and family. He was really funny and we had a great time with all the information that he gave us.
Tuesday and Wednesday we had Keith Chancey and Chad Hampsch alternate back and forth and talk about different aspects of a relationship specifically marriage
My assignment is to reflect on what they talked about. Since I am already married I will not be reflecting on what I learned that was new, because I just went through what they talked about this past summer and I have been married for over a year. So I will be reflecting on three points that just hit home again while listening to them speak
1. In conflict be specific to the issue and attack the problem not the person
This is a communication skill and ultimately communication is key to having a health relationship. Communication allows for intimacy through hearing the heart and emotions of your spouse. Good communication takes away unmet expectations because you are communicated and for spoken expectations to be met. Communication allows for respect and love to be in harmony
2. In resolving conflict you ultimate goal is not to be right but to have a WIN-WIN. This is by both parties leaving the conflict and having a part of the outcome or being reconciled or others in which gives a WIN for the relationship as a whole (each spouse) and not just an individual win which is hurtful and breaks trust for the other individual.
3. For Dan and I to cultivate a family dynamic that we want to see we must have a plan to do so. If we don't then we will revert to be like our parents or do the extreme opposite. Along with this we need a purpose in why we want our family dynamic to exemplify that.
Now I have three goals to write out to implement in my marriage or future family.
1. Communication and venerability in that communication a greater focuses to bring us closer together emotional, spiritually, and mentally and this will lead to greater intimacy
2. Start talking about our family purpose and want to set that up for success. A goal to have a purpose in the near future and other goals of how to have that happen
3. Prayer for my husband more often and with greater purpose. I want to be a better wife in this area and I know that it will beyond beneficial for our marriage.
Today at 11:10 I will be giving my Bible Overview Project and I am still so excited but getting a little more nervous. I am more excited of how I will use what I have done in relating the Bible to teach music and I have a desire to do this in our home one day.
Be encouraged today to reflect on your marriage or family and are you still striving to make your purpose happen throughout the full of it. Is your communication true or are you letting that area slip through the cracks? Have a great day reflecting on how God is evident in your marriage and family.
Last Friday I had my student speech - every friday we have student speeches over a passage of scripture that we are going over in our precepts of Abraham. It was my friday to present and my scripture was Galatians 3:10-14. It was a lot of fun to research this passage more in-depth and prepare a 15 minute talk to an audience of our choice. I choose to talk to High School Aged Believers - so like at a K-Life. My main point to hit home in these verses was Jesus as our Redeemer. I gave the illustration of locking my keys in my car like I always do and said I needed a redeemer and went from there to talk more about the text, The Law, Faith, Jesus our Redeemer and tying them all together.
The weekend consisted of all hours working on Bible Overview Outline. I did take the evenings to spend with people. I went to Dana's BBQ for dinner on Friday, Saturday was with my host home, and Sunday lunch was with The Wades - newly married friends here at The Institute.
Monday was a regular scheduled day with precepts and a lifeline statement (Homosexuality) and then a teacher in the afternoon. This weeks subject was Marriage and Family.
Our teacher on Monday afternoon, talked about Emotional Intelligence and how that relates to the work place and marriage and family. He was really funny and we had a great time with all the information that he gave us.
Tuesday and Wednesday we had Keith Chancey and Chad Hampsch alternate back and forth and talk about different aspects of a relationship specifically marriage
My assignment is to reflect on what they talked about. Since I am already married I will not be reflecting on what I learned that was new, because I just went through what they talked about this past summer and I have been married for over a year. So I will be reflecting on three points that just hit home again while listening to them speak
1. In conflict be specific to the issue and attack the problem not the person
This is a communication skill and ultimately communication is key to having a health relationship. Communication allows for intimacy through hearing the heart and emotions of your spouse. Good communication takes away unmet expectations because you are communicated and for spoken expectations to be met. Communication allows for respect and love to be in harmony
2. In resolving conflict you ultimate goal is not to be right but to have a WIN-WIN. This is by both parties leaving the conflict and having a part of the outcome or being reconciled or others in which gives a WIN for the relationship as a whole (each spouse) and not just an individual win which is hurtful and breaks trust for the other individual.
3. For Dan and I to cultivate a family dynamic that we want to see we must have a plan to do so. If we don't then we will revert to be like our parents or do the extreme opposite. Along with this we need a purpose in why we want our family dynamic to exemplify that.
Now I have three goals to write out to implement in my marriage or future family.
1. Communication and venerability in that communication a greater focuses to bring us closer together emotional, spiritually, and mentally and this will lead to greater intimacy
2. Start talking about our family purpose and want to set that up for success. A goal to have a purpose in the near future and other goals of how to have that happen
3. Prayer for my husband more often and with greater purpose. I want to be a better wife in this area and I know that it will beyond beneficial for our marriage.
Today at 11:10 I will be giving my Bible Overview Project and I am still so excited but getting a little more nervous. I am more excited of how I will use what I have done in relating the Bible to teach music and I have a desire to do this in our home one day.
Be encouraged today to reflect on your marriage or family and are you still striving to make your purpose happen throughout the full of it. Is your communication true or are you letting that area slip through the cracks? Have a great day reflecting on how God is evident in your marriage and family.
Thursday, October 31, 2013
Kingdom Era
Hi everyone,
The past couple days have been jammed packed! I got out of class today 2 hours early so I get to write this post earlier than I expected.
Last week was spirit week and each day we had a different theme to dress up as. Dan and I did terrible in this area because we didn't give the time or thought into it, However, on Friday we had a powder puff football game. My team was the Duck Divas and we dressed in camo as our team colors. I have not dressed up in camo in a really long time, unlike my sister who loves that color/print. I actually had to go and buy a fleece jacket to wear during the game because I didn't have anything camo to wear for the game. The fleece worked great and it didn't look to bad on me. Own team did not win the tournament but had some fun playing and watching the other games.
Saturday consisted of Dan and I getting away from the Branson and taking some time just for us. We went up to Ozark, MO and stayed till Sunday morning. It was a quick 24 hours but it was so great to get out of our regular routine and just relax. And I got much need laundry done! We got lunch at Chick-fil-A and watched movies all day. Home Alone 1 and 2, The Italian Job, and the first season of The Next Great Baker. Dan researched about his new project - making his own sequencer - which is a audio devise that allows you to flip one switch and that then proceeds to turn on all other audio devise in a certain order. I worked on our Bible Overview Project that is due next week. Altogether it was a great relaxing weekend and I felt refreshed as well as productive at the same time. On Sunday we went to church had a youth meeting with lunch after and then had the rest of the day to work on Bible Overview back on campus.
This week in class we got the privilege to study the Kingdom Era in more depth. Our teacher was James Skinner from Louisiana and he definitely had an accent. We walked chapter by chapter through 1st and 2nd Samuel then briefly looked into 1st and 2nd Kings and 1st and 2nd Chronicles.
I learned a lot with the slower teaching of this time period. I loved learning about the heart of each one of the kings during the United Kingdom - Saul, David, and Solomon. I gained a new insight of how much God really does desire to have our WHOLE HEART following, trusting, seeking and devoted to God.
Here are the notes I have on each of the King's hearts and how they were so different.
Saul - Had no heart for the Lord and this is seen through these aspects of Saul's life and others.
1. He was chosen to be King and his outward appearance was a big deal in this- height, looks and etc. - 1 Samuel 9:2, 10:1
2. He was scared to death to be King and hide instead of seek out the Lord for help - 1 Samuel 10:18-27, 13:8-14, 17:10-11
3. He did not do what the Lord asked, and was disobedient and therefore God rejected him - 1 Samuel 13:8-14, 15:22-26
David - Whole heart for the Lord and this is seen through these aspects of David's life and others.
1. God saw his heart and that is why he was anointed king - 1 Samuel 16:7, 13
2. He trusted the Lord to provide and sought out His will - 1 Samuel 17:45-47, 23:1-5,
3. He spared Saul's life even though Saul was trying to kill David - 1 Samuel 24:3-12, 26:6-25
4. Listened to council - 1 Samuel 25:32-33, 2 Samuel 12:1-13
5. Sought forgiveness of own sin - 2 Samuel 12:13, Psalms 51
Solomon - Had half a heart for the Lord and this is seen through these aspects of Saul's life and others
1. Followed what David, his dad, had taught him - 1 Chronicles 28, 2 Chronicles 1:1, 1 Kings 2:4,12
2. He got distracted by Wealth, Women, and Horses from Egypt. Our teacher said Wheels for the Horses because then the three things that Solomon did to lose his heart for the Lord all start with W. 1 Kings 10:22-23, 11:1-2, 10:26-29
3. He did not follow the ordinances of the Lord as king. Deuteronomy 17:14-20, 1 Kings 11:10-11
By learning about these kings and how God views their hearts, I now know what it means to have the kind of heart the Lord desires.
1. To seek forgiveness and forgive - Ephesians 4:32, Luke 11:4, Matthew 6:14
2. To Trust in the Lord with every aspect of my walk - Proverbs 3:5-6
3. To walk in His commandments
On Monday we did our lifeline and it was about Marriage, Divorce, and Blended Families. It was a hard statement to write because of the hurt that some people feel because of this situation. The Bible is very clear on these issues the hard part is speaking to people in these situations because of the relationship part of the difficulty. Truth is truth and it is best to live by it but when it is broken that is when heart ache happens and speaking truth is hard to communicate.
Be encouraged, God is for us and He wants our full devotion. So what in your life do you need give up and turn towards God and walk closer with Him?
Have an amazing day examining your walk with the Lord and making the decision to walk closer to Him by searching your heart of anything that is not of Him.
The past couple days have been jammed packed! I got out of class today 2 hours early so I get to write this post earlier than I expected.
Last week was spirit week and each day we had a different theme to dress up as. Dan and I did terrible in this area because we didn't give the time or thought into it, However, on Friday we had a powder puff football game. My team was the Duck Divas and we dressed in camo as our team colors. I have not dressed up in camo in a really long time, unlike my sister who loves that color/print. I actually had to go and buy a fleece jacket to wear during the game because I didn't have anything camo to wear for the game. The fleece worked great and it didn't look to bad on me. Own team did not win the tournament but had some fun playing and watching the other games.
Saturday consisted of Dan and I getting away from the Branson and taking some time just for us. We went up to Ozark, MO and stayed till Sunday morning. It was a quick 24 hours but it was so great to get out of our regular routine and just relax. And I got much need laundry done! We got lunch at Chick-fil-A and watched movies all day. Home Alone 1 and 2, The Italian Job, and the first season of The Next Great Baker. Dan researched about his new project - making his own sequencer - which is a audio devise that allows you to flip one switch and that then proceeds to turn on all other audio devise in a certain order. I worked on our Bible Overview Project that is due next week. Altogether it was a great relaxing weekend and I felt refreshed as well as productive at the same time. On Sunday we went to church had a youth meeting with lunch after and then had the rest of the day to work on Bible Overview back on campus.
This week in class we got the privilege to study the Kingdom Era in more depth. Our teacher was James Skinner from Louisiana and he definitely had an accent. We walked chapter by chapter through 1st and 2nd Samuel then briefly looked into 1st and 2nd Kings and 1st and 2nd Chronicles.
I learned a lot with the slower teaching of this time period. I loved learning about the heart of each one of the kings during the United Kingdom - Saul, David, and Solomon. I gained a new insight of how much God really does desire to have our WHOLE HEART following, trusting, seeking and devoted to God.
Here are the notes I have on each of the King's hearts and how they were so different.
Saul - Had no heart for the Lord and this is seen through these aspects of Saul's life and others.
1. He was chosen to be King and his outward appearance was a big deal in this- height, looks and etc. - 1 Samuel 9:2, 10:1
2. He was scared to death to be King and hide instead of seek out the Lord for help - 1 Samuel 10:18-27, 13:8-14, 17:10-11
3. He did not do what the Lord asked, and was disobedient and therefore God rejected him - 1 Samuel 13:8-14, 15:22-26
David - Whole heart for the Lord and this is seen through these aspects of David's life and others.
1. God saw his heart and that is why he was anointed king - 1 Samuel 16:7, 13
2. He trusted the Lord to provide and sought out His will - 1 Samuel 17:45-47, 23:1-5,
3. He spared Saul's life even though Saul was trying to kill David - 1 Samuel 24:3-12, 26:6-25
4. Listened to council - 1 Samuel 25:32-33, 2 Samuel 12:1-13
5. Sought forgiveness of own sin - 2 Samuel 12:13, Psalms 51
Solomon - Had half a heart for the Lord and this is seen through these aspects of Saul's life and others
1. Followed what David, his dad, had taught him - 1 Chronicles 28, 2 Chronicles 1:1, 1 Kings 2:4,12
2. He got distracted by Wealth, Women, and Horses from Egypt. Our teacher said Wheels for the Horses because then the three things that Solomon did to lose his heart for the Lord all start with W. 1 Kings 10:22-23, 11:1-2, 10:26-29
3. He did not follow the ordinances of the Lord as king. Deuteronomy 17:14-20, 1 Kings 11:10-11
By learning about these kings and how God views their hearts, I now know what it means to have the kind of heart the Lord desires.
1. To seek forgiveness and forgive - Ephesians 4:32, Luke 11:4, Matthew 6:14
2. To Trust in the Lord with every aspect of my walk - Proverbs 3:5-6
3. To walk in His commandments
On Monday we did our lifeline and it was about Marriage, Divorce, and Blended Families. It was a hard statement to write because of the hurt that some people feel because of this situation. The Bible is very clear on these issues the hard part is speaking to people in these situations because of the relationship part of the difficulty. Truth is truth and it is best to live by it but when it is broken that is when heart ache happens and speaking truth is hard to communicate.
Be encouraged, God is for us and He wants our full devotion. So what in your life do you need give up and turn towards God and walk closer with Him?
Have an amazing day examining your walk with the Lord and making the decision to walk closer to Him by searching your heart of anything that is not of Him.
Friday, October 25, 2013
Church History
Hello
I had an incredible weekend and week of class!
This weekend consisted of spending quality time with my husband!! It was so much fun! We did a date night on Friday night that consisted of us trying once again to eat at Vasken's Deli and it being closed. Who knew that they closed at 5 everyday! It was a great disappointment but it didn't ruin our night. We went to Panera and enjoyed getting bread bowls! We then headed to our local church home and was apart of "The Great Date Night" they church facilitated games, dessert, and entertainment - Skinny Improv. It was an amazing night of laughter and intentional conversation! I loved getting to finally hangout with my husband off The Institute campus and alone from our classmates. Saturday was homework day and then another little date night away from everyone. Branson was having a Hot Air Balloon Festival and we had been given free tickets for a tethered ride from Heather Holland (My friend from kamp and the cook for the Link Year this year). So we headed to the Branson Rex Plex and made it just in time to get a ride on one of the Balloons. Sunday was again another homework day working on our Bible Overview Projects and preparing for the party I was going to throw for the Wades on Monday night.
This week's subject in class was Church History, and man did I learn a ton!! I walked in knowing very little. I knew that there were different denominations but didn't know why. I knew the Church started with a Jewish background because those are God's chosen people and that is Jesus heritage. But that was about it. So my mind is again on overload with all the information I took in over the past week.
On Monday we did not talk about Church History till the afternoon, but did our regular schedule Monday. Precepts and then Lifeline Statement. Our statement for this week was Music and Movies. In the afternoon we got the privilege to have Hollis Jones come and speak to us. He taught us about leadership. How it is more about Who than What and How. That meaning is it is more about your character and who you are than how you perform or what your abilities are.
I am going to talk now about the party I threw for the Wades. This is a couple that came to The Institute engaged and just got married on October 21, 2013. Both of them went to OSU with Dan and I and we knew them while there through K-Life. I had planned before hand to throw her a couple shower for The Institute class and them. Then they moved the date up and I made it a party to welcome them back to The Institute as the newly married couple. It was a blast!!! I had so much fun planning it. I had some amazing help from other girls in my class and ladies in the town of Branson.
It was a country two-steppin party. We taught lessons and had an amazing time. I had a photo booth and dessert to eat. The main dessert was cupcakes. I had engagement pictures printed out, candles, and flowers to decorate with. The colors were navy and mustard yellow. It was gorgeous and Ali Pav. A wonderful friend of mine here at The Institute helped immensely with the decorations. I provided the supplies and she set it up beautifully with the help of other girls in my class as well. All together it was great desserts and fellowship in learning how to dance.
Tuesday - Thursday Church History
We had Chad Hampsch as our teacher for this week. He is so knowledgeable because he has given the time to study the Word and history. Two subjects he fully enjoys and is excited to share what he has learned.
I have an assignment due Friday night over what we learned about Church History and a blog reflection is apart of that. Therefore, this next section maybe a little different than how I would usually write because I will be answer specific questions for my assignment.
1. How has learning about Church History changed my view of the body of Christ?
I believe my view of the Church body has changed through actually knowing what happened and it pushes me to believe that a healthy Church body takes a lot of work. Therefore, less judgmental towards church bodies and more open to search why they are the way they are, and find one that I want to be apart of.
Before learning what I did this week I thought each Church body had a good road map to become healthy, but that is not the case. There are many different variances of what a Church body can look like. Now don't get me wrong, there are certain things that make up a Christian Church! Believing in Jesus and his humanity and deity and that he died and rose again, the Bible is the inerrant, inspired, and authoritative Word of God and some others. But when it comes to service, worship, time, place these are more of the lenient aspects of the Church body and can be different across the board.
Therefore, learning about the different time periods of the Church's history and how the Church body responded was exciting and also saddening. There were great moments and terrible moments. My view like I said has changed to understand more clearly that a healthy body takes a lot of work and it is not just something established as soon as a new Church starts.
Not one denomination is right, all have their flaws and all have their strengths.
2. What is my responsibility to the body look like?
I believe this is to SERVE. One way is to use your Spiritual Gifts for the service of the Church Body. Just last week we talked about Spiritual Gifts and I totally believe that using those in the body you attend is crucial. Therefore, my Spiritual Gifts are Service and Administration and I can use them for the Church body in many ways. Doing work in any area that is behind the scenes, like making the bulletin, helping prepare the potluck supper for the church, helping organize church events, help with cleaning days of the church and the list goes on. I could also help in the front lines like in one of the ministry, student, nursery, etc. Now I also believe that you can serve where the church needs it so asking is the first step and you hope that in some area you can use your gift to serve them there. However service is the ultimate goal and if they line up with your Spiritual Gifts that is a plus.
Our time with Chad Hampsch consisted of walking from the first church in Acts to Present day and including key people with each time period. Here is the very broad outline.
The Age of Catholic Christianity 70-312
The Age of Imperial Christianity 312-590
The Age of Christendom 590-1517
The Age of Reformation 1517-1648
The Age of Reason and Revival 1648-1789
The Age of Revival in America 1720-1857
The Age of Ideologies 1914-Present
Altogether this week was a great week of learning and reflecting on God's sovereignty and how He is still working in our world now.
Spend sometime today reflecting on what God has been doing in your life and your church today. Praise Him for the struggles and the triumphs. Maybe even pray for God to reveal how you can be of service for your church or the church body.
It was a country two-steppin party. We taught lessons and had an amazing time. I had a photo booth and dessert to eat. The main dessert was cupcakes. I had engagement pictures printed out, candles, and flowers to decorate with. The colors were navy and mustard yellow. It was gorgeous and Ali Pav. A wonderful friend of mine here at The Institute helped immensely with the decorations. I provided the supplies and she set it up beautifully with the help of other girls in my class as well. All together it was great desserts and fellowship in learning how to dance.
Tuesday - Thursday Church History
We had Chad Hampsch as our teacher for this week. He is so knowledgeable because he has given the time to study the Word and history. Two subjects he fully enjoys and is excited to share what he has learned.
I have an assignment due Friday night over what we learned about Church History and a blog reflection is apart of that. Therefore, this next section maybe a little different than how I would usually write because I will be answer specific questions for my assignment.
1. How has learning about Church History changed my view of the body of Christ?
I believe my view of the Church body has changed through actually knowing what happened and it pushes me to believe that a healthy Church body takes a lot of work. Therefore, less judgmental towards church bodies and more open to search why they are the way they are, and find one that I want to be apart of.
Before learning what I did this week I thought each Church body had a good road map to become healthy, but that is not the case. There are many different variances of what a Church body can look like. Now don't get me wrong, there are certain things that make up a Christian Church! Believing in Jesus and his humanity and deity and that he died and rose again, the Bible is the inerrant, inspired, and authoritative Word of God and some others. But when it comes to service, worship, time, place these are more of the lenient aspects of the Church body and can be different across the board.
Therefore, learning about the different time periods of the Church's history and how the Church body responded was exciting and also saddening. There were great moments and terrible moments. My view like I said has changed to understand more clearly that a healthy body takes a lot of work and it is not just something established as soon as a new Church starts.
Not one denomination is right, all have their flaws and all have their strengths.
2. What is my responsibility to the body look like?
I believe this is to SERVE. One way is to use your Spiritual Gifts for the service of the Church Body. Just last week we talked about Spiritual Gifts and I totally believe that using those in the body you attend is crucial. Therefore, my Spiritual Gifts are Service and Administration and I can use them for the Church body in many ways. Doing work in any area that is behind the scenes, like making the bulletin, helping prepare the potluck supper for the church, helping organize church events, help with cleaning days of the church and the list goes on. I could also help in the front lines like in one of the ministry, student, nursery, etc. Now I also believe that you can serve where the church needs it so asking is the first step and you hope that in some area you can use your gift to serve them there. However service is the ultimate goal and if they line up with your Spiritual Gifts that is a plus.
Our time with Chad Hampsch consisted of walking from the first church in Acts to Present day and including key people with each time period. Here is the very broad outline.
The Age of Catholic Christianity 70-312
The Age of Imperial Christianity 312-590
The Age of Christendom 590-1517
The Age of Reformation 1517-1648
The Age of Reason and Revival 1648-1789
The Age of Revival in America 1720-1857
The Age of Ideologies 1914-Present
Altogether this week was a great week of learning and reflecting on God's sovereignty and how He is still working in our world now.
Spend sometime today reflecting on what God has been doing in your life and your church today. Praise Him for the struggles and the triumphs. Maybe even pray for God to reveal how you can be of service for your church or the church body.
Thursday, October 17, 2013
Learning about Yourself Personally
Monday was a packed day! We did many things and had class
in the morning and afternoon. This will be our regular Monday schedule from now
on. We all start off splitting up boys and girls to spend time talking over the
past weeks precepts that we did individually. We are studying the life of
Abraham. We then went into group worship and were presented our Lifeline Topic
for the day. Our topic this past week was Body a Temple. We had about 45
minutes to work on our statement to tell what we belief about The Temple Being
a Temple. The last part of the assignment is to be given a scenario and talk in
groups about how to approach the scenario and then talk in class about them.
After lunch we came back to the classroom and got the afternoon to examine
ourselves. We spent the afternoon talking about spiritual gifts and
personality. We took two tests to discover our top spiritual gifts and search
out what we thought of our personality and others as well. My top three
spiritual gifts are Administration, Service, and Mercy. We took the DISC test
on finding out our personality. I am a S and a closely followed C. I am People
Oriented Reserved person. Then I am a Task-Oriented Reserved person.
On Wednesday and Thursday we got the privilege to have Rod
Handley come and teach us about Character and Integrity. Here are some of the
highlights over the two days.
What does character
(integrity) produce? What are the benefits of leading a life of character?
1)
A clear _Conscious _ (Psalm 26:1-2, 11)
2)
It _Delights_ God (Psalm 15)
3)
The inheritance of a lingering _Legacy_
(Proverbs 20:7)
4)
The opportunity of being a _Mentor_
(Proverbs 11:3)
Paul (Training and
Equipping You), Timothy (You are Training and Equipping Others),
Barnabas (Encourager and Friend)
5)
True __Leaders__ develops (Job 8:20)
E.V. Hill, “If people
aren’t following you, you’re not leading; you’re just taking a walk.”
6)
A __Humble__ servant heart emerges (Psalm
78:70-72)
7)
A __Crown of Glory__ awaits the good
finisher (James 1:12, this does talk about salvation, however, Ron believes it
also talks further about our integrity)
He then gave us Illustrations of Humility from the Bible and
gave a principle to go along with it.
1. Matthew 18:1-5
Principle: Humility begins with a teachable spirit
2. Matthew 20:25-28
Principle: Christian humility is simply going down
3. John 13 & Luke 22:14-38 Principle: True humility is drawing close to
God
I loved this quote from Ted Engstrom that Ron shared with
us, “Accountability is the greatest prize of integrity. Accountability starts
with yours truly—with an honest appraisal of who we are, of what makes us tick.
It includes a long, hard look at our own ideals and motives. When we give an
accurate account of what we think and what we do, then those around us can come
to rely on us with confidence.” He gave us this quote after talking about how
to sustain character and integrity. Then we went into detail about accountability.
Some of the verses that impacted me about accountability
were
Hebrews 3:13 “But encourage one another day after day, as
long as it is still called ‘Today,’ lest anyone of you be hardened by the
deceitfulness of sin.”
Proverbs 12:1 “Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but
he who hates reproof is stupid.”
Confess, Prayer, Healing = James 5:16 “Therefore, confess
your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed.
The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.”
Hebrews 12:11 “No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but
painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace
for those who have been trained by it.”
We have a huge test tomorrow morning over all that we learned last week from our Bible Overview Teachers. I studied really hard on Wednesday because I knew Thursday would be packed with other things! I am going to study some last little things I need to review one more time!
Be encouraged, Once we become filled with the Holy Spirit we are given a spiritual gift to uplift in the church and the church body. I would challenge you to seek out a test online and take it - they only take 15 minutes. By knowing what your gifts are then you can use them within the church and everyday life to share the gospel! So take a test even if it has been years since you have! It will be really fun to learn something about yourself.
Have an amazing time learning about yourself!!
Monday, October 14, 2013
Catch Up!
I am so sorry it has been a full week + some and I have not posted! It has been a crazy crazy awesome week!!! (Sorry Mimi it is so late.)
Anyways, I have finally gotten some down time to post for just a little bit.
This past week was Bible Overview week. I can describe it like this.
In 24 hours total in the classroom this past week we walked from Genesis to Revelations twice. We had two teachers walk us through the full Bible. We had 3 class periods with each, therefore in 12 hours we had walked through the Bible. Both of the teachers did a 1000 foot view and had very different teaching styles. Karen Chancey was the first teacher and she taught Monday - Wednesday Morning. She did a huge Visual Ad/Time Line that we filled in for the full Bible and 77 hand motions that explains the high points of the old testament. Mitch Maher was our second teacher and he taught Wednesday Afternoon - Friday. He taught us in person his dvd presentation called "Clarifying the Bible" He had written 20 Sentences that tell the story of the whole Bible.
Needless to say, we were overwhelmed with information this week. Each teacher brought up different parts of the Bible and I know for me and I can easily say for all the class that we learned something everyday.
Example: how to remember how many books are in each Testament = Old Testament is How many letters in OLD = 3 and how many letters in TESTAMENT = 9 and guess what there are 39 books in the Old Testament!! New Testament is How many letters are in NEW=3 and how many letters are in TESTAMENT=9 and this testament is about the TIMES of the Gentiles = 3x9=27 and guess what there are 27 books in the New Testament.
Example:I can show you on a map the route of for the People of God starting with Abram and going to Canaan then Israel then Captivity then back to Israel. Also I can show you the route of each one of Paul's Missionary Journeys and Imprisonments.
I loved this week's teaching and I am excited to dig into books more in-depth. Daniel/Revelations and 1 John I know for sure we will be doing at some point during the year.
With this weeks teaching we have successfully been taught the Bible from cover to cover with a 1000 foot view and we have our main project for the semester that goes this that.
We have a Bible Overview Presentation due on Nov. 8th or 9th. This project is us teaching in front of Karen Chancey and Mary Beth (our grader for the year) and in 30 short minutes walk through the Bible. We are able to choose an age group to focus on. Being creative and making it be useful to what you want to do after the Institute is key. Example if you want to teach high school youth after this tailor it to that, if you want to teach by just speaking to people at a coffee shop have it on laminated notecards that can fit in your purse, If you want to teach to kids have a puppet show or tell it in character.
I believe after just thinking about it for about a day I am going to do something with music and teaching piano notes at the same time. So elementary music lessons with Bible Overview involved. I will keep you posted the more I work on it! I am very excited about the project.
Other fun things that have happened the past week.
We had Jack Herschend come and speak to us for about an hour on Monday. We had the privilege to have him talk about politics and our founding fathers and to think about why our country is faltering from such ideals they had set for this country. It was interesting but not enough time to fully dissect the topic. If you don't know Jack Herschend is the Founder and Owner of Silver Dollar City here in Branson as well as other Amusement Parks in the United States.
On Monday we had our first Lifeline Statement Assigned to us. This assignment is very much so like the Belief Statement but it is over a hot topic in the world and not necessarily over doctrine. Both Belief Statements and Lifeline Statements are valuable. This last weeks topic was Pornography.
On Wednesday we went to Chapel for the month. Keith Chancey was the speaker and talked about the Key Matthew 16:13-24.
K-There is a Kost for the Kingdom - Verse 21
E-Eternal Perspective - Verse 22-23
Y-Yield Yourself to God - Verse 24
On Thursday we were introduced to a college ministry called Lightbearers. This ministry is really really really cool. They (staff of lightbearers) build and own a apartment complex near a college campus and have distinct tenants who are coming to live there to be in an intense discipleship program for their year stay. Lightbearers have found church members in the town to come and disciple the students as well as actual Lightbearers staff. After the first year of staying at the apartment complex you can stay again and you are asked to find three new people to live with you and you be the discipler to those three people. The cool thing is there is accountability and a community that uplifts and encourages you to pursue Christ. Another cool thing is that all rent money goes to support an Oversees Ministry, Orphanage or Well Project or others that Lightbearers are apart of. Now I know you are thinking why did we get told about this ministry because we are out of college. We got told because they are in the process of opening up other apartment complexes and need more staff to start it up - so us coming to work with them and disciple college students. The University of Arkansas is the only active college doing this and Oklahoma State University has built the apartment complex and will be starting very soon. I loved hearing about the program!
This weekend was very chill, Dan's Parents and Sister came up on Saturday to watch Joseph at Sight and Sound. Then stayed till Sunday and we went shopping.
This Saturday also a ton of our classmates got the chance to go to Dallas Texas and witness the Marriage Ceremony of two of our classmates! Connor and Shelby Wade!! We (Dan and I) are beyond excited to walk life with them their first year of marriage and years to come prayerfully.
That is what has happened here in my small little world. Studying God's Word, Learning more about it everyday, doing incredible assignments, hanging out with classmates and creating projects to teach the Bible to others! It has been an incredible first month here at The Institute.
Other fun things that have happened the past week.
We had Jack Herschend come and speak to us for about an hour on Monday. We had the privilege to have him talk about politics and our founding fathers and to think about why our country is faltering from such ideals they had set for this country. It was interesting but not enough time to fully dissect the topic. If you don't know Jack Herschend is the Founder and Owner of Silver Dollar City here in Branson as well as other Amusement Parks in the United States.
On Monday we had our first Lifeline Statement Assigned to us. This assignment is very much so like the Belief Statement but it is over a hot topic in the world and not necessarily over doctrine. Both Belief Statements and Lifeline Statements are valuable. This last weeks topic was Pornography.
On Wednesday we went to Chapel for the month. Keith Chancey was the speaker and talked about the Key Matthew 16:13-24.
K-There is a Kost for the Kingdom - Verse 21
E-Eternal Perspective - Verse 22-23
Y-Yield Yourself to God - Verse 24
On Thursday we were introduced to a college ministry called Lightbearers. This ministry is really really really cool. They (staff of lightbearers) build and own a apartment complex near a college campus and have distinct tenants who are coming to live there to be in an intense discipleship program for their year stay. Lightbearers have found church members in the town to come and disciple the students as well as actual Lightbearers staff. After the first year of staying at the apartment complex you can stay again and you are asked to find three new people to live with you and you be the discipler to those three people. The cool thing is there is accountability and a community that uplifts and encourages you to pursue Christ. Another cool thing is that all rent money goes to support an Oversees Ministry, Orphanage or Well Project or others that Lightbearers are apart of. Now I know you are thinking why did we get told about this ministry because we are out of college. We got told because they are in the process of opening up other apartment complexes and need more staff to start it up - so us coming to work with them and disciple college students. The University of Arkansas is the only active college doing this and Oklahoma State University has built the apartment complex and will be starting very soon. I loved hearing about the program!
This weekend was very chill, Dan's Parents and Sister came up on Saturday to watch Joseph at Sight and Sound. Then stayed till Sunday and we went shopping.
This Saturday also a ton of our classmates got the chance to go to Dallas Texas and witness the Marriage Ceremony of two of our classmates! Connor and Shelby Wade!! We (Dan and I) are beyond excited to walk life with them their first year of marriage and years to come prayerfully.
That is what has happened here in my small little world. Studying God's Word, Learning more about it everyday, doing incredible assignments, hanging out with classmates and creating projects to teach the Bible to others! It has been an incredible first month here at The Institute.
Thursday, October 3, 2013
Inductive Bible Study
Hello Blog Followers!
I am so excited to share with you all what has happened these last couple days!
Monday-Wednesday we had David Lawson as our speaker. I started talking about his stay at the end of my last post. He came to talk with us and teach us about how to Inductively Study the Bible. He actually works for a company called Precept Ministries International that creates Inductive Bible Studies for people. We- as The Institute Class- are going to go through Genesis Part 3, Becoming a Friend of the Faithful God, A Study on Abraham, Chapters 12-25.
David told us about himself and then explained how to use an Inductive Bible Study format in studying God's Word.
There are three principles in this study - Observation, Interpretation, Application.
Observation - What does the text say?
This step takes the most time but allows you to understand the text in a deeper level so that you can interpret it and then apply it to your life
In this step you question the text with the 5-Ws and 1-H, who, what, when, where, why, and how.
You also look for the obvious which are People, Places, Events, and Repeated Words and you mark them in your Bible or on a separate word document. This is so that you see the pattern and flow of the text. I love this step and do both in my Bible and on a separate word document. There is a lot to mark so I don't mark everything in my Bible or I would be overwhelmed. However, marking truly does show the patterns and helps you focus on the words of the text.
Once you mark then you make a list of what you learned. So make a list of Paul and Timothy when you read 1 or 2 Timothy. Then evaluate the list and look for application and ask questions.
Interpretation - What does it mean?
During this step you look at the context and the biggest thing is to remember that CONTEXT RULE INTERPRETATION. Interpretation will be correct with solid observation. During this step you do word studies and cross references.
Application - So what?
In this step you have two different areas that you can apply the text into your life.
Either belief or behavior.
After learning about the three principles to Inductive Bible Study we put it into action and started our precept study on Abraham. It was a lot of fun to do it in class and talk through the questions out loud with each other.
Today's and Tomorrow's speaker I am going to hold off on and talk about in my next post over the weekend. You will be stunned by the stories I share and there are even ones I won't be able to because of confidentiality sake. Anyways that is all I am going to say and keep you on the edge of your seat until I post again.
I just have two more quick social aspects of The Institute to share on this post.
1. Wednesday the girls received their accountability partners and touch point leaders. I was beyond excited to finally know who these people were going to be in my life. We were given a notecard with our names on them. There was a symbol and a color lined on them as well. The color indicated what touch point we were in and the symbol who our accountability partner was within that touch point group. It was so so fun. We had to search around the dinning hall for our group and accountability partner. I was so lucky to get the young women I have as an accountability partner. We actually walked in together so didn't have to search long to know we were together. Her name is Annalisa Keipert. She goes by Anna! She is super fun and can't wait to get to know her better throughout our stay here and years to come! My touchpoint leader is Cat Hampsch! Super excited about that because got to spend some great time with her over the summer. She is so wise and has three kids that she is incredible with. I have one more set of girls in the touchpoint group. Liz and Kimia. So we will get to know each other really well.
2. I started my internship and I am having a blast with it. I am in the planning stage and doing a lot of brain storming. I am excited for how it will turn out!
Thanks for reading my blog today and be challenged in looking into doing an Inductive Bible Study. You can go to any Christian Book Store and ask for them. You can do any book of the Bible. I loved 2 Timothy and James. Go and have a great day!
David told us about himself and then explained how to use an Inductive Bible Study format in studying God's Word.
There are three principles in this study - Observation, Interpretation, Application.
Observation - What does the text say?
This step takes the most time but allows you to understand the text in a deeper level so that you can interpret it and then apply it to your life
In this step you question the text with the 5-Ws and 1-H, who, what, when, where, why, and how.
You also look for the obvious which are People, Places, Events, and Repeated Words and you mark them in your Bible or on a separate word document. This is so that you see the pattern and flow of the text. I love this step and do both in my Bible and on a separate word document. There is a lot to mark so I don't mark everything in my Bible or I would be overwhelmed. However, marking truly does show the patterns and helps you focus on the words of the text.
Once you mark then you make a list of what you learned. So make a list of Paul and Timothy when you read 1 or 2 Timothy. Then evaluate the list and look for application and ask questions.
Interpretation - What does it mean?
During this step you look at the context and the biggest thing is to remember that CONTEXT RULE INTERPRETATION. Interpretation will be correct with solid observation. During this step you do word studies and cross references.
Application - So what?
In this step you have two different areas that you can apply the text into your life.
Either belief or behavior.
After learning about the three principles to Inductive Bible Study we put it into action and started our precept study on Abraham. It was a lot of fun to do it in class and talk through the questions out loud with each other.
Today's and Tomorrow's speaker I am going to hold off on and talk about in my next post over the weekend. You will be stunned by the stories I share and there are even ones I won't be able to because of confidentiality sake. Anyways that is all I am going to say and keep you on the edge of your seat until I post again.
I just have two more quick social aspects of The Institute to share on this post.
1. Wednesday the girls received their accountability partners and touch point leaders. I was beyond excited to finally know who these people were going to be in my life. We were given a notecard with our names on them. There was a symbol and a color lined on them as well. The color indicated what touch point we were in and the symbol who our accountability partner was within that touch point group. It was so so fun. We had to search around the dinning hall for our group and accountability partner. I was so lucky to get the young women I have as an accountability partner. We actually walked in together so didn't have to search long to know we were together. Her name is Annalisa Keipert. She goes by Anna! She is super fun and can't wait to get to know her better throughout our stay here and years to come! My touchpoint leader is Cat Hampsch! Super excited about that because got to spend some great time with her over the summer. She is so wise and has three kids that she is incredible with. I have one more set of girls in the touchpoint group. Liz and Kimia. So we will get to know each other really well.
2. I started my internship and I am having a blast with it. I am in the planning stage and doing a lot of brain storming. I am excited for how it will turn out!
Thanks for reading my blog today and be challenged in looking into doing an Inductive Bible Study. You can go to any Christian Book Store and ask for them. You can do any book of the Bible. I loved 2 Timothy and James. Go and have a great day!
Monday, September 30, 2013
Hurray, catch up day!!
Hi
I am going to catch everyone up to where I am right now! Get Excited!!
This post will be about Thursday - Monday. To finish off the month of September!
So without further a do, here I go.
Thursday
We had class in the morning and we learned about how to do a scripture memory box. This is just a tool that we can use to help memorize scripture throughout the year and for many more to come. All you need is five supplies to do this assignment.
1. Bible
2. Sharpie
3. Notecards 3x5
4. Notecard file dividers 3x5
5. Notecard box holder (from Walmart or hobby lobby)
On the notecard file dividers you will put these file names. Everyday, Monday, Tuesday, etc., 1, 2, etc - 31. By having these file names you have covered everyday of the week and the month. The object in having this scripture memory box is to continually be looking and refreshing yourself on the scripture you want to memorize. You should have no more than three verses in each section. You start by putting it in everyday and then will move it to once a week, then move it to once a month. You can go at your own pace. If you need to focus on three scripture everyday for three weeks then do so or if you can work on them one week then move to only saying them once a week and you do remember them do so. You have the freedom in that.
After talking about how to use the box we went straight into learning about our FIRST ASSIGNMENT. We were give a 4" binder and told by the end of our time here it would be filled with all of our assignments. I got so excited but really overwhelmed because of how big it was. That is going to be a lot of assignments. Then I took a step back and reminded myself that these really weren't assignments but us digging into the Word of God and having clear beliefs and vision and ways to teach what it is saying. I LOVE THAT!!! Okay, now to talk about our first real assignment that was graded and will determine if we get graduate credit and graduate from The Institute. Our assignment was to write our FIRST BELIEF STATEMENT!! I was so so pumped. We were to write about conflict resolution.
A belief statement is a statement that states your belief on any issue or concept. A belief statement is fully backed up by Scripture. This means for every thought written down on your belief statement it must be backed up with at least two verses. This is biblical-based and not opinion based. On my finished belief statement I have a paragraph of nine sentences and three pages worth of verses to back the nine sentences up with. This assignment took me quite a few hours to complete. We were given time in class on Thursday to work on it. Then I finished it up Friday afternoon. The belief statement was not the only piece to this assignment. After writing our belief statement we were asked to write a teaching outline for when we are going to teach on this subject. I chose to relate my teaching outline to middle school students. The outline had to go through the biblical way to resolve conflict mainly Matthew 18. Having your belief statement already written truly helped with this assignment. I walked through the belief statement and can teach middle schoolers how to resolve conflict. The last part to the assignment was to develop five discussion questions for a discipleship opportunity on conflict resolution.
Thursday lunch we had JBU come in and cater Danna's BBQ and afterwards talk with us about the opportunity to partner with them and get a masters program while here at The Institute or even afterwards up to five years later. Dan and I decided we will not be pursuing that avenue at the moment. We would rather be all in for what The Institute offers and its community. However, we will definitely be talking about it the next couple years again. After their talk we all went through serve safe training with Gina Hinch. This training is for us to all work in the dinning hall throughout the year. We each have a dinning hall duty that is around 3 hours a week and is apart of our tuition that is paid for us. The evening was ours to do whatever we wanted and I worked on my belief statement.
Friday
We had class in the morning and it consisted of a longer worship time of almost an hour, and us discussing our class declaration. I can see why churches struggle so much in laying the foundation for a new church. This is because of the different personalities within the body, the people pleasers, the over thinkers, the outspoken, the soft spoken and so on. It was very apparent during the two hours we worked on making a single sentence who are going to be leaders in our class. Here is our Class Declaration
The Kanakuk Institute Class of 2014 Declaration
"In order to fulfill the Great Commission, we as the KI class of 2014 commit to God through humble submission, commit to others through sacrificial love and service, and commit to ourselves to godly discipline and the unity of believers, so that He may do immeasurable more for His glory!"
The rest of Friday consisted of finishing up my belief statement assignment, eating leftovers, and playing games in the lounge with fellow Instituters.
Saturday
Sleep in day!! It was glorious to sleep in. I had breakfast at 10 and then lunch at 1. During that time I was researching supplies for a Wedding Shower I will be putting on on October 21st. After lunch I searched the stores here in Branson for supplies. I was out in the rain with no umbrella or rain jacket so it was quite an adventure going from store to store. Once I got back I had dinner and played some card games with a girl here, named Hannah. Then honestly went to bed.
Sunday
Went to FBC Branson 9:35am service and then to a newly married Sunday school group afterwards. We have been to the class twice now and really have enjoyed it. We just started a new series and it being week two it was all about Having Fun in a marriage. The lesson has us each doing something fun, exciting, and meaningful to our spouses as a surprise each day! Super fun for Dan and I to enjoy the fun planned events with each other.
Monday Today!!
We had class this morning with David Lawson. We will have him as a speaker until Wednesday. He is teaching us on how to Inductively Study our Bibles. While we are here at The Institute we will go through two precepts, one each semester. So David is setting us up for success in those. After lunch we had a short one hour talk with Chad Hampsch about Finances. He gave us the 7 principles of Dave Ramsey on living a debt free life and challenge us to start working on that this year. This evening we had fun field games with the Link Year Students. These students are just out of high school and are doing a gap year program that focuses on Biblical truth and equipping them for college. So we needed to get to know these guys and gals so why not have dinner together and then some healthy competition. Luckily, I had bug spray so I didn't get eaten alive when we went to the lower fields to play. It was a great time and my team got progressively better at each rotation of a new game. And there weren't any major fights about sportsmen like conduct or how competitive people can get.
All in all these past two weeks have been jammed packed but so great! I have learned a lot about myself and really look forward to the rest of the 8 months here.
Excited to keep you posted on what is going on here in Branson MO. My plan is of right now to post either Wednesday or Thursday and Saturday or Sunday. Thanks for your support and prayers and I hope my long posted don't make you tired or bore you. Have an amazing Tuesday and Wednesday! Talk with you soon!
After talking about how to use the box we went straight into learning about our FIRST ASSIGNMENT. We were give a 4" binder and told by the end of our time here it would be filled with all of our assignments. I got so excited but really overwhelmed because of how big it was. That is going to be a lot of assignments. Then I took a step back and reminded myself that these really weren't assignments but us digging into the Word of God and having clear beliefs and vision and ways to teach what it is saying. I LOVE THAT!!! Okay, now to talk about our first real assignment that was graded and will determine if we get graduate credit and graduate from The Institute. Our assignment was to write our FIRST BELIEF STATEMENT!! I was so so pumped. We were to write about conflict resolution.
A belief statement is a statement that states your belief on any issue or concept. A belief statement is fully backed up by Scripture. This means for every thought written down on your belief statement it must be backed up with at least two verses. This is biblical-based and not opinion based. On my finished belief statement I have a paragraph of nine sentences and three pages worth of verses to back the nine sentences up with. This assignment took me quite a few hours to complete. We were given time in class on Thursday to work on it. Then I finished it up Friday afternoon. The belief statement was not the only piece to this assignment. After writing our belief statement we were asked to write a teaching outline for when we are going to teach on this subject. I chose to relate my teaching outline to middle school students. The outline had to go through the biblical way to resolve conflict mainly Matthew 18. Having your belief statement already written truly helped with this assignment. I walked through the belief statement and can teach middle schoolers how to resolve conflict. The last part to the assignment was to develop five discussion questions for a discipleship opportunity on conflict resolution.
Thursday lunch we had JBU come in and cater Danna's BBQ and afterwards talk with us about the opportunity to partner with them and get a masters program while here at The Institute or even afterwards up to five years later. Dan and I decided we will not be pursuing that avenue at the moment. We would rather be all in for what The Institute offers and its community. However, we will definitely be talking about it the next couple years again. After their talk we all went through serve safe training with Gina Hinch. This training is for us to all work in the dinning hall throughout the year. We each have a dinning hall duty that is around 3 hours a week and is apart of our tuition that is paid for us. The evening was ours to do whatever we wanted and I worked on my belief statement.
Friday
We had class in the morning and it consisted of a longer worship time of almost an hour, and us discussing our class declaration. I can see why churches struggle so much in laying the foundation for a new church. This is because of the different personalities within the body, the people pleasers, the over thinkers, the outspoken, the soft spoken and so on. It was very apparent during the two hours we worked on making a single sentence who are going to be leaders in our class. Here is our Class Declaration
The Kanakuk Institute Class of 2014 Declaration
"In order to fulfill the Great Commission, we as the KI class of 2014 commit to God through humble submission, commit to others through sacrificial love and service, and commit to ourselves to godly discipline and the unity of believers, so that He may do immeasurable more for His glory!"
The rest of Friday consisted of finishing up my belief statement assignment, eating leftovers, and playing games in the lounge with fellow Instituters.
Saturday
Sleep in day!! It was glorious to sleep in. I had breakfast at 10 and then lunch at 1. During that time I was researching supplies for a Wedding Shower I will be putting on on October 21st. After lunch I searched the stores here in Branson for supplies. I was out in the rain with no umbrella or rain jacket so it was quite an adventure going from store to store. Once I got back I had dinner and played some card games with a girl here, named Hannah. Then honestly went to bed.
Sunday
Went to FBC Branson 9:35am service and then to a newly married Sunday school group afterwards. We have been to the class twice now and really have enjoyed it. We just started a new series and it being week two it was all about Having Fun in a marriage. The lesson has us each doing something fun, exciting, and meaningful to our spouses as a surprise each day! Super fun for Dan and I to enjoy the fun planned events with each other.
Monday Today!!
We had class this morning with David Lawson. We will have him as a speaker until Wednesday. He is teaching us on how to Inductively Study our Bibles. While we are here at The Institute we will go through two precepts, one each semester. So David is setting us up for success in those. After lunch we had a short one hour talk with Chad Hampsch about Finances. He gave us the 7 principles of Dave Ramsey on living a debt free life and challenge us to start working on that this year. This evening we had fun field games with the Link Year Students. These students are just out of high school and are doing a gap year program that focuses on Biblical truth and equipping them for college. So we needed to get to know these guys and gals so why not have dinner together and then some healthy competition. Luckily, I had bug spray so I didn't get eaten alive when we went to the lower fields to play. It was a great time and my team got progressively better at each rotation of a new game. And there weren't any major fights about sportsmen like conduct or how competitive people can get.
All in all these past two weeks have been jammed packed but so great! I have learned a lot about myself and really look forward to the rest of the 8 months here.
Excited to keep you posted on what is going on here in Branson MO. My plan is of right now to post either Wednesday or Thursday and Saturday or Sunday. Thanks for your support and prayers and I hope my long posted don't make you tired or bore you. Have an amazing Tuesday and Wednesday! Talk with you soon!
Sunday, September 29, 2013
Lazy Day
Hi everyone,
So I have had a great lazy day here in Branson, MO. I have not given myself enough time to write out a full post, but didn't want to leave anyone hanging. I will post tomorrow evening and we will all be caught up then. I hope this doesn't disappoint anyone. I really have really just enjoyed a full day of church fellowship, institute fellowship and a wonderful nap with my husband. Therefore, I didn't give blogging a second thought. I pray your Sunday brought rest and seeking God in that. Have an incredible Monday! Talk to you all soon!
Saturday, September 28, 2013
Three Incredible Speakers in 3 days!
Hello blog followers, family and friends!
Today and tomorrow are going to be yet again long posts but then you will be all caught up! My hope and plan is once I catch you up to post twice a week. So let's get started!
Monday - Todd Wagner, Tuesday - Braun Brown, and Wednesday - Timothy Ateek.
Todd Wager came to speak on conflict resolution. Todd Wagner is the pastor Watermark church in Dallas Texas. He is a long time Kanakuk Guy. His daughter goes to OSU and we did K-Life together. However, I had never heard her dad speak. So it's awesome to finally hear him speak here at The Institute. His topic was a fun one for Dan and I to hear about. Conflict resolution actually was one thing over the summer that Dan and I worked on in our marriage. Hearing what he had to say, and the steps he has placed in his church to resolve conflict was so cool to hear about.
Our main focus for the class was to review over the verses Matthew 18:15–18. This is where in the Bible Jesus talks about how to resolve conflict. First go to your brother who is in sin in private. Second take a witness if your brother doesn't listen to you. Third if your brother still does not listen to you or the witness you take it to the church. Watermark church has a field guide on how to approach these three steps if need be. Todd Wagner gave us the field guide and we walked through it together. There was time to scripture and we dug deep into them. As well as the helpful hints the field guide provided. Todd Wagner and his church believe that the reason why we resolve conflict is to glorify God. Through that we must look at our own sin first before approaching our brother. And then we are to be reconciled with God and to others.
We are called to be peacemakers, Matthew 5:9. Because of this we should see conflict as an opportunity. An opportunity to glorify God and become more like Christ in being a peacemaker. To be a good peacemaker like I said the first thing in resolving conflict is to look at your own sin in your own life, Matthew 7:5. Todd then gave us the step-by-step process that he lays out for his church in confronting a brother. He calls it the 7As to become a peacemaker.
1. Ask the Lord and others for help in self awareness.
2. Address everyone involved as soon as possible
3. Avoid the words if, but, and maybe
4. Apologize
5. Ask for forgiveness
6. Accept the consequences
7. Alter your behavior
Todd then talked about how to avoid minor offenses and what was a minor offense. He gave us four questions to ask ourselves to see if it was a offense we needed to approach your brother on or one that needed to not bother us.
1. Is the offense seriously honoring God.
2. Has it permanently damage a relationship
3. Is it seriously hurting other people
4. Is it seriously hurting the defender himself
Todd concluded his talk with talking about reconciling. We are to be reconciled by God and then to others. This is what it takes to be a peacemaker.
Braun Brown came to talk to us about student ministry. He is the head of the full student ministry at Watermark church in Dallas Texas. Yes, that is correct if you've read the post from yesterday and the section right above this, we've had three speakers from Watermark church in Dallas Texas. The staff here at The Institute truly believe that it is a church following after Christ and has biblical teaching for its members. His talk consistent of telling us key things to know about being in ministry. Here are the high points.
-Ministry is a great privilege. God doesn't NEED you to do ministry He wants to use you to do His work.
-Be teachable and passionate. Make room for God to teach you through other people. Proverbs 27:9. Always assume the best when people are teaching you.
-Live in the light and Foster living in the light. John 3:19-21.
-Relational, spiritual, and professional trust are three keys to team leadership. Own your own stuff. Prayer, accountability, sharing what God is teaching you are ways to provide a team atmosphere. The ability to get stuff done, follow through on and projects, and being all in in all aspects shows you want to be apart of the team. Having short accounts, an open door policy for confrontation, and asking forgiveness with every team member allows it to be a smooth and productive team.
-Keep the Sabbath rhythm to your life. This means to have rest. Physical, spiritual, and emotional. These are all part of keeping your Sabbath restful. Know the signs of when you're in a stage unrest, and need to take some time for yourself.
-Trust God it's writing the story. Examples such as David and Joseph.
Braun Brown concluded his talk by talking through things that have changed in student ministry throughout the years. This was very enlightening and great to hear about. He talked about how parents are more involved today than ever before. And that small groups are the entry points to bringing new kids to join a small group, not the big events anymore.
Timothy Ateek is from Waco Texas. He has a ministry called and it focuses on college ministry. On our schedule it said he was coming to talk to us about how to make amends with a friend. However, when he came up on stage to talk with us he told us this, "I know your schedule says I'll be talking about making them into different. However, on Sunday I really felt like I needed to talk about something else. So on Monday I called Chad Hampsch and asked if I could switch what I was talking about. We decided to pray about it till Tuesday. And now I'm here on Wednesday and our talk is going to be different. Today I'll be walking us through verse by verse of one book of the Bible and that book is Song of Solomon."
The whole class giggled and got a little scared. Let me just say this, there are two married couples out of the 76 people here. There are six engaged people. Four of them are couples and are both here attending the Institute together, two their future spouse is not here. Hence, there are a lot of single people in the classroom. I can say now I was very glad we had this talk. I was a little apprehensive at first with how our class was responding to what he was saying. The atmosphere got better as they realized this was a book for everyone no matter the status of our relationships. Timothy was quite funny with this intense subject we were talking about. If you don't know Song of Solomon is all about LOVE. The love that God gave us here on earth to enjoy as a married couple, one man and one woman. I am not joking when I say that we went verse by verse through this book. However, we did not make it through the full book, because of time. We only got to chapter 4. Even though we only got through half of the book it was so enlightening and so cool to see how God has given us a full book on relationships. Tim titled his talk Finding, Making, and Maintaining love.
These are the highlights of what I got out of Tim's talk about Song of Solomon.
Chapter 1 verses 1–7, is section 1. It is titled, who you're looking for and who you want to be.
1. Verse 3, is the girl talking about Solomon. His oils and fragrance, and how she compares that to his character and reputation. Tim challenged the guys and asked, what do you smell like? Is your character something to be proud of, smell good or not.
2. Verse 7, is the girl talking about how she wants to meet Solomon, but that she won't go out wondering like the other girls for men. She will wait for him to pursue. She will stand firm and her beliefs. Tim challenged the girls and asked, are you wondering for you waiting for God's man in your life?
Chapter 1 – Chapter 3:5, is section 2. It is titled, how to date well.
1. Verse 11, is the girls friends talking about helping the girl get ready for a date. I loved this verse because that is still true today. Whenever a girl gets out on a date the first thing she does is call her friends and they ask her what she is gonna wear and then they help her get ready.
2. Chapter 2:2, is Solomon affirming the girls beauty after she states she is just common. I loved this verse and how Tim put it. Guys are here to affirm and push us to believe that we as girls are beautiful. No not for us to find our security in them but just like friends to speak truth when we listen to lies. Tim put it like this, "guys if you let a girl wander in her beauty then she will wander in her security."
Chapter 3 - Chapter 5:1, is section 3. It is titled marriage and sex.
We did talk through this section, however I am not going to write about it on the Internet.
I loved hear Tim talk over this book of the Bible. I love how it is still relevant today, such like the rest of the Bible.
The speakers were the main activities that happened in those three days. There were a couple other things I would like to share about which happened during that time though.
While we are here at The Institute we will serve in an internship here in Branson. On Monday, we got the chance to talk with different ministry opportunities to intern with face to face. Just yesterday we were given our internship placement so I would like to share about mine now. Mine is not with a church, or K-Life, instead I will be working with Kanakuk Kamps in their kamp kitchen and food department. I will be working along side Gina Hinch in developing a new way to keep track of every food item served at kamp and its ingredients. There will be a version online for parents to see as well as a hard copy in every kitchen so the cooks have the knowledge as well. I am SUPER PUMPED about this project and can't wait to start and tell all of you how it is going. I really believe this will benefit kamp and help with the process of offering different foods and having allergy food kids be able to enjoy the amazing place of Kanakuk Kamps.
The last thing we did in these three days was go to chapel on Wednesday. Shay Robbins, one of the men directors for The Kanakuk Kamp K-2 spoke. He spoke about Justification. This means to be set free from sin. His focus was on how we are in bondage because of our sin and that the belief in Christ is the only way to get out. He finished with talking about a heart change to follow Christ. No this isn't mandatory, however if you believe In Jesus Christ then you should be compelled to change. How a heart change comes from repentance. How repentance is to agree with God about my sin. And how our reaction to this repentance it heart change,
I hope yet again you have been encouraged in some way from reading my blog. I do take this seriously. My faith, my walk with Christ and how I portray it to others. I pray The Lord brings you to repentance because we all need it daily, and through that we decide to make a heart change. Thanks for reading and have a wonderful day or night (to cover whatever time you are reading it at!)
Our main focus for the class was to review over the verses Matthew 18:15–18. This is where in the Bible Jesus talks about how to resolve conflict. First go to your brother who is in sin in private. Second take a witness if your brother doesn't listen to you. Third if your brother still does not listen to you or the witness you take it to the church. Watermark church has a field guide on how to approach these three steps if need be. Todd Wagner gave us the field guide and we walked through it together. There was time to scripture and we dug deep into them. As well as the helpful hints the field guide provided. Todd Wagner and his church believe that the reason why we resolve conflict is to glorify God. Through that we must look at our own sin first before approaching our brother. And then we are to be reconciled with God and to others.
We are called to be peacemakers, Matthew 5:9. Because of this we should see conflict as an opportunity. An opportunity to glorify God and become more like Christ in being a peacemaker. To be a good peacemaker like I said the first thing in resolving conflict is to look at your own sin in your own life, Matthew 7:5. Todd then gave us the step-by-step process that he lays out for his church in confronting a brother. He calls it the 7As to become a peacemaker.
1. Ask the Lord and others for help in self awareness.
2. Address everyone involved as soon as possible
3. Avoid the words if, but, and maybe
4. Apologize
5. Ask for forgiveness
6. Accept the consequences
7. Alter your behavior
Todd then talked about how to avoid minor offenses and what was a minor offense. He gave us four questions to ask ourselves to see if it was a offense we needed to approach your brother on or one that needed to not bother us.
1. Is the offense seriously honoring God.
2. Has it permanently damage a relationship
3. Is it seriously hurting other people
4. Is it seriously hurting the defender himself
Todd concluded his talk with talking about reconciling. We are to be reconciled by God and then to others. This is what it takes to be a peacemaker.
Braun Brown came to talk to us about student ministry. He is the head of the full student ministry at Watermark church in Dallas Texas. Yes, that is correct if you've read the post from yesterday and the section right above this, we've had three speakers from Watermark church in Dallas Texas. The staff here at The Institute truly believe that it is a church following after Christ and has biblical teaching for its members. His talk consistent of telling us key things to know about being in ministry. Here are the high points.
-Ministry is a great privilege. God doesn't NEED you to do ministry He wants to use you to do His work.
-Be teachable and passionate. Make room for God to teach you through other people. Proverbs 27:9. Always assume the best when people are teaching you.
-Live in the light and Foster living in the light. John 3:19-21.
-Relational, spiritual, and professional trust are three keys to team leadership. Own your own stuff. Prayer, accountability, sharing what God is teaching you are ways to provide a team atmosphere. The ability to get stuff done, follow through on and projects, and being all in in all aspects shows you want to be apart of the team. Having short accounts, an open door policy for confrontation, and asking forgiveness with every team member allows it to be a smooth and productive team.
-Keep the Sabbath rhythm to your life. This means to have rest. Physical, spiritual, and emotional. These are all part of keeping your Sabbath restful. Know the signs of when you're in a stage unrest, and need to take some time for yourself.
-Trust God it's writing the story. Examples such as David and Joseph.
Braun Brown concluded his talk by talking through things that have changed in student ministry throughout the years. This was very enlightening and great to hear about. He talked about how parents are more involved today than ever before. And that small groups are the entry points to bringing new kids to join a small group, not the big events anymore.
Timothy Ateek is from Waco Texas. He has a ministry called and it focuses on college ministry. On our schedule it said he was coming to talk to us about how to make amends with a friend. However, when he came up on stage to talk with us he told us this, "I know your schedule says I'll be talking about making them into different. However, on Sunday I really felt like I needed to talk about something else. So on Monday I called Chad Hampsch and asked if I could switch what I was talking about. We decided to pray about it till Tuesday. And now I'm here on Wednesday and our talk is going to be different. Today I'll be walking us through verse by verse of one book of the Bible and that book is Song of Solomon."
The whole class giggled and got a little scared. Let me just say this, there are two married couples out of the 76 people here. There are six engaged people. Four of them are couples and are both here attending the Institute together, two their future spouse is not here. Hence, there are a lot of single people in the classroom. I can say now I was very glad we had this talk. I was a little apprehensive at first with how our class was responding to what he was saying. The atmosphere got better as they realized this was a book for everyone no matter the status of our relationships. Timothy was quite funny with this intense subject we were talking about. If you don't know Song of Solomon is all about LOVE. The love that God gave us here on earth to enjoy as a married couple, one man and one woman. I am not joking when I say that we went verse by verse through this book. However, we did not make it through the full book, because of time. We only got to chapter 4. Even though we only got through half of the book it was so enlightening and so cool to see how God has given us a full book on relationships. Tim titled his talk Finding, Making, and Maintaining love.
These are the highlights of what I got out of Tim's talk about Song of Solomon.
Chapter 1 verses 1–7, is section 1. It is titled, who you're looking for and who you want to be.
1. Verse 3, is the girl talking about Solomon. His oils and fragrance, and how she compares that to his character and reputation. Tim challenged the guys and asked, what do you smell like? Is your character something to be proud of, smell good or not.
2. Verse 7, is the girl talking about how she wants to meet Solomon, but that she won't go out wondering like the other girls for men. She will wait for him to pursue. She will stand firm and her beliefs. Tim challenged the girls and asked, are you wondering for you waiting for God's man in your life?
Chapter 1 – Chapter 3:5, is section 2. It is titled, how to date well.
1. Verse 11, is the girls friends talking about helping the girl get ready for a date. I loved this verse because that is still true today. Whenever a girl gets out on a date the first thing she does is call her friends and they ask her what she is gonna wear and then they help her get ready.
2. Chapter 2:2, is Solomon affirming the girls beauty after she states she is just common. I loved this verse and how Tim put it. Guys are here to affirm and push us to believe that we as girls are beautiful. No not for us to find our security in them but just like friends to speak truth when we listen to lies. Tim put it like this, "guys if you let a girl wander in her beauty then she will wander in her security."
Chapter 3 - Chapter 5:1, is section 3. It is titled marriage and sex.
We did talk through this section, however I am not going to write about it on the Internet.
I loved hear Tim talk over this book of the Bible. I love how it is still relevant today, such like the rest of the Bible.
The speakers were the main activities that happened in those three days. There were a couple other things I would like to share about which happened during that time though.
While we are here at The Institute we will serve in an internship here in Branson. On Monday, we got the chance to talk with different ministry opportunities to intern with face to face. Just yesterday we were given our internship placement so I would like to share about mine now. Mine is not with a church, or K-Life, instead I will be working with Kanakuk Kamps in their kamp kitchen and food department. I will be working along side Gina Hinch in developing a new way to keep track of every food item served at kamp and its ingredients. There will be a version online for parents to see as well as a hard copy in every kitchen so the cooks have the knowledge as well. I am SUPER PUMPED about this project and can't wait to start and tell all of you how it is going. I really believe this will benefit kamp and help with the process of offering different foods and having allergy food kids be able to enjoy the amazing place of Kanakuk Kamps.
The last thing we did in these three days was go to chapel on Wednesday. Shay Robbins, one of the men directors for The Kanakuk Kamp K-2 spoke. He spoke about Justification. This means to be set free from sin. His focus was on how we are in bondage because of our sin and that the belief in Christ is the only way to get out. He finished with talking about a heart change to follow Christ. No this isn't mandatory, however if you believe In Jesus Christ then you should be compelled to change. How a heart change comes from repentance. How repentance is to agree with God about my sin. And how our reaction to this repentance it heart change,
I hope yet again you have been encouraged in some way from reading my blog. I do take this seriously. My faith, my walk with Christ and how I portray it to others. I pray The Lord brings you to repentance because we all need it daily, and through that we decide to make a heart change. Thanks for reading and have a wonderful day or night (to cover whatever time you are reading it at!)
Friday, September 27, 2013
Recovery and Service in Branson
Friday was set up to be like a regular Monday schedule day. So we had worship, class, lunch, class and then dinner. We had our first out of town speaker and it was phenomenal! The speaker was John Elmore from Watermark church of Dallas Texas. He came to speak with us about recovery. He heads up the recovery program at Watermark church. This subject was an intense subject but a fun one to dig deep into. We walked through his 12 step process to bring recovery.
1. Nature of man
2. Nature of God
3. Salvation
4. Old self
5. Confession
6. Turning from/to
7. Follow Christ
8. Forgive
9. Amends
10. Short accounts
11. Intimacy with God
12. Great commission
The first 3 steps talk about salvation
4-9 talk about repentance
10-12 talk about abiding and walking with God.
We proceeded to go through all of the steps in-depth and talk about scripture that correlates to them. Steps 1-3 were easy to talk about. They were things that we've all heard about growing up in church about our sinful nature and God and His salvation for us. Step 4 is where it got interesting. We were given a huge Excel sheet document, and it was to be our inventory of all past. We were asked to start filling it out by remembering sins we had committed. There were six categories to fill out were these Resentment, Fear, Harm to Me, Harm by Me, Sexual, and Recovery Issue.
Here is an example.
After spending some class time on filling parts of this inventory out we proceeded to step 5. Before starting step five we took our break for lunch. So when we return from lunch to start step five we broke up into boy and girl groups. This was a good thing because what we're about to do was confess our students to our peers. This was such an incredible time. I say incredible not that it was easy but that was very hard there were intense sins that needed to be confessed and also the need to be prayed over for each group. This made our community so much closer. That we could confess sin and be forgiven and be held accountable to continue to stay away from such sins. Step 6 turning from/to is what John Elmore like to call repentance. This step also had an Excel worksheet to fill out.
This worksheet was to help us see the sins that we do over and over again. After completing the worksheet we could see why we fell into the same sins continually. I have not finished this worksheet yet but I do believe that once I do I will be able to see the sins I fall into over and over again. Not only does this worksheet show you the sins you continually falling too but it gives you a way to stop and repent from then to no longer do them again. It does this by showing you what allows you to fall into that soon. The areas that are sinful nature over turns for spiritual walk, and once you recognize this you're able to battle our flesh and live in the spirit. Steps 7 and 8 where are self explanatory. When we got to step 9 he gave us an anagram to be able to remember how to seek amends. The anagram is RUT-ABC. R-recognize the wrong, U-understand the hurt, T-take responsibility, A-ask for their forgiveness, B-behavior, C-change. The last 3 steps he had to go through quickly because he was running out of time but he gave an amazing scripture if you're wanting to know more just let me know. That concluded our time with John Elmore and we were all very grateful for it. The evening was ours to do whatever we wanted to do with. Dan and I decided to clean up our room and get everything put into its rightful place.
The Institute staff had planned our first Saturday of being here at the Institute. We were to help with the FBC Branson church in their service project for the year. We all got up and went to the church at 8 AM in the morning. We were given teams and we went out to different houses and helped paint. My team got the privilege to paint the whole outside of this widows home. Her colors were a grayish blue for the wood and white for the accents. We had lunch in between working and we finished around 3PM. After that the evening ours to do whatever. Dan and I decided to do dinner here at the Institute with leftovers.
Sunday, I got to do something I have never done before. I got to volunteer at a triathlon. All Institute students were to volunteer on Sunday. There were different time slots and I got the amazing time of 5 AM to 9 AM. It was freezing. I had on three layers for my whole body. I had gloves and a hat and my big winter jacket. I felt like I was going snow skiing. It was 46°F outside when we woke up and didn't get above 50°F by the time we left so therefore it was cold. Like I said this is something I've never done before, volunteer at a triathlon. So I had no idea what I was doing. This was contrary to what my personality wants me to do, know everything that was going on. Dan was very eager to get started when we showed up so he volunteered for the first placement of volunteers. Guess what that was, parking cars. We had no direction and we had no idea where the parking lot was. So with that said, it was quite an adventure. The task ended up being quite fun we got to meet athletes and encouragement them and then meet the fans as well. We were stationed at T1which means transition one. This area is where they swam and then got on their bikes. So we watched them from the parking lot swim across to the other side of the lake and back and get on their bike and take off. Once they got on their bikes I had my next job. It was to tell the bikers which lane they were supposed to use for the rest of the bike portion of the triathlon. I am not for sure if this is for every triathlon but for this triathlon the bikers were riding into the oncoming traffic however traffic was stop so no worry of collision. As I was facing the bikers as they were passing me. I was pointing with my right arm for them to go into the left lane. Therefore the next day my right arm was quite sore. By 9 o'clock all the athletes had done the swim portion and were on their bikes. After our eventful morning Dan I decided to go to FBC Branson and attend there 9:35 worship time. After main worship we found the young marrieds Sunday school class and decided to join in. The only problem was neither one of us and had breakfast and we were starving. Luckily there was zucchini bread provided by one of that wife's and it was delicious. Sunday school was quite fun and we look forward to going while were here in Branson. For lunch Dan and I decided to eat pizza. We had a Domino's Pizza gift card that given to us as wedding gift and we hadn't gotten to use yet. So we found a Domino's and used it. Thank you very much Sharon Boydston. After lunch I took a nap and then woke up and continue to work on the recovery inventory Excel worksheet that John Elmore had given us. For dinner we had Domino's as leftovers, it was still so good. After dinner it was uneventful I continue to work on the recovery inventory Excel worksheet. It was nice to have a more relaxing day and be able to get the inventory worksheet done.
That concludes our first full week at the Kanakuk Institute. Wow, we have learned so much already. The community is growing and we are excited to see what God does. We have learned about vision, purpose, expectations are while were here, confession, how to write an effective testimony, how to recover from sin, about truth, about discipleship, and character.
Hope you enjoyed and be encouraged to reflect on your sin nature and seek God to reveal ways to turn away from and go to Him more.
Romans 8:5 "For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit."
Hope you enjoyed and be encouraged to reflect on your sin nature and seek God to reveal ways to turn away from and go to Him more.
Romans 8:5 "For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit."
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