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.

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.

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!!

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. 

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!