Picture time!

Hey guys! So since I've just been posting about what I've been learning, I figured I'd just post some fun stuff today! Here are some pictures from these past four weeks! :)

           On Wednesdays we like to dress up, just to shake things up a bit!

   My friend Mikaila and I taking out the trash after brunch clean up last Saturday.

  Just having some fun with the DTS (Discipleship Training School) and SOMD (School of Ministry Development) girls!

              All of us DTS girls dressed up for Easter Sunday last weekend!

                                               Local ministry at Exit 0!

Like an Eagle

  This week we're learning about "The Father Heart of God." Yesterday our speaker, Doug Easterday, taught on something that I consider to be the most impactful lesson that I have heard so far at DTS. He talked about how studying the Bible is more than just "studying the Bible," it's about finding the meaning behind it. (Seems super obvious, I know.) As an example, he used Deuteronomy 32:11, which says, "..like an eagle that stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, that spreads its wings to catch them and carries them on its pinions." Personally, whenever I have read or heard this verse in the past, I just took it at face value. Doug, however, looked at this verse and asked himself, "why an eagle? Why, over all the other types of birds He created, does God choose to compare Himself to an eagle?" So Doug decided to research eagles! What he discovered was that 1.) a mother eagle is the best mother of all birds, 2.) baby eagles are stubborn, and 3.) baby eagles are slow learners. Seems to be adding up already! Haha. 

  Now, to break down the verse a bit so we have a better understanding. First, it says that, like an eagle, God "stirs up the nest." I didn't know anything about eagles, so just taking this at face value meant absolutely nothing to me. However, when Doug described what it meant for an eagle to stir up its nest, it immediately took a new level. When a mother eagle builds a nest for her babies, it's about one meter wide, and one meter high. She lines the inside with soft leaves and feathers for her young, and keeps them safe in this mansion of a nest. Whatever her babies need, she provides! Baby bird seems to have it made; but when it's time for baby bird to learn to fly, she completely destroys the nest! Baby bird has no idea what is going on - why in the world is mom destroying our house? She's gone crazy! Have you ever felt, either in your heart or the circumstances you're going through, that God has gone crazy? You have no idea why He's doing what He's doing in your life? You're so comfortable, why would God stir up the nest just when everything is so great? You being comfortable is exactly the reason. We don't want to just sit idle, staying right where we our in our journey with God. We want to grow in it, to be challenged! Which brings us to the second part of the verse, which says that the eagle "hovers over its young." I don't know about you, but when I think of the word "hover," I think protection, like God's watching over us, making sure that we're safe and that everything's going well. Far from it! Incase you haven't noticed, an eagle's wings are made very differently than a hummingbird's! This is something I had never put much thought into before. For an eagle to hover, it has to rapidly flap its wings, which span from 6-9 feet! It takes more energy for an eagle to hover than it does for it to fly full speed. Needless to say, there's some major wind going on around baby bird's freshly stirred nest. Do you ever feel like God's blowing some major wind in your direction, and you don't understand why? Well there are two reasons for the mother eagle to create such a wind storm, and the first is because the baby eagle's wings are not yet strong enough for flight. The first reaction of the baby eagle is to hold his wings up, straining against the wind. This is difficult for him, but in doing this, his wings are being strengthened. The second reason is because a baby eagle's feathers aren't ready for flight, but there is oil in their body that changes their baby feathers to adult feathers. This wind storm draws out that oil! When there's wind in our lives and we don't understand why God's putting us through it, He is doing it to strengthen us! He's building up the muscles in our wings, and he's helping us grow our adult feathers so we can fly! In the third part of the verse, it says that God is like an eagle "that spreads its wings to catch them and carries them on its pinions." When it's time for the baby eagle to learn how to fly, momma eagle pushes him right off the branch, then swoops under and catches him. Mom does this over and over until the baby learns to fly! I found it interesting that some eagles take as little as fifteen tries to learn how to fly, while others take over five HUNDRED! Do you know what the difference is between the eagle that learns in fifteen tries and the one that takes over five hundred? It's the attitude of the baby eagle. Remember how in the beginning I said that baby eagles are stubborn? If you haven't made the connection yet, we are the baby eagle. I don't know about you, but I can be very stubborn! Which eagle do you want to be? Because God is going to keep throwing us off that branch until we decide to check our attitude, give it our best shot, spread our wings, and fly with Him. A great quote that I took from this lesson was "God is more interested in your character than your comfort." So next time God is stirring up your nest, creating a giant wind storm, or throwing you off a branch and catching you on His wings, remember that He's doing it to make you better! He is not a cruel God who just enjoys to sit back and watch us struggle, He has OUR best interest in mind! He wants to strengthen us so we can soar! 

  Needless to say, I have now seen exactly how important it is to take the time to look deeper into the meanings behind God's word. Something as simple as doing a little research on eagles can give a verse a whole new perspective! 

Volunteers of America

Hey guys! So just a quick update : last night was my second night of local ministry! This week we broke into our groups, so it was my first week with my team, and my first time at Volunteer's of America. We got to go help clean up the cafeteria, serve dinner, and meet some sweet people! We also got to help out by watching the kids in the play room! I was a little nervous on the way over there, because I'd never done anything like it before. But once we got there and started working, the nerves went away! It was so much fun, and I can't wait to go back next week! I'm excited to see how God uses us in this ministry. :)

Relationships with Dean Sherman!

Alrighty guys! 

  So this week we talked about relationships and attractions! We watched videos of Dean Sherman, and it was great. I would highly recommend these videos to everyone in the world. He started off by suggesting that "every problem in the world is a relationship problem." When you stop and think about it, he is absolutely right; and the root of this relationship problem is pride. Why do we have trouble relating to others? Why do we have wars? We either believe that we're superior to others (arrogant pride), or we believe that they're superior to us (inferior pride.) Both of which are lies. Now, he covered so much about relationships, and I would absolutely love to sit here and type out everything I've learned this week! But that would take way too long, and I'm sure there's no way you would have the time or interest to sit and read it all; so I'm just going to tell you guys which part really stood out to me. 

  The lessons weren't all about "romantic" relationships, but it's what we closed the week with, and it's something I've kind've been struggling with lately. We talked about having a "relationship philosophy," and then about "relationship progression." For the relationship philosophy, we talked about how we should 1.) have the right motives, 2.) avoid "dating syndrome," (dating just for the sake of dating) and 3.) that we should give up our rights to sex and marriage. The first two were already obvious to me, but even though I kind've already knew the third one, it really struck me. Giving up the idea of marriage in order to follow God is something I've had a hard time surrendering; even if it is just for this season of my life. I allow myself to believe the lie that if I don't leave time for it, it will never happen. Even though I know it's not true! Dean said that "if we give it up as a right, God can/will give it back later as a privilege." I really liked that. I know God's not going to allow me to be miserable or anything! That's not what He wants for me, He wants me to experience His love. The only true joy comes from Him, and I would never find a fulfilling marriage outside of Him anyway. Then, under relationship progression, Dean talked about how to minimize the chance of getting hurt in "romantic attraction." First, we need to honestly admit to ourselves whether or not we view the relationship as romantic. If you're not sure, Dean gave the perfect example of how to find out - ask yourself how you would feel if that person married someone else. If it's painful to think about, you're romantically attracted to that person. Second, we need to seek the Lord about it. This seems totally obvious, but it's extremely important. We need to seek the Lord and ask whether or not it's a relationship that would glorify Him; don't allow yourself to be in love without seeking God first. Third, make Jesus the Lord of your emotions!!! This is something I have completely failed at. I haven't been a good steward to my emotions. We shouldn't just give out our emotions to anyone who will take them - we need to keep them safely guarded until God gives us the "ok" to go forward with a relationship! Another amazing point that was made was that when we don't allow the Lord to rule our emotions, then our emotions are ruling us. Therefore, we are allowing them to take a higher place in our hearts than God, and that is a form of idolatry. I had never thought of it that way, so I thought that was a really great point! Fourth, we need to communicate the relationship to an objective person. When we're in a relationship, our vision gets extremely clouded, and others can see issues that we can't. It's really important to have that advice from someone who is not emotionally involved in this relationship. Finally, communicate to your parter. Notice that this is the LAST step! Until you have sought the Lord, gotten the ok, and talked it over with your objective person, do not tell this certain guy/girl how you feel! Now, when communicating with this certain someone, make sure the timing is right. If you do it too soon, you could freak them out; but if you wait too long you could just be leading that other person on. Then after you've communicated, and if you're both on the same page, continue communicating! Don't allow your emotions to go past what has already been communicated between the two of you. You don't want to get too far into it emotionally if the other person isn't on the same page. 

So that's what I've been working on this week! We need to determine to please God in our relationships, and not just romantic relationships, but in our friendships too. :)

Exit 0

Hi!

  So, while concentrating on how to update you guys on what I've been learning in DTS, I forgot to share about our first local ministry outing last Thursday! It was so much fun! We got to go help out an awesome local ministry called Exit 0. 
  
  It's an outreach that helps out the homeless in a lot of different ways, and it's really neat! We were going to go help with cooking and serving dinner, but because the timing didn't work out, we got to go help them in other ways! We went to their base and the guys helped build a shelf for their storage, and we girls helped sort through a lot of the clothes and things that had been donated. They also told us a lot about what they do and how they got started. They provide daily meals, clothes, toiletries, and other things too! They also have a school bus that they're going to be using to bring showers to the homeless. Not only for them to be clean, but also so they can go to job interviews! This all started with one man and his family who began passing out care bags, gallon sized ziplock baggies filled with several different snack foods, and a pair of socks. Now it's a big local outreach! All because a man decided that, instead of just thinking about making a difference, he would actually take those first steps to doing it! Now they are making a difference in the lives of others, and sharing God's love along the way! :) 

  The whole time he was sharing his story with us, I was so inspired! I'm so glad we had the opportunity to help out with their ministry, and I hope we get the opportunity to do it again sometime! 

YWAM, Week Two!

Hey Everyone! 

   So this past week went by SO fast! It's crazy! Since we've been learning so much, and I've only been posting once a week, prepare for this to be a long post! Haha. 
We had an amazing speaker, Steve Sizemore, come share with our DTS this week. He taught on so much, I definitely can't cover it all on here; but I can cover the ones that really stood out to me!

   First, we talked about what it means to be a disciple, and what we're called to do as disciples. In Matthew 28:18-20, Jesus says, "Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." We talked about the four big verbs in this verse - Jesus tells us to go, to make, to baptize, and to teach. Steve asked us what we thought the most important verb in this verse was, and we all voted. I voted "go." Going is definitely important, but he explained that the greek translation for "go" in this context could actually be "as you are going." So if you're already going, then the most important verb is "make." A lot of the time it seems like we need a special calling to be and to make a disciple, but really God calls us all to do it! To follow God is an amazing thing, but discipling shouldn't be "special." As Christians, it should be normal to us! We are all called to make disciples, and that doesn't mean you have to fly halfway around the world to do it. It can be as easy as talking to your next door neighbor! I loved the way Steve explained discipling to us. He made it seem so casual, when in my mind it always seemed so difficult. 

   Second, we talked about God's grace, and how we tend to mainly focus on only one side of it. We focus on His extravagant grace, the grace that forgives and continues to forgive our sins. We forget to realize His empowering grace. Steve phrased it like this - "Grace is an empowering presence. It's the dynamic force/power given to us by God, through which we have the desire and power to do God's will. To become Christ-like." In 2 Corinthians 12:9 God tells Paul, "But He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Titus 2:11&12 says, "For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say 'no' to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and Godly lives in this present age." So God's grace is more than just forgiveness, it's also the power and strength that He gives us, His disciples, to live for Him. 

  We have also been focusing a lot on pride and humility! We talked about different forms of pride, the core root of pride, and why God hates it so much. 1 Peter 5:5 says, "…All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because 'God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble'." So exactly why does God oppose pride? Because the core root of pride is lies. Where there is pride, there is either a lie about God, myself, or others. When I'm prideful, I am either believing a lie that I am more than I really am, or less than I really am. God hates pride because it is the very opposite of who He is - He is truth. God wants us to humble ourselves, because the more humble we become, the more He can reveal to us His character. We also talked about how to recognize our humility without being prideful, how gratitude is a great way to exercise humility, and how grace relates to humility. 

  I feel that this week God really showed me that the principle I need to be applying to my life right now is humility. I know, obvious answer, huh? But in order to have a deeper relationship with the Lord, I need to humble myself. I need to recognize just how much I really do need Him in my life. I need to fully rely on Him, and stop trying to depend on myself. I need to constantly thank Him for everything He has done in and for my life. And I feel that the character trait God chose to show me this week is His love for me. He humbled Himself, came to earth, was beaten and humiliated, and suffered a horrible death - for me. Sometimes it's hard to follow what He wants me to do, and it can be scary to share what I believe; but even when I fail, He still loves me and always gives me another chance. His love never fails me, even if I don't deserve it. 

Week One as a YWAMer!

Hey Guys!

  So, today is Thursday, April 3rd! That means that it's the fourth day of my first week here at YWAM Louisville! I'm so excited!! It has already been so great. I have been able to make new friends so quickly, which is practically a miracle for me! Everyone is so amazing and so friendly, it's literally impossible to not make friends here. It's also been pretty easy to get right into the swing of things. I haven't felt out of place, or even too homesick yet, which has been another big surprise to me. All in all, I'm already loving my YWAM family!

  One of my assignments as a DTS student is to keep a "creative journal." So basically, at the end of every week I answer questions and write down something that God has taught me. I'm keeping an actual journal, but they said it could be nice to post a public one too, so family and friends can keep up with what's going on in my life right now! It sounded like a good idea to me, so I figured I'd post it here on the blog! So I'll go ahead and just jump right into it! 

  When I first got here and learned that we have an hour every morning set aside for quiet time before starting our day, I honestly got a little nervous. I've never really had a consistent quiet time, let alone for a whole hour. I didn't really know what I was gonna do! So for the first couple days I kinda just sat outside on the bench swing, read my bible, talked to God, and enjoyed the sunrise. I wasn't really sure what I was supposed to be waiting for, or expecting to hear. I wasn't even sure I could hear God's voice, because I hadn't experienced what the other girls had been telling me they experience. I thought maybe He just wasn't speaking to me yet. After the first couple days of class though, I started to realize that God had been speaking to me all along. I felt like God had used what we were being taught in class to confirm what I had been thinking in quiet time. The first big issue that was addressed was surrender, which I had just been working through that morning in quiet time. I realized that there are quite a few areas in my life that I thought I had surrendered to the Lord, but really I was still holding onto them in my heart. Then we talked about our relationships with God, how they're personal for each of us, and that because they're personal God speaks to each person in a different way. That struck me too. I had been getting so worried that I wasn't hearing from the Lord, when really I just didn't realize that He had been speaking to me all along because I was too busy comparing it to someone else's relationship with Him. 

  Now, the two questions I'm supposed to answer are "what is one aspect of God's character that He has highlighted to me this week?" and "what principle or character trait is God challenging me to apply to my life?" Needless to say, I feel that in this first week God has shown me that there are still things in my life that I need to surrender to Him in order to really seek Him with my whole heart. Total surrender is definitely the principle I need to apply to my life. As for what aspect of God's character was highlighted to me, I have to say it was His guidance. At first it was difficult to know whether or not the Lord was speaking to me, or if it was just my own thoughts that I was hearing; but now I already have a better sense of His guidance, on just the fourth day! And I know that I'm going to learn so many more amazing things while I'm here! 

  So there's a bit of what I've learned this week! I'm so excited for what the Lord has in store for my DTS group! I know it's gonna be great. :)