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.