1 John 1:5-9
This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth. But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then w have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin. If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. But if we confess ours sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts.
Last week was all about shining the light into the dark areas of our lives, and “cleaning house”, so that we may have fellowship with one another, and fellowship with God.
The week was titled “Plumb Line, based on Amos 7:7-9, which says,
Then he showed me another vision. I saw the Lord standing beside a wall that had been built using a plumb line. he was using a plumb line to see if it was still straight. And the Lord said to me, “Amos, what do you see?”
I answered, “A plumb line.”
And the Lord replied. “I will test my people with this plumb line. I will no longer ignore all their sins. The pagan shrines of your ancestors will be ruined, and the temples of Israel will be destroyed; I will bring the dynasty of King Jeroboam to a sudden end.”
Either we are built by truth or we are built by lies. When we believe the lies that are spoken to us, or speak to ourselves it causes us to respond. Often the response causes us to sin, which can turn into iniquity, and possibly a stronghold in our lives. These things in life, move us from the truth. God wants us to return to his love though, and wants to align us with his truth once again. Which is what the week was all about. Aligning our lives to the word of God through laying down our pride and publicly confessing sins & iniquities of our past within the group. Overcoming unbelief through breaking lies that we have believed about ourselves. Completely emptying ourselves of the junk in our lives. Like I said earlier, according to 1 John 1, stepping out of the darkness and into the light.
Along with that we had a time of Forgiveness for those whom have wronged us, and those we have wronged, and also forgiveness for ourselves if necessary. If we want to be fully restored and free we must forgive those how have hurt us.
All in all it was an absolutely amazing week. You can’t help but walk away from a week like that recognizing how incredibly real God is, and the power He has. There are things that each of us have gone through in life and experienced that the only way we will be free from is by bringing it to the Lord, and allowing the Holy Spirit to work in our lives and do what needs to be done. Also you can’t walk away without feeling so incredibly free in Christ!
October 25, 2010
October 20, 2010
An Indescribable Love.
I promised this update to you all a long time ago, so to start I apologize how slack I have been. Going back to two weeks ago, we spent a week learning about Intimacy with God. It truly was an amazing and eye opening week for myself. There is another school going on here at the same time as the DTS, and we spent the week in classes with them. There were many highlights of the week, but I will take some time just to share a few specific experiences with you that I hold dear to my heart.
Going into the week we started talking about how deeply God desires to be in a relationship with us. So much that he sent his one and only Son to die on the cross in our place, so that this would be possible. To be able to feel this love that God has for me is something that I deeply desired, but I felt like I had come to a wall in my relationship with God time and time again. I don’t know if any of you ever feel this way, but I felt like I was doing everything that I could in my power to grow deeper in love with God, but felt like I had hit a wall. Little did I know, it’s not at all about my power and what I do.
Second day of lectures, we read the story of the Prodigal Son. Probably a story that many of us have heard over and over, and maybe even over again. This time when I heard it though, God caught my attention. The part where the father was waiting for his son really jumped out to me. He was just waiting for him to return. That’s exactly how God is with us. He is waiting for us to return to him! God desires so deeply to be in a relationship with us. All we have to do is say “yes”! Then to top it off when the prodigal son came home the father embraced him before he could even say anything. The son didn’t have to explain anything, he just has to return home and say yes to the father’s love!
I had heard this story so many times in my life, but never let it drop from my head to my heart, which they say is the longest 18”. As I was sitting in lectures learning about the love of God I realized how true this statement actually was. Through the work of the Holy Spirit through my heart began to be filled with the love that God has for me, and it blew me away. I had a complete revelation of God’s love for me.
Based on Ecclesiastes 3:11, we are created with eternity in our heart and are created with a God-size hole in our heart that only He can fill. There is nothing here on earth that can satisfy us. God created us not because he needed to, but because He chose to create us! He chose to create us and desires to be in relationship with us! Once again, all we have to do is say “yes”! WOW! What a good God we serve!
Like I said, I knew so much in my head, but did not really know it in my heart. I needed a revelation and transformation of God’s love in my life, which God did! From there on in I have been learning more and more about God’s amazing love for me, and how incredibly much he desires me. How much He desires each and everyone of us!
Going into the week we started talking about how deeply God desires to be in a relationship with us. So much that he sent his one and only Son to die on the cross in our place, so that this would be possible. To be able to feel this love that God has for me is something that I deeply desired, but I felt like I had come to a wall in my relationship with God time and time again. I don’t know if any of you ever feel this way, but I felt like I was doing everything that I could in my power to grow deeper in love with God, but felt like I had hit a wall. Little did I know, it’s not at all about my power and what I do.
Second day of lectures, we read the story of the Prodigal Son. Probably a story that many of us have heard over and over, and maybe even over again. This time when I heard it though, God caught my attention. The part where the father was waiting for his son really jumped out to me. He was just waiting for him to return. That’s exactly how God is with us. He is waiting for us to return to him! God desires so deeply to be in a relationship with us. All we have to do is say “yes”! Then to top it off when the prodigal son came home the father embraced him before he could even say anything. The son didn’t have to explain anything, he just has to return home and say yes to the father’s love!
I had heard this story so many times in my life, but never let it drop from my head to my heart, which they say is the longest 18”. As I was sitting in lectures learning about the love of God I realized how true this statement actually was. Through the work of the Holy Spirit through my heart began to be filled with the love that God has for me, and it blew me away. I had a complete revelation of God’s love for me.
Based on Ecclesiastes 3:11, we are created with eternity in our heart and are created with a God-size hole in our heart that only He can fill. There is nothing here on earth that can satisfy us. God created us not because he needed to, but because He chose to create us! He chose to create us and desires to be in relationship with us! Once again, all we have to do is say “yes”! WOW! What a good God we serve!
Like I said, I knew so much in my head, but did not really know it in my heart. I needed a revelation and transformation of God’s love in my life, which God did! From there on in I have been learning more and more about God’s amazing love for me, and how incredibly much he desires me. How much He desires each and everyone of us!
October 9, 2010
A Divine Appointment...
Every week we get the opportunity to go on a local outreach. Our YWAM base is right in the university district of San Pedro, and is one of 17 universities in the area. This past week during our lectures we learnt all about God’s love, and our outreach was our opportunity to put into practice what we had been learning. So we headed to one of the university campuses, where we were each given 500 colones, which is approximately equivalent to $1. We broke up into groups of three or four, and from there we were supposed to use the money to bless somebody. So I headed out with three other girls, making sure that I had at least one fluent Spanish speaker in my group, thinking that being in Costa Rica that would be very helpful.
So we set out. We began by praying and asking God to guide us and show us anything about the people we were to bless. Out of the four of us, one of the girls, Valerie got that it was going to be a person who had blue eyes, and brown hair. Another one of us, Carole and I got that it was going to be easy and that they would practically approach us. And lastly, Melanie (the fluent Spanish speaker) got that it was only going to be only girls.
We started out across the campus, and after about 15 minutes or so of walking and getting a little bit discouraged we came across two girls. We all kind of shyed away, but one of them had brown hair, and bright Bright BRIGHT blue eyes, so we had to follow them and talk to them. So that’s exactly what we did! We finally caught up to them, and we approached them, and after fumbling in Spanish for a few sentences they saved us and told us they spoke English. Bonus!! And I thought that I would need a Spanish speaker in my group...language is no barrier for God! It was amazing how open they were to sitting down and chatting for awhile. After talking we got to hear a little bit about them. We got to share with them what we were learning in school, and even got to pray with them.
The coolest thing about the whole experience was they shared with us that they usually don’t walk on campus to the area where we met them. They were actually skipping their class that afternoon, and said they were going to walk around and do something different today. Something they don’t normally do. Can you say divine appointment? God is a good God!
Till next time when I will share with you more about the week that was.
So we set out. We began by praying and asking God to guide us and show us anything about the people we were to bless. Out of the four of us, one of the girls, Valerie got that it was going to be a person who had blue eyes, and brown hair. Another one of us, Carole and I got that it was going to be easy and that they would practically approach us. And lastly, Melanie (the fluent Spanish speaker) got that it was only going to be only girls.
We started out across the campus, and after about 15 minutes or so of walking and getting a little bit discouraged we came across two girls. We all kind of shyed away, but one of them had brown hair, and bright Bright BRIGHT blue eyes, so we had to follow them and talk to them. So that’s exactly what we did! We finally caught up to them, and we approached them, and after fumbling in Spanish for a few sentences they saved us and told us they spoke English. Bonus!! And I thought that I would need a Spanish speaker in my group...language is no barrier for God! It was amazing how open they were to sitting down and chatting for awhile. After talking we got to hear a little bit about them. We got to share with them what we were learning in school, and even got to pray with them.
The coolest thing about the whole experience was they shared with us that they usually don’t walk on campus to the area where we met them. They were actually skipping their class that afternoon, and said they were going to walk around and do something different today. Something they don’t normally do. Can you say divine appointment? God is a good God!
Till next time when I will share with you more about the week that was.
October 5, 2010
A day with no rain...
To my surprise, we actually had a day with no rain. It did not rain yesterday nor has it rained today! ...yet... Costa Rica is beautiful, but it feels like it rains all the time! After being caught outside in the rain many too many times without an umbrella or rain jacket, as of yesterday, I have decided to make both of those a permanent fixture to me. Of course, both those days it didn’t rain! Like I already said though, it’s absolutely beautiful! On the days that there is no clouds or fog, and you can actually see something, all you see is GREEN rolling hills/mountains spotted with colorful homes. I’m definitely looking forward to seeing some of the sights of Costa Rica while out here.
I have only been here for 9 days, but in an absolutely wonderful way it feels like so much longer! There are 18 other people in my dts, ages ranging from 18-41, including one married couple. So it’s really neat to be apart of such a diverse group. Majority of the people come from North America. There are 4 people that are from within Central America though, and only speak Spanish, which is a great opportunity (crossing my fingers) to actually improve my Spanish skills. Depending on the teacher our classes are in either Spanish or English and then translated. So learning Spanish would definitely be a good skill to have.
My YWAM base is about a 20 minute bus ride from the downtown. At least it’s only 20 minutes in good traffic...and let me tell you the traffic here is an experience in itself. I am pretty sure that the cars speed up, as soon as you try crossing the street. The first weekend here we got the opportunity to head downtown as a group to check things out, which is one of my favorite things to do when in a new city. Being a coffee lover, I love to find a nice local coffee shop in the downtown, sit, relax and take everything in. Oh, and my second favorite thing to do is to find all the markets and see what kind of cheap treasures I can find. :)
Our first week of classes was on Hearing God’s Voice, and was taught by the base director here. It was definitely an amazing, and whirlwind of a week. There are many things that I learned and took out of the lectures, and I know that if I blogged all that I learned no one would keep reading my blogs. So one thing out of many things that stood out to me through our lectures last week was that God speaks to all of us. It’s just a matter of whether or not we are taking time to listen. God really challenged me to take time to listen to him. So often I get so busy just talking and talking with God, and I don’t take time to listen. God wants to have a dialogue with us, not a monologue. Another thing that we, as a group, were all really challenged on was dying to ourselves. Laying down our pride, and recognizing that this life has nothing to do about us. Everything is for eternity. It is to bring God glory.
Well that is a snippet of the first week here. There will be more to come!
Hasta luego
I have only been here for 9 days, but in an absolutely wonderful way it feels like so much longer! There are 18 other people in my dts, ages ranging from 18-41, including one married couple. So it’s really neat to be apart of such a diverse group. Majority of the people come from North America. There are 4 people that are from within Central America though, and only speak Spanish, which is a great opportunity (crossing my fingers) to actually improve my Spanish skills. Depending on the teacher our classes are in either Spanish or English and then translated. So learning Spanish would definitely be a good skill to have.
My YWAM base is about a 20 minute bus ride from the downtown. At least it’s only 20 minutes in good traffic...and let me tell you the traffic here is an experience in itself. I am pretty sure that the cars speed up, as soon as you try crossing the street. The first weekend here we got the opportunity to head downtown as a group to check things out, which is one of my favorite things to do when in a new city. Being a coffee lover, I love to find a nice local coffee shop in the downtown, sit, relax and take everything in. Oh, and my second favorite thing to do is to find all the markets and see what kind of cheap treasures I can find. :)
Our first week of classes was on Hearing God’s Voice, and was taught by the base director here. It was definitely an amazing, and whirlwind of a week. There are many things that I learned and took out of the lectures, and I know that if I blogged all that I learned no one would keep reading my blogs. So one thing out of many things that stood out to me through our lectures last week was that God speaks to all of us. It’s just a matter of whether or not we are taking time to listen. God really challenged me to take time to listen to him. So often I get so busy just talking and talking with God, and I don’t take time to listen. God wants to have a dialogue with us, not a monologue. Another thing that we, as a group, were all really challenged on was dying to ourselves. Laying down our pride, and recognizing that this life has nothing to do about us. Everything is for eternity. It is to bring God glory.
Well that is a snippet of the first week here. There will be more to come!
Hasta luego
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