Jun 16, 2010
Today June 15th, 2010 I have been at Gospel For Asia and School of Discipleship for 10 months. However as much as I am mentally in denile of it-this fact is true. Recently I went home and was asked to descibe what my experience has been like. I honestly cannot do credit to how truly wonderful it has been. I have learned so much and in exactly 46 days I will be going home . There is a song I recently listend to and in the chorus it says:
“Now that I have seen, I am responsible -Faith without deeds is dead”
In light of all I have exerienced and learned I now echo her words-Now that I have seen I am responsible-Responsible for living a life contrary to the world, resposible for making sure Jesus’ name is proclaimed in all the earth, responsible to be a tool of God no matter the cost, responsible to LOVE (1 cor 13), responsible to pursue God with a fire like zeal, and responsible to tell others what I now know.
This I know is considered to be crazy by some, but knowing what I know now, it would be more crazy to do nothing.
No :)…………………………… I am going to be used by God to Change the World 🙂
Jun 15, 2010
“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” – 2 Timothy1:7
Recently, I have been reading through the book of Joshua in my quiet times. I really like Joshua because it seems as though God is always telling him not to be afraid, be strong and courageous, or I am with you whereever you go. Which really hits home for me. I can’t count how many times I will be in a situation that I have NO clue what I’m doing, or how I’m going to get through. So, while reading the book of Joshua, and having 2 Timothy 1:7 memorized, God always reminds me that He is with me. He will provide the wisdom and guidance and words to say in any situation if I ask it of Him in faith.
I don’t have to be afraid of ANYTHING because God is looking out for me every moment of every day. I don’t have to worry about the future, because God had a plan for me before I was even formed in my mother’s womb. I don’t have to focus on the negative, becuase I am a child of God, and I have Romans 8:28 to fall back on with the promise that ALL things work for the good of those who love God.
God is so good! He has provided promises for us to fall back on when things seem like they are getting worse, when in reality, God has it under control, and all we have to do is trust Him and go along for the ride.
Jun 10, 2010
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:34-35
Jun 9, 2010
I learned two valuable things from God’s Word that helped me get through the year in the School of Discipleship. The year was the best year of my life, but it was also tough.
Lesson #1- Before I became a believer I was a rebel and so full of anger. Every week it seemed I was rebelling against authority and getting the police called on me.
Most of this happened in 8th grade. One year later I found Jesus and my heart changed towards my authorities and I began to love and respect them.
When I came to the School of Discipleship I was put into a new situation where I had a Christian authority over me – my house leader. I struggled with that but soon enough through living under my house leader and reading K.P.’s book Touching Godliness Through Submission and reading examples from God’s word my heart started changing towards my authorities.
Hebrews13:17 says, “obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no advantage to you.”
God really spoke to me through this verse. I realized I need to be praying for my leaders and submit to their authority.
Praying and being thankful for my leaders really changed my attitude toward them and I began to really love and appreciate them. I didn’t so much show rebellion on the outside, but on the inside I had rebellion in my heart towards my leaders during the beginning of the year.
From that Hebrews passage I realized that my obedience and cooperation with my leader would make their duty as a leader a joy and not something they dread or fear.
If we put our heart right before God and obey His Word then I believe we will submit to our authorities with no problem. This is something God taught me that was very valuable and even today I’m continuing to learn this.
In light of this, I used to hate cops, but today I find myself thanking God for every cop that I see on the road. They’re God’s delegated authority and I see them as one of God’s tools He uses to protect us and watch over us.
So, every time you see a cop thank God for them.
Lesson #2- The second big lesson I learned during my year was in going through testing and trials and hard times that don’t make sense.
My house went through the story of Joseph as a Bible study. He is like my favorite old testament guy and probably my favorite old testament story. Just how He went through trials and yet obeyed God and saw what God was going to make of this situation just amazed me.
Though he was mistreated by his brothers and then put into slavery, Joseph always thought positively and saw that God was going to bring about good in this situation. I learned I need to apply this to my life, to think positively in every situation and to know that God will bring about good in every situation…He’ll bring about maturity and growth in my life as the book of James says.
What I didn’t know was that soon after going through this study I would go through possibly one of the most confusing and dark times of my life as a believer.
A Monday evening I got a call saying my biological father had a heart attack and passed away. I thought it was a nightmare. I was confused. I was told I needed to come home right away.
The next day I flew home to Iowa. I didn’t know what to do, I was so confused and I didn’t want to talk to anyone. But everyone at Gospel For Asia showed me love in this time and I felt Jesus’ love more then ever before.
After a week I came back to Dallas and was ready to be back to serving the Lord where He had called me.
I saw God’s faithfulness in so many areas as I walked through this dark time. Joseph’s life example and the book of James helped me go through this time. Aww, it’s so good to be apart of this Gospel For Asia family where there is so much love and grace.
So, those are the two lessons God brought me through during my year in the School of Discipleship and I’m delighted to share them with you and hope you’re encouraged. Gospel For Asia is a great place, especially being a part of the School of Discipleship!
Be encouraged. If you come here for a year, you will be in good hands! It was the best year of my life, despite the struggles I had!
Jun 9, 2010
It’s ridiculous.
I am still struggling with this “transparent” idea about living honestly in front of people. We had all-night-prayer last friday and I found myself zoning around 1 am. One of my friends was praying and I was totally blanking on whatever they were saying and just gazing into the nothingness outside. A few seconds of this and I notice someone glance over at me and instantly I squeeze shut my eyes and put on a very “spiritual” look that resembles the most passionate of prayer-warriors and begin to mumble “mhms” and “yes Lord” in agreement with my friends prayer.
Bit pathetic? You bet, and its not like this was a one time thing either. I am always finding myself doing this. During morning prayer I am forever having to check my motivation because the prayers I am letting come out are more directed at the person listening to me then they are to God, the one who is actually doing something about these prayers.
Ah, but its a process, and there is grace 🙂 we are all learning. sometimes I just which I could catch on a little faster…
Jun 6, 2010
Don’t forget to tell your friends about the blog 🙂
Jun 6, 2010
Like one of my fellow students posted about earlier, we had the opportunity to go evangelizing in a park not too long ago. We went two by two, and trusting in the Lord to direct our paths. This time, I decided to take my guitar along with me so that I could play it and draw people over towards me and my partner, and then we could engage them in conversations. Anyway, we got dropped off at this park, I was partnered with another fellow student, and we decided to go walk down the path to see if there were any people there. First, we see this older gentleman with a dog. He rejected the tract. So, our number one attempt was a fail, but hey, at least he knows we cared enough about him to try. So I’ll take it as a win in my book.
After that we decided to go by the entrance to the park to sit on the bench and I’d try my guitar tactic. It didn’t work…and it was a little awkward to be playing my guitar when there was a tennis court right behind us. So I packed up and we went walking again. The next three opportunities were a success, the people took the tracts! Praise God! Now that we had some successes, we decided to walk through the neighborhood to see if there was anyone outside their houses in the Texas heat.
We got a tad lost…so we headed in the general direction we thought the park was after no success with the neighborhood. When we were nearing the park, we saw a group of teens hanging out with a video camera. So we went up to them and started talking to them. It was a great conversation. After a while we got the chance to share about the School of Discipleship with them, and about India, and about Gospel for Asia. At the end, we gave them two free books and headed back to our rendezvous point so that we could go home.
This whole experience was exhilerating though! I was so excited that I got the chance to share with people about Jesus, and that for the most part, they listened! I was afraid at first that my fear of people would get in the way of me actually having a conversation with people, but God is good and gave me just enough courage and boldness to step out in faith and share. Praise God!
I love evangelizing now! When I go home, after I graduate in July, I plan on taking my brother with me to evangelize around my hometown in Pennsylvania. If God is with me here in Texas, I’m 100% positive He will be with me in PA.
God is good!
Jun 6, 2010
One of my favorite things about Gospel For Asia is the prayer meetings. We have a prayer meeting every Tuesday night after work, every morning before work on Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays, Department prayer (The Volunteer department prayer is on Thursday mornings after morning prayer), and then my favorite…once a month we have a Friday all night prayer that goes from 6:30PM till 2:00AM.
It is so encouraging to pray for things that seem totally impossible from the world’s perspective, but when you pray in faith, believing that God has already answered it, and then later on hear about those very prayers being answered…man…it’s so awesome! God is good! So…my encouragement to you is: Keep praying! If you ask in faith, then believe that God will do it! Nothing is too hard or impossible for Him, just think about it. He created EVERYTHING, so how could it even be possible for Him not to do something else?
Jun 4, 2010
The Students really enjoyed going through the book/videos Jesus Style by Gayle D. Erwin.
The Nature of Jesus
1. Servant
2. Not Lord It over Others
3. Lead by Example
4. Humble
5. As A Child
6. As the Younger
7. As the Least
8. Last
9. Used No Force on Us
10. Was Not Driven by Selfish Ambition
11. Made Himself of No Reputation
12. Was Fully Human
13. Obedient
14. Unto Death
15. Ressurection
Jun 4, 2010
The School of Discipleship’s new car! Just kidding 🙂
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