Hello friends :)
We are ushering in the autumn weather here in Perth! Kooky, isn't it? It feels like yesterday that people were exclaiming that the summer temperatures had finally arrived (like a nice and sultry 106 degrees) and now suddenly it's 75 and I'm clinging to a hot cup of coffee. No seriously I am. Right now. But I suppose three months have come and gone in the blink of an eye, and our beloved summer has called it quits.
I just need to say that I thoroughly enjoy living in such a multicultural community. But it has caused my vocabulary to shrink significantly. My words have gone to muck. I can never think of just the right word that I'm looking for, and thus am forced to settle for a sub-par word. Or, on many occasions, use a completely incorrect or even a fake (yes, fake) word. One time I was trying to use the word repertoire, and got a little mixed up and said reservoir. I also just spelled both of those words incorrectly. And just today I said "I should've grabben that" instead of grabbed. Gasp! I will say, I love the ESL's here. Love 'em. But really, I mean do you all know how much I depend on thesaurus.com? I always have, but now I am completely helpless.
So, where were we? Week 8's topic was evangelism. I knew going into it that it would be challenging for me (we go into the city every Thursday night to evangelize and it hasn't exactly been the highlight of my week, heh) but I also knew that God was going to shift my opinions and shake me out of my comfort zone. Metanoia is Greek for "change your thinking." Ultimately, evangelism is about relating to people. It's about inspiring others to know and love God. It's about finding out where the bridges have collapsed in their lives and rebuilding them so that they can reconnect with God. But what intimidated me the most was feeling like I would have no way to relate to people. Would we have anything in common? I have always doubted the power of my own testimony. And what exactly is a "testimony?" Any encounter with God that results in a change of thinking, attitude, behavior or circumstance. It was incredibly freeing to hear that the strength of your testimony is not associated with the type of sin you were caught in. The power is in God alone, who He is and what He has done! I once was lost but now I'm found. I have something relevant to say to everyone I encounter, and that may look different for each person I speak with, but as long as I am vulnerable and open, points of connection will reveal themselves. God really spoke to me through the question "Do you think I require perfection to show them what I'm like?" He only requires faithfulness. He delights to work through us, even in the midst of our human messiness. Yeah, that's pretty cool.
Ope, I don't have any pictures to make this post interesting...
Week 9 of lectures was on the fear of the Lord. This was an extremely enlightening week for me, it covered just about everything and was spot on. I'm looking at my notes and feeling all perturbed because I have to pick and choose what gets to be in the blog. But I think what stands out in my mind from that week is the fact that I had a really hard time hearing God's voice. I couldn't figure out what might've been standing in the way. I had had it in my mind that this would be a big week for me, I was anxious to see what God would do and I thought by the time we had application on Friday I would be transformed! I was expecting breakthrough. Why wasn't God saying anything to me? By the end of the week I was really desperate. I was on my knees crying out to God. Because I missed Him. Because I love Him. Because if I'm in a place where I can't hear Him speak, it is a scary place indeed. I didn't know what the problem was. But I feel like God was really challenging me that week. Would I seek Him out? Would I not settle for nothing? Did I depend on Him? And I don't think I had been. I realized that I was seeking out quick changes; I was waiting to be handed revelation on a platter. It's interesting to go through my notes now and see sentences like "It's not enough to know that Jesus can breakthrough in a particular area. Pray! Have relationship with Him. No shortcuts," and "We don't grow from abrupt and sudden changes. We grow slowly, change is a process, and we develop through relationship." Oh. Maybe He was speaking.
Week 10's topic was relationships. Of all kinds. It's interesting to think about how relationship isn't something created -- it was always there. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in perfect love, perfect unity, perfect relationship. We come out of the excess love of that relationship, and it's the foundation for everything that we do. Again and again we come back to the fact that God is relational. I mean why are we here on the earth? Why doesn't God just fix everything and make it all perfect? Because He wants to work together! He wants to show His love to the world, and He wants to work alongside us to reach that goal. Would a person fully understand the love of an invisible God without another to show it to her in the physical? Even if she saw miracles with her own eyes, would that create belief? Faith is not produced through miraculous signs (the Israelites proved that much). Faith comes from a repentant heart. It comes from being confronted with the reality of our separation, and our need for a Way to be made to have relationship with God, and also with one another. We are created for relationship. And as I go out and do my best to help meet people's physical needs, I cannot ever forget that what they truly long for is relationship. Good shtuff! At the end of this week, God spoke to me out of Hebrews 12:
What can I add to that??
Well folks, I think that's about all for this post. But I will be writing again soon and very soon to cover the last two weeks of lectures (we only have one more week to go!) and give you the details for my outreach! So keep checking. It really will be soon this time. We fly out Easter Sunday :).
Dat's me. Okay. Bye now!
We are ushering in the autumn weather here in Perth! Kooky, isn't it? It feels like yesterday that people were exclaiming that the summer temperatures had finally arrived (like a nice and sultry 106 degrees) and now suddenly it's 75 and I'm clinging to a hot cup of coffee. No seriously I am. Right now. But I suppose three months have come and gone in the blink of an eye, and our beloved summer has called it quits.
I just need to say that I thoroughly enjoy living in such a multicultural community. But it has caused my vocabulary to shrink significantly. My words have gone to muck. I can never think of just the right word that I'm looking for, and thus am forced to settle for a sub-par word. Or, on many occasions, use a completely incorrect or even a fake (yes, fake) word. One time I was trying to use the word repertoire, and got a little mixed up and said reservoir. I also just spelled both of those words incorrectly. And just today I said "I should've grabben that" instead of grabbed. Gasp! I will say, I love the ESL's here. Love 'em. But really, I mean do you all know how much I depend on thesaurus.com? I always have, but now I am completely helpless.
So, where were we? Week 8's topic was evangelism. I knew going into it that it would be challenging for me (we go into the city every Thursday night to evangelize and it hasn't exactly been the highlight of my week, heh) but I also knew that God was going to shift my opinions and shake me out of my comfort zone. Metanoia is Greek for "change your thinking." Ultimately, evangelism is about relating to people. It's about inspiring others to know and love God. It's about finding out where the bridges have collapsed in their lives and rebuilding them so that they can reconnect with God. But what intimidated me the most was feeling like I would have no way to relate to people. Would we have anything in common? I have always doubted the power of my own testimony. And what exactly is a "testimony?" Any encounter with God that results in a change of thinking, attitude, behavior or circumstance. It was incredibly freeing to hear that the strength of your testimony is not associated with the type of sin you were caught in. The power is in God alone, who He is and what He has done! I once was lost but now I'm found. I have something relevant to say to everyone I encounter, and that may look different for each person I speak with, but as long as I am vulnerable and open, points of connection will reveal themselves. God really spoke to me through the question "Do you think I require perfection to show them what I'm like?" He only requires faithfulness. He delights to work through us, even in the midst of our human messiness. Yeah, that's pretty cool.
Ope, I don't have any pictures to make this post interesting...
Week 9 of lectures was on the fear of the Lord. This was an extremely enlightening week for me, it covered just about everything and was spot on. I'm looking at my notes and feeling all perturbed because I have to pick and choose what gets to be in the blog. But I think what stands out in my mind from that week is the fact that I had a really hard time hearing God's voice. I couldn't figure out what might've been standing in the way. I had had it in my mind that this would be a big week for me, I was anxious to see what God would do and I thought by the time we had application on Friday I would be transformed! I was expecting breakthrough. Why wasn't God saying anything to me? By the end of the week I was really desperate. I was on my knees crying out to God. Because I missed Him. Because I love Him. Because if I'm in a place where I can't hear Him speak, it is a scary place indeed. I didn't know what the problem was. But I feel like God was really challenging me that week. Would I seek Him out? Would I not settle for nothing? Did I depend on Him? And I don't think I had been. I realized that I was seeking out quick changes; I was waiting to be handed revelation on a platter. It's interesting to go through my notes now and see sentences like "It's not enough to know that Jesus can breakthrough in a particular area. Pray! Have relationship with Him. No shortcuts," and "We don't grow from abrupt and sudden changes. We grow slowly, change is a process, and we develop through relationship." Oh. Maybe He was speaking.
Week 10's topic was relationships. Of all kinds. It's interesting to think about how relationship isn't something created -- it was always there. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in perfect love, perfect unity, perfect relationship. We come out of the excess love of that relationship, and it's the foundation for everything that we do. Again and again we come back to the fact that God is relational. I mean why are we here on the earth? Why doesn't God just fix everything and make it all perfect? Because He wants to work together! He wants to show His love to the world, and He wants to work alongside us to reach that goal. Would a person fully understand the love of an invisible God without another to show it to her in the physical? Even if she saw miracles with her own eyes, would that create belief? Faith is not produced through miraculous signs (the Israelites proved that much). Faith comes from a repentant heart. It comes from being confronted with the reality of our separation, and our need for a Way to be made to have relationship with God, and also with one another. We are created for relationship. And as I go out and do my best to help meet people's physical needs, I cannot ever forget that what they truly long for is relationship. Good shtuff! At the end of this week, God spoke to me out of Hebrews 12:
"You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom and storm; to a trumpet blast or to such a voice speaking words that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken to them . . . But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks . . . Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our 'God is a consuming fire.'”
What can I add to that??
Well folks, I think that's about all for this post. But I will be writing again soon and very soon to cover the last two weeks of lectures (we only have one more week to go!) and give you the details for my outreach! So keep checking. It really will be soon this time. We fly out Easter Sunday :).
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| Hi (note: this is not the cup of coffee referenced in paragraph one. This is a different day. Blogging takes like 2 days. And lots of coffee). |
Beautiful writing as always Grace! Love the picture you cutie. I think your tendency to pick up on language variances says something about your sensitivity towards other people--I kind of experience that as well.
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