Sunday, February 2, 2014
God asks that we be wholeheartedly devoted to him. Such devotion comes with a price though - obedience to his word. However, a relationship with God is like marriage. There is a price that comes with marriage - commitment to one person for eternity, not straying, not sinning against that person. But is that really even a cost, when you get to spend the rest of your life with the person you love? Those are just things you automatically want to do, and the reward so outweighs the "cost".
This past week was very intense. All I've been able to say about DTS so far is that it is good, but hard. Very hard, but very good. Nothing easy, no real breaks. Just constant intensity. Our topic this past week was Repentance and Forgiveness. We spent the week discussing how God desires a personal relationship with him and what is required from us for that to happen is whole-hearted devotion. Sin gets in the way of that and we need to repent (the greek word means to have a new mind - We need to have a total change of mind and heart, changing our ways entirely) and obey God. We need to come to God with humility and a true desire to be close to him.
Our application day (you learned all this stuff, now use it!) was on Friday. We did group confession, which is about as terrifying as it sounds, but has much better results than you would expect. We were all scared to bare our souls to each other, afraid of judgement, but what really happened was an amazing time of coming together in unity and support for each other. We were able to receive forgiveness from God for things we had done and release forgiveness to people we were holding grudges against. There was lots and lots and lots of prayer. It was really powerful.
We were really exhausted, physically and emotionally, by the end of the week. I'm sensing a trend...
Elections were held today in Thailand. It's a very complicated situation here, with all the governmental things and political whatnot. There have been demonstrations and shoot outs and all sorts of fun things going on. We still haven't heard the results of the election, although they were basically predetermined anyways. We are hoping that all the sketchy stuff will be dying down now though and we can finally venture into downtown Bangkok!
Prayer Requests:
strength - we are starting Intercession and Spiritual Warfare week!
continued and strengthened unity in our group
- personal growth in my relationship with God and strengthening of my faith
God asks that we be wholeheartedly devoted to him. Such devotion comes with a price though - obedience to his word. However, a relationship with God is like marriage. There is a price that comes with marriage - commitment to one person for eternity, not straying, not sinning against that person. But is that really even a cost, when you get to spend the rest of your life with the person you love? Those are just things you automatically want to do, and the reward so outweighs the "cost".
This past week was very intense. All I've been able to say about DTS so far is that it is good, but hard. Very hard, but very good. Nothing easy, no real breaks. Just constant intensity. Our topic this past week was Repentance and Forgiveness. We spent the week discussing how God desires a personal relationship with him and what is required from us for that to happen is whole-hearted devotion. Sin gets in the way of that and we need to repent (the greek word means to have a new mind - We need to have a total change of mind and heart, changing our ways entirely) and obey God. We need to come to God with humility and a true desire to be close to him.
Our application day (you learned all this stuff, now use it!) was on Friday. We did group confession, which is about as terrifying as it sounds, but has much better results than you would expect. We were all scared to bare our souls to each other, afraid of judgement, but what really happened was an amazing time of coming together in unity and support for each other. We were able to receive forgiveness from God for things we had done and release forgiveness to people we were holding grudges against. There was lots and lots and lots of prayer. It was really powerful.
We were really exhausted, physically and emotionally, by the end of the week. I'm sensing a trend...
Elections were held today in Thailand. It's a very complicated situation here, with all the governmental things and political whatnot. There have been demonstrations and shoot outs and all sorts of fun things going on. We still haven't heard the results of the election, although they were basically predetermined anyways. We are hoping that all the sketchy stuff will be dying down now though and we can finally venture into downtown Bangkok!
Prayer Requests:
strength - we are starting Intercession and Spiritual Warfare week!
continued and strengthened unity in our group
- personal growth in my relationship with God and strengthening of my faith
Wow! Your first paragraph was almost exactly what I've been going through and about to write myself! So great to hear about all the things that you are experiencing on the other side of our world. :)
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