So… I may or may not have totally forgotten about doing my blog updates so this is going to a bit of a longer one.
The week of November 2 was what is known by my DTS as Mark Parker week and not the subject of the week which was “The Lordship of Christ and the Fear of the Lord.” It's known as Mark Parker week because of who Mark is, Mark is my favourite speaker of all time. He is seriously the most intense, passionate, kind, loving and crazy 60 year man who is just on fire for God and desires to see young people flourish.
Honestly I'm going to have to go through my notes from that week quite a few times before I get everything out of it. But I think the main points of this week would be these. A lot of what we do for God and how we live is because we choose and not because of how we feel. It's all about your attitudes towards things. But there are a large amount of things that I'm not going to list as it would take far to long. But I will say this, I came to New Zealand to figure out what God's plan is for me but I'm founding out that I really need to get to know God before I'm ready to learn anything about what that plan is.
The main event of that week was on Friday. We had a ministry day that lasted 15 hours. We started the day with praising, giving thanks and worshipping God. After that we all layed things down that were areas that we didn't necessarily trust or serve God in, things such as family or money. Once someone laid things down they also picked up commitments and goals. I picked up reading my Bible every morning before having breakfast, I also made the commitment to doing a School of Biblical Studies after my DTS is over. After everyone did that we got to the real deep part of the day. One at a time we went up and repented of sins that we were holding onto. We also spoke about any shame that we were dealing with. This was very hard for me but it was one of the best things I've ever done after I did it. The best way to deal with sin and shame is to find someone who you trust and can confide in. After that we had an awesome time of prayer, there was lots that I can say about this but that'll have to wait till you can talk to me in person. The last thing of the night was communion. All in all it was an amazing experience and I felt a real load taken off my shoulders by doing all this. Love is an incredible thing.
Backtracking slightly to Thursday we had our first coffee outreach. We went into Queenstown and had free coffee, tea and hot chocolate. Served as a good way to draw people in and talk about God.
I didn't really do anything on the weekend, I just used it as a time to unwind and relax.
So, onto the week of the 9th. This week was all about relationships. This week wasn't mind blowing or heavy to me but it was good for me. The sort of motto of the week was “finding the one, but first work on becoming the one but before that focus on know the One (God).” We learned about something called soul ties, they can be good or bad and what they are is just a way of saying how you've shared intimacy with people. Whether that intimacy was from making out or star gazing together or just even praying together. It is just a good thing to keep in mind when you are in friendships. Yes we had a birds and the bees talk, it was actually a surprisingly mature discussion that the guys had, it only had a few moments where it went how you'd think a bunch of boys would act.
There was also a lesson on forgiveness. This wasn't so helpful to me as it wasn't anything new but it was nice to see that other people hold the same view on it. That being that forgiving someone is a choice and not necessarily a feeling. It doesn't mean that the hurt didn't matter but you choose to forgive.
On the weekend I again pretty much just relaxed and did homework. On Sunday a bunch of us went to a pump track and I sort of learned how to sort of use a longboard. It was a lot of fun. This weekend coming up is skydiving so I'm super excited for that.
Until the next time, which hopefully only a few days away this time. Fingers crossed.
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