Saturday, January 28, 2012

Interpretation of the Bible

First Week


Matthew:


To be honest, I found it a little difficult to follow. I usually don't read books of the bible all the way through from start to finish, without asking questions and puzzling over them for a while. I understand though, sometimes its good to do an overview, then go back after ward and really dive into it for yourself. 
I liked my group, we are a steady paced reading machine! 
As for what I learned, nothing, just kidding. I found that there was a lot of interesting parables that Jesus told, that are a direct comparison to Jesus dying on the cross and the disciples didn't pick up on it. For example, in Matthew 21:33-40 he speaks about the Parable of the Tenants, I haven't noticed that parable before. It's very powerful, the fact that Jesus knew we,(people) would betray him and he speaks time and time again this story leading up to his crucifixion and yet they are puzzled. 
In verse 38-40, " But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, 'This is the heir. Come let's kill him and take his inheritance.' So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?" 
It's incredible what Jesus is implying here; that his own people killed him and the owner, (God) gives us grace and ultimate forgiveness for crucifying his son. It says, " when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?" all of us would think he would ruin them kill them. If you read further, to what the disciples reply it says, verse 41, " He will bring those wretches to a wretched end," they replied, " and he will rent the vineyard to other tenants, who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time." 
Wow, is all I can say, what an awesome God we have.What does God do He gives us love and freedom to love Him. Wow, God is truly amazing! 




Ephesians and Philippians:






In Ephesians there are several accounts of spiritual warfare, the times that stuck out to me were in Ephesians 3:14-21. The verses to describe the feeling behind this passage of spiritual warefare in my opinion are 14-17, " For this reason I kneel before the Father, for whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may  strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your heart through faith.  And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge-that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. " 
I mean just wow, how powerful is that? Its not talking about battling evil spirits, but I feel when He talks about strengthening us through his power of Spirit that is talking about spiritual warfare and having Christ dwell within us, to strengthen us for warfare, to be strong in spirit! I believe the theme of Ephesians is to write to the people, the Ephesians(haha) instructions on how to live Godly lives, it is written to the church and saints of Ephesus. It talks about being made alive in Christ, how wives, husbands, children are supposed to act, its a letter to instruct the people on how to live a Godly life, its a guideline to this.

Philippians was written in a similar fashion. It was written as a letter to the people of Philippi as a guideline how to live there lives and instructions from God, through Paul and Timothy. I believe the closest I got to figuring out what the key verse is Philippians is 4:8, " Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable-if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-think about such things." It outlines the theme for me I think of what Paul is trying to get across to the people of Phillippi, to act and do whatever is noble and true. 

I would just like to say I quite enjoyed reading these chapters, quite inspirational! I love bible reading, I especially loved going over them a second time. I didn't think there would be much use in plowing through a whole chapter in the bible straight through without pause, but it gave an overview of the theme of the book and more of a clear story line, which I then went back and read again which highlighted the key points of the books. I don't think I could ever get tired of reading the books!


Romans:

For Romans the three weaknesses of the church I got were judgement 14:13, sexual immorality/carnal sin 1:24, and idols/other Gods 1:25. For the strengths of the church that was a little harder I got the giftings of the church 12:6, spirtual fervor 12:11, and the goodness that the church has and is capable of displaying that Paul reminds them of in 15:14-16. This book is jam packed with goodness, as is the whole book!



Exodus:



My Egypt where I came out of is the situation, where I let my brain and my thoughts have control of my life, just over analyzing. I had some interesting conversations and situations with family members as a child that kind of messed with my head; which made me paranoid and have no peace.
My Promised land is where I am going now, where I am continuing to go from here on, continuing to move forward always getting better. The Promised land is where I am with my walk with God, when I feel close to Him, where I have the discipline to serve him daily. 

Why did the magicians fail, hmmmmm, well either God knew that Pharaoh’s heart could be hardened when the magicians succeeded and after a certain point Pharaoh’s heart would remain hardened after all of the plaques even when the magicians failed. Or, that there is a certain power in darkness, that God allows to succeed as the magicians did, but at a certain point darkness is no match for God’s glory and God wouldn’t let darkness succeed after so long. For whatever reasons God had in His puzzle piece scheme of the world and everyone in it. Perhaps, He was testing the Israelites, on what they believed, God almighty or magicians who manipulate dark arts. The fact that the magicians succeeded at first with their best dark arts, and God allowed this, then the Israelites got to see but a taste of God’s infinite power and it far surpassed the magicians dark arts. 

Daniel:


So, for Daniel we were asked what or how is the book of Daniel a good example for the trials of outreach or what kind of comparison to outreach could it be.
I think its amazing that Daniel continued to worship God, even after he was thrown into the lions den. Even the fact that he was willing to interpret King Nebuchadnezzar's dreams exactly how God relayed them, even though they were detrimental to the King. Daniel's life was on the line almost in doing so. Daniel just displayed an incredible amount of character to pursue God no matter the costs and this is the attitude we should display on outreach. This is a textbook christian answer, but its my answer, so, there we go.

Jonah:

I believe the reason that Jonah, didn't want to go to Ninevah, was because Ninevah was Israel's enemy and they hated the Israelites. So, it was a strain to go and help the very people that were riddled with all kinds of evil and probably had committed crimes to the Jewish people. I might be a little angry too.
The reason that Jonah is different from all the other books, is because its an account of Jonah's life, instead of a word of the Lord that came through a prophet instructing the people what to do.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Pictures of First roll I developed!

This was a most incredible experience, the first roll ever that I have developed! These are some scans of some of those black and white pictures I took, its sooo cool!
The ceiling in the dinning room
The stairs to the watch tower above the graveyard

The gate towards the graveyard


The Forest around the castle and slow death pathway to town.

The side room building where the boys sleep, haha
outside the castle.

The door to the castle
Inside the woods surrounding the castle
The map of the world in the dinning room inside the castle.


I used this pic for my first assignment, its of the graveyard.

This was the second pic which I used for my first assignment! The first
enlargement and print that I have done!
I used a Cannon Ftb analog camera with a 50mm lens.

Monday, January 23, 2012

Herrnhut




This is the castle, where we live!
This is a super cool town! Herrnhut is a foundation of some interesting Christian traditions. The idea of the daily word or verse comes from this town! They would way back when, I believe the tour guide said 100 years ago, shout the daily word or verse in your house, going door to door. They would just open your front door and yell it inside your house! It's so neat, the history of this town is very, fiery passionate! I will write more on the history in another blog soon! Here are some pics of the town, well some, there are a lot! I will write more on the history in another blog soon! Here are some pics of the town, well some there are a lot!









All of the buildings are older and look spectacular with brick and the streets are all cobblestone and sidewalk.
This is the main street in Herrnhut, when you enter it coming from the castle.






















The Jesus Haus Church!

Jesus Haus
The Jesus Haus, I would just like to say is a pretty cool place! I went there this past Sunday and it was moving! They had the worship, and sermon in German and Enlgish and even though there was only a few of us singing the songs in English we could pick up the tune and sing along with the others. It was cool that so far from home in Germany we all knew the same worship and were able to sing and praise to gether!
The Herrnhut Graveyard
Tour guide Ludwig Winter

The entrance to the graveyard
The stairs to the watch tower in the graveyard.

The view from the graveyard watch tower, a very very beautiful view I must say!

The graveyard watch tower.

The inside of the Muruvaian Church
Path outside of Castle


The cafe of heaven which we found on a really windy, cold day!




These are some of the students and staff of the base, hanging out at Tony's and just around Herrnhut. 

Fina, David, and Oreill( not sure on spelling)

David, Heather, Amanda, Fina, TJ, Raquel, and me (left to right all
fellow students).

Heather

Rachael, Amanda, Chloe, and Raquel (left to right, all students).

Happy Birthday Kate!
Glen

Ruth and Josh Elke, the DTS leaders for my school.

Sunday, January 22, 2012

The Initial Journey (week 1)

Well hello, family, friends, fellow fans! It is great to talk to you all and share this grand adventure I am on right now! It's been a crazy journey getting here, I didn't think I would be here. Only by God alone am I here, I wanted to travel and a Christian organization seemed like a safe way to venture out into the wonderful world, but I didn't think I would do a YWAM! I looked into this January MOTA school in Germany only after I discovered that with YWAM I couldn't just do a nice, church, travel, trip for like 2 months, I had to go for six months!
That was a shocker, when I looked into it I wasn't planning on being gone for that long... Although, these past months leading up to my trip it became more and more apparent why I should be here. In my life I feel like there is a lot of angst and built up passion, I know God wants me to use that passion, but I don't know how to yield or where to begin. So, lately before I came here it turned more into a submission and yielding to the world instead of passion for the Lord, because I don't know where to begin.
This past week has been amazing! I definitely know this is where I am supposed to be, God has already been revealing to me so much of what His plan is and is giving me such a peace, I am so overjoyed its unbearable. I have learned that I don't have to know everything, even just the first week I learned this. It's obviously a ongoing process, but because my first night here didn't go so well I learned I had to rely on God and that is the best learning experience out there.
The first night traveling here I got lost trying to find the right train, I was stuck in Dresden and had no clue how the train system worked and everyone spoke German, (hint Germany, Dresden who would have thought). I panicked and almost starting crying, but i realized that I had to pull it together. So, I attacked some poor German boy, demanding he help with printing my ticket and directing me which he did, ( I also picked the least cereal murderer looking boy)! He showed me where to take the train, and I had to wait for an hour till that happened. At this point I still didn't know if that was the right, exact direction, but  it was my last chance. I had already taken a train, and gotten off at the wrong spot, directed by the conductor, who supposedly could speak English.....He thought it would be helpful to show me directions in German, by writing it down, big help. This was my last straw the last train, and like out of heaven I heard a girl speaking English, I shouted at her if she spoke English, where she was going and if she was doing YWAM in Herrnhut, and she said yes to everything! Turned out she was one of the students in my school, Amanda! We boarded the train together, and thankfully the leaders were waiting at the Lobau(Sachs) station, because if they weren't I think I would have gotten extremely mad, after I have an anxiety attack it usually just spreads to anger. haha good times
Old abandoned warehouse, that we took sweet pics from!
Through all of this though and arriving at the base, being uncertain if I would get along with everyone here I already learned a very important lesson! After I came to my senses and realized I needed to make the best of these six months, I had misjudged everyone and God. I misjudged God and his awesome power, if He intended me to get there I would be here. I misjudged the people, because I didn't even know them, through forcing myself to just enjoy this time, I realized I was enjoying it! It is not forced now, but because I had forced myself to make the best of everything I got to know the people and realized they are some of the coolest people I have met in my life. My attitudes have definitely been lacking lately, and it took God pulling me out of my home and comforts to a strange place to show me. It would have been difficult to discern how judgmental I am and untrusting in God I am, if He hadn't taken me away from everything I know and shown me a piece of my life from a different angle. It is a hard concept to portray, but I am trying to explain to you all what I have been feeling.


Raquel and me