Old Habits (week five)

So, week five was kind of a contingent from what Ollie said Friday and the weekend. On the weekend before the begining of this week Raquel and Fina helped speak into a weakness of my life. Raquel said to focus on God, instead of what I am struggling with and sometimes you will be stuggling with something, not being completely happy or depressed, but content just focusing on God. I think sometimes thats just the way it is, you have to muscle through the rough patches, you feel like your not making any progress, but its just a grizzly part of the metaphorical steak.
Then Ollie, before the weekend spoke on Friday about your passions and hard times. I am paraphrasing, but he said sometimes its just hard, because its hard, not because your in the wrong place, wrong track. Sometimes its just hard because its hard and you have to have the endurance and perseverence to see it through, the endurance to see what God has planned for you and more.

You have to have the discipline in prayer when its tough, discipline for your art.

So, the weeks before these last two I was riding the honeymoon high of DTS. So excited to be here, and experiencing revelation upon revelation of God's truth and love in my life. Then, these two weeks I definitely crashed a little. I understand God's power in my life, now its retraining my thought patterns that dwell on sin and choosing to not go back to my old ways. This is the hard part, where it really means something, past the emotions and feelings to the actions from your words.

Its ironic that this week Fiona our speaker, spoke to us on sin, repentance and the gospel. She spoke about sin, what it is exactly. It is not just the action of sin, but the habits and thinking patterns of sin. You have to retrain your thoughts in every way, and ARROW UP to God, exactly what I needed to hear, so faithful God! This knowledge also shed light into a revelation of mine to concern myself only of what God thinks not to do it on my own or think on my own prideful standards for myself, all made possible by arrowing up!

Fiona also shed light into an interesting topic of the Gospel. When we go out on missions and when we talk to non-believers who have never heard of the gospel what will we tell them?? We responded oh, yes, of course we know the Gospel and she told us to explain it. Hmmm so yah, there is a God, umm they might ask who is that?? Uhh well He created the whole universe, they might ask why and we respond because He loves us and wanted companionship and in some cultures, they would be like huhhh okay...... so you can see my point. She explained with non-believers we have to break it down, always start with God loves everyone, sin seperates (that will be hard to explain), Jesus saves, and then theres a choice. The Gospel to me is the foundations of Jesus Christ and this resonates something within my soul, what she said. The Gospel is so simple, yet so difficult just in these few steps of faith, the biggest steps of your life.

She was such a cool speaker, and I quite enjoyed an exercise she made us do with a partner. We took our partner and stared directly into their eyes for about five minutes, and weren't allowed to look away. Then she spoke to us that we are to look at the person as how God sees them! Wow, that was so cool and the end of looking into that person's eyes I just couldn't stop thinking how beautiful they were and I almost cried. How heinous we are as creatures to insult God's creation, to insult that which He loves so deeply!