We have been living in community here for about a month now and are 1/3 through the lecture portion of our DTS! We have had some thought-provoking lessons in the past weeks and wanted to share a quick over-view of what we have been learning.
The first week of class was entitled 'The Father Heart of God' and was taught by Jeff Pratt, one of the directors of the school. It was about God's desire for relationship with us. We discussed experiences and ideas that we might have allowed to create a wall of divide between us and God and how we can have freedom from those things. We talked about what freedom in relationship looks like. While we did spend a lot of time thoughtfully considering our pasts and what sort of baggage we were carrying that God wanted to free us from, we also talked about keeping our eyes on Jesus, not on ourselves or on sin and the enemy. One quote that I wrote down in my notebook was, "Only deal with your past (go to it) as The Holy Spirit prompts you. Otherwise you have a selfish Christianity". The transparancy that we all displayed helped us to feel closer to a group of people who were were really just getting to know.
Our second week we focused on the qualities of Justice and Mercy and did a word-study on each. We were surprised to have our concept of justice as something extended by us to those being taken advantage of changed into a realization that justice must first be given from us to God. When we refuse him the relationship and praise that he deserves, we are perpetrators of the greatest injustice. To complain about all of the smaller injustices in the world without being in right relationship with God is to point out the speck in our brother's eye without first removing the plank from our own. We focused on these verses: Deut. 16:9, Ps 89:14, Prov. 28:5, Is 59:9, Amos 5:21, Matt 23:23, and Col 4:1. In our study of Mercy we looked at Isaiah 63:9, Daniel 4:27, Hos 14:3, Matt 5:7, Luke 1:77, 78 , Rom 12:1 and Eph 2:4. In closing we listened to the old sermon "Ten Shekels and A Shirt" by Paris Reidhead, which we both enjoyed.
We then had a day of teaching in Intercession (in addition to spending each Friday morning in Intercession). Most of the lesson was drawn from the book "Intercession" by Joy Dawson. We also spent two days discussing The Spiritual Disciplines (Confession, Fasting, Fellowship, Meditation, Prayer, Service, Silence, Solitude, Study and Worship) with Jeff Pratt. We have started to incorporate a "Daily Office" into our routine. The Daily Offices are designated solitary daily times of prayer/study/meditation that we set aside to remember Jesus. It is so hard starting a good habit, but we have each been blessed by our efforts already. Jeff left for the Montana base last week, but gave us the assignment to spend time listing things that we believe (as evidenced by the way we live our lives. You can't put 'helping the poor' on the list if you don't actually HELP the poor.) vs. Ideas that we love (thing that we wish had a place in our lives, but, based on our actions we don't believe enough to practice). Compiling our lists has been challenging and eye-opening.
Last week was entitled, "Christ In Culture", taught by Jeremy Harke. and was a review of the more prevalent worldviews and where they each differ from Christianity and the objections that their adherents usually have to Christianity. We spent a lot of time talking about Humanism - a worldview that dominates New Haven and is securely entrenched in the minds of most of our neighbors.
This week our speaker, Bill Burtness, taught on "How God Changes Nations". He teaches a class called Principles of American Government at the National University of Kosovo (I think that I got those locations right!). He teaches directly from the Bible about how the heart condition of the people can change government. It was pretty interesting.
Another part of our 'education' here is study. So far we have read and done book reports on "Is That Really You, Lord?" by Loren Cunningham and we just started "Irresistible Revolution" by Shane Clainborne. Additionally, we got to choose a book to read from a list of Staff Picks and Jason chose "No Compromise" the biography of Keith Green (a whopping 500 pages) and I chose "Living On The Devil's Doorstep" by Floyd McClung about the establishment of YWAM bases in Afghanistan and Amsterdam.
We are learning a lot, in and outside of class. Living in community is challenging us to draw our strength from God and to find our value in Him alone - the other alternative is to be awful and selfish housemates! In a week we are gong in a 2 day silent retreat to Mystic Island, which is a few hours from here, I think. We are excited to hear what God has to say to us when we cut out all the other voices vying for our attention!
The first week of class was entitled 'The Father Heart of God' and was taught by Jeff Pratt, one of the directors of the school. It was about God's desire for relationship with us. We discussed experiences and ideas that we might have allowed to create a wall of divide between us and God and how we can have freedom from those things. We talked about what freedom in relationship looks like. While we did spend a lot of time thoughtfully considering our pasts and what sort of baggage we were carrying that God wanted to free us from, we also talked about keeping our eyes on Jesus, not on ourselves or on sin and the enemy. One quote that I wrote down in my notebook was, "Only deal with your past (go to it) as The Holy Spirit prompts you. Otherwise you have a selfish Christianity". The transparancy that we all displayed helped us to feel closer to a group of people who were were really just getting to know.
Our second week we focused on the qualities of Justice and Mercy and did a word-study on each. We were surprised to have our concept of justice as something extended by us to those being taken advantage of changed into a realization that justice must first be given from us to God. When we refuse him the relationship and praise that he deserves, we are perpetrators of the greatest injustice. To complain about all of the smaller injustices in the world without being in right relationship with God is to point out the speck in our brother's eye without first removing the plank from our own. We focused on these verses: Deut. 16:9, Ps 89:14, Prov. 28:5, Is 59:9, Amos 5:21, Matt 23:23, and Col 4:1. In our study of Mercy we looked at Isaiah 63:9, Daniel 4:27, Hos 14:3, Matt 5:7, Luke 1:77, 78 , Rom 12:1 and Eph 2:4. In closing we listened to the old sermon "Ten Shekels and A Shirt" by Paris Reidhead, which we both enjoyed.
We then had a day of teaching in Intercession (in addition to spending each Friday morning in Intercession). Most of the lesson was drawn from the book "Intercession" by Joy Dawson. We also spent two days discussing The Spiritual Disciplines (Confession, Fasting, Fellowship, Meditation, Prayer, Service, Silence, Solitude, Study and Worship) with Jeff Pratt. We have started to incorporate a "Daily Office" into our routine. The Daily Offices are designated solitary daily times of prayer/study/meditation that we set aside to remember Jesus. It is so hard starting a good habit, but we have each been blessed by our efforts already. Jeff left for the Montana base last week, but gave us the assignment to spend time listing things that we believe (as evidenced by the way we live our lives. You can't put 'helping the poor' on the list if you don't actually HELP the poor.) vs. Ideas that we love (thing that we wish had a place in our lives, but, based on our actions we don't believe enough to practice). Compiling our lists has been challenging and eye-opening.
Last week was entitled, "Christ In Culture", taught by Jeremy Harke. and was a review of the more prevalent worldviews and where they each differ from Christianity and the objections that their adherents usually have to Christianity. We spent a lot of time talking about Humanism - a worldview that dominates New Haven and is securely entrenched in the minds of most of our neighbors.
This week our speaker, Bill Burtness, taught on "How God Changes Nations". He teaches a class called Principles of American Government at the National University of Kosovo (I think that I got those locations right!). He teaches directly from the Bible about how the heart condition of the people can change government. It was pretty interesting.
Another part of our 'education' here is study. So far we have read and done book reports on "Is That Really You, Lord?" by Loren Cunningham and we just started "Irresistible Revolution" by Shane Clainborne. Additionally, we got to choose a book to read from a list of Staff Picks and Jason chose "No Compromise" the biography of Keith Green (a whopping 500 pages) and I chose "Living On The Devil's Doorstep" by Floyd McClung about the establishment of YWAM bases in Afghanistan and Amsterdam.
We are learning a lot, in and outside of class. Living in community is challenging us to draw our strength from God and to find our value in Him alone - the other alternative is to be awful and selfish housemates! In a week we are gong in a 2 day silent retreat to Mystic Island, which is a few hours from here, I think. We are excited to hear what God has to say to us when we cut out all the other voices vying for our attention!
