Week 4

This week in class, we have been learning about God’s awesome plan and how He uses anyone who is simply willing to come to Him His way. In a DVD lecture given by Billy Strachan, I learned that God wants my life to be free of leaven which gets in the way of my relationship with Him. He wants me to ‘eat Him and drink Him,’ not just to associate with Him. In other words, He wants me to assimilate Him. Just as when I eat a loaf of bread, the bread becomes a part of me, so God wants to become a part of me. He wants me to be intimate with Him. Billy used the image of a business transaction, saying that all the best deals are worked out over a meal because there, you can talk freely, it is an intimate setting. In the same way, Billy showed that there are many examples throughout the Old Testament of God appearing to someone and then this person would bring the Lord meat (a perfect sacrifice) and unleavened bread. So God also wants the same thing from me. Jesus is my perfect sacrifice, and now God wants me to come to Him as bread without leaven because just a small portion of leaven mixed in with the rest of the loaf makes the whole loaf puffed up and full of air. To give an idea of what I have been learning, here is my journal entry for this past week:
- God’s plan for me goes beyond my wildest dreams! In the beginning God was. Then he created our universe to perfectly mirror His awesome glory. When Adam and Eve brought sin into the world, God could have ditched us and started again, but instead He began writing the story of history, the story of redemption. He made a promise to Eve that through her seed, a saviour would come to atone for the sins of the world. He made a covenant with Abraham that a nation would come from his seed and that from his descendants would come one who would bless the nations. Throughout the Old Testament, God worked out His perfect plan, providing a leader for the people of Israel, providing land for them to settle, providing a law for them to follow and providing conditions under which the people could thrive and form a great nation. But Israel’s sin led to division and captivity at the hands of the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks, and the Romans. But God used even their captivity for the furthering of His plan by allowing the Jews to spread our and construct synagogues that would allow for the rapid spread of the gospel eight hundred years later. Finally the scene is set for the arrival of Jesus. The promise that was made 4000 years ago to Eve was fulfilled. Tracing the progress of redemption really showed me that God is in control of every situation, both good and bad, and that He works all things together for good and for His glory.
- God will use anyone who is willing to come His way. He doesn’t want me to be something else, He wants me simply to let Him work through me. He used big mouth Sampson, cry baby Japhthah, ‘never sure’ Gideon, scaredy cat Barak, adulterer and murderer David, filthy mouthed Isaiah and so many more. God lets me run away and hide when He calls, but if I realise that God can use me and am willing to come to Him His way, He will use me. Also, I don’t need to see or feel what God is doing through me, if it’s God doing it, He gets the glory and I don’t need to know about it. I simply need to fully trust Him.
- God doesn’t want me to identify with Him, He wants me to assimilate Him. When Jesus shared the Passover meal with Hs disciples, He told them to eat Him and drink Him. In the same way as I eat and drink for the nourishment of my body, ‘eating and drinking’ Jesus should be more important to me as it is my spiritual nourishment. God wants the first fruits of my time. He wants me to come to Him simply to be with Him. He wants an intimate relationship with me. He doesn’t want any of my leaven: Herodinism (making myself and more important) my Saduceeism (rationalizing my way out of faith) or Phariseeism (making pretences and wearing masks). He wants me to get rid of every trace of leaven so that He can start using me – weaknesses and all! And once I have an intimate relationship with Him, He can make me fruitful. But I must never forget the bread, the unleavened bread of fellowship with Jesus Christ. Just as I would never skip breakfast, I should never skip enjoying the living Jesus.

On Tuesday, we celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving. We celebrated it on Tuesday so that we would be celebrating it on the actual Thanksgiving Day back in Canada. We all dressed up, although Ben and Joel seemed to understand “dressing up” in the same way as Natania does and dressed as Samurai with their kimonos and bandanas. For supper, we had turkey, ham, mashed potatoes (TONS of mashed potatoes :P), carrots, peas, stuffing, gravy, garlic bread, and even cranberry jelly! It was sooooo good and we were all really full after. It was really nice to feel connected to everyone back home by celebrating though. Before supper, we went outside and got some group pictures (which I will endeavour to upload next time I am at the library in Geraldine). The dining room was all decorated for thanksgiving with nice tablecloths, centrepieces made of evergreen branches, leaves, and pinecones, and there were even maple leaves (or the closest NZ equivalent to maple leaves) with our names on them as place markers.

Tuesday evening, we split up into our two family groups for family night. My group went to the Epp’s house this time. We played a game, kind of like the ‘out of the box’ game I’ve played at home, where we each pulled out a question from a box and then we answered it or talked about it for a while. We didn’t play any intense games like the last family night, but it was fun just to hang out around the fireplace and talk. Colin told one of the funniest stories I have ever hear and we all cracked up, it was hilarious! And we got to have apple and pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving!!!!!!!!

For workday on Wednesday, Joel, Robert and I went to the Epp’s house and got some gardening done. Joel, Justice (Dale and Patti’s son), and I seeded grass. It was funny because the grass seeds were bright pink and blue. I also weeded a large portion of the garden in their backyard. I really enjoyed it because I could work in silence and just spend some time by myself and with God. In the evening, most of the students went to play soccer at the local high school. I didn’t go, hoping that I could get to bed early, but that didn’t happen :P. I have been trying to catch up on sleep all week but since we are five girls sharing a room, there are always people coming in after I have gone to bed and turning on lights and making noise. We all try to be quiet and let people sleep, but it can be challenging to work around each others schedules.

On Thursday, we skyped Joel B. who is still waiting for his student visa in order to come join us at the crossing. Joel didn’t know that Dale knew it was his birthday so we all surprised him by singing happy birthday to him over skype. He told Dale later that it made his day.

Speaking of sleep, last night (Saturday), we were all in bed by 9:30. I was so excited to finally get a decent night’s sleep and to be able to recover from camp a bit more. At about 10:15, Amber and Kelsey jumped up on their beds screaming, turned on all the lights, opened the door to the room and ran downstairs because they had hear a rodent (probably a possum) crawling around on the roof and squealing. Both Cara and I were slightly annoyed at being woken up, but there was no way we would be able to fall back asleep just yet. After telling the boys and everyone downstairs about the rodent, the Amber and Kelsey came back upstairs and jumped into bed together since they were scared. Once Cara heard the rodent, she got scared too and joined them in the single bed. We then all decided to go back to sleep and the room got quiet. That’s when Cameron opened the door and walked into the room. Kelsey grabbed Amber’s arm, screamed and sat bolt upright in bed and of course, because she screamed, she scared the rest of us so we all screamed. Cameron kind of stood there wondering who her crazy roommates were. That’s when the boys decided to prank us. They took a ladder, propped it up against the roof and began scratching at our windows and throwing rocks at the wall to make a pitter-patter sound. Of course, all the girls freaked out, until we went to the window and heard one of the boys yell “ouch” when he fell off the six foot ladder and onto the hedge. We spent a lot of time laughing hysterically and finally went to sleep at about 11:00. So much for going to bed early!

During the day on Saturday, a bunch of us went on a tramp just outside of Geraldine. It was a beautiful trail that started off at a kiln (that Ben scaled) and then followed a river for a while before climbing a hill and finishing at a pinnacle with a panoramic view. We ate out lunch at the top of the pinnacle. During the hike, some of the guys had a ‘role play’ going where we were all on a ship and the were assigning tasks to each person. Joseph (who was leading the expedition) was the captain, Joel was first mate and Jonas was second mate, Colin was the judge/elder/wise guy (I think it’s because he has a beard), Ben was the scout (and was promoted to super scout because he climbed the ‘balancing rock’), Cameron was the spokesperson but got demoted to cooks assistant, Robert was the cook but then claimed kingship, Adam was the spy, Bryan was the assassin, Jordan was weapons specialist, Michael was the spokesperson because Cameron was demoted, and I was the foreign affairs minister since I am bilingual. It was really funny to play along and everyone was talking (or trying to talk) like we were on a ship. It turns out that our captain doesn’t know much about sailing (as we were leaving the pinnacle, he instructed us to “tighten the... ropes that pull the thingy and move the sail.”). Cara, Amber, Kelsey, and Sheryl drove into Christchurch to get some shopping done.

I have been trying to go for a walk every day or every second day. The area around the school is perfect for walking or running since there are very few cars (and lots of sheep :P). A bunch of us often walk into town if we have a free afternoon. It’s about a

It was Cameron, Robert, and Joel’s turn to cook Saturday tea so they made gyros. It was delicious!!!!! For desert, they made brownies. Not only that, but they managed to get supper done on time (unlike Jonas and I :P)!

For church today, we drove into Timaru to Life Church. It was a very young church and I really enjoyed the more upbeat worship songs. The sermon was on the gospels and eyewitness accounts. It was very interesting!

This coming week, we will be studying Genesis. I am so excited! I am amazed at how much I am learning and how much my relationship with my creator is changing!