Unit 1 Review

Chapter 1
The Bible from Genesis to Revelation tells the story of God's purpose
The Bible is where Christians get their entire data base of knowledge about God and how to live their lives according to His will. But from this chapter, I learned something about the bible i never knew: the Bible acts as the story of God. It is a story of suspense, adventure, rebellion, violence, drama, but it is mostly a love story. It is a love story about His love for us. God is the main character of the story. This means to me that He doesn't just know what is going to happen, but He has an active role in the events that take place. He is not some petty god that ists back and watches without involving himself into the lives of the other characters. The story God tells in the Bible is about the history of the world. To me, this is crazy because to us, part of the story is the future, but to God it is the past. The coolest part is by reading the Bible we can see the future God has blessed us by giving a guide to the future so we can know that in the End we will win the spiritual war.

Chapter 2
God's purpose is relationship, redemption, and reconciliation
We, as God's children, crave his redemption, relationship and reconciliation. Because God made us, we have a God-shaped hole that only he can fill with these things. without them we struggle through life, something I have learned through experience. God wants to know us on a personal intimate level! what other god from other religions wants that? This excites me because now I can be confident that I will never be alone, I will always have a friend. from the bible we can see His relational nature by His interactions with His children. God wants to redeem us through Christ. This allows us to have a relationship with Him, something He desires so much, He let His Son die a brutal death. We are reconciled with God because of Christ, which means we are renewed, strengthened, and sustained. All of those things (relationship, redemption, and reconciliation) are vital to Christianity.
Chapter 3
God invites us to participate in His purpose; He blesses us so that we can bless others
God desires all His children to be reconciled and redeemed, so He can have a relationship with them all. This can only happen if we spread His message and let them know there is a God who desires to know them. This is our immensely important job. God's call is a missional call to all of us. He blesses us in many ways so we can bless others. We should use our blessings for missional and selfless purposes, not for selfish purposes. I have taken this bit of truth and thought a lot about it because i am hugely blessed. To me, this means i can use the money I am blessed with to donate to worthy missional based causes. Also i am blessed with the spiritual gift of teaching, so i could be a Sunday school teacher and teach underprivileged children about God. God instructs us to keep an eye on His plan when we read the bible, not on our own desires and pictures of purpose. sometimes this is hard because I use the Bible for personal comfort.

Chapter 4
God's story is unfolding as we see and participate in God's Kingdom throughout the earth
The Kingdom of God is a real and present Kingdom on earth right now. I never really thought about this until recently, it is hard for me to always be aware of spiritual warfare and God's Kingdom when it isn't exactly visible accept through the Church. Even then it is hard to remember/see. Tight now, our progression with spiritual warfare is that Satan's kingdom is currently ruling. But I have learned that we shouldn't be afraid because Jesus will come back and His Kingdom will be re-established. This gives me great relief, because Satan's kingdom does horrible things. The church is one way Christians can help fight awful things that devil does. Every time we get more people to convert, the closer the Jesus' return we are getting. THis is encouraging to me. The church's purpose is to gain more territory for God's Kings=dom. Once we have the most territory, we will win.

Chapter 5
The spread of God's Kingdom takes place in the context of warfare with Satan
I have learned through chapter 5 that this war is just a civil war. Satan used to be good, but went bad, and created his army to try and rival that of God. one day, God's army will defeat Satan indefinitely and His Kingdom will be whole once again. ways to battle the kingdom of Satan include first, receiving the Holy Spirit's empowerment, defend ourselves and God, and to rescue people from the Evil One. To me, receiving the the empowerment of the Holy Spirit is to hear his calling and arm myself for battle through truth and scripture. The armor of God would help me do this. The armor of God actually helps with defending ourselves and God, and rescuing people from the Devil. i never really understood that this was the purpose for the armor fo God until I looked at it in the context of spiritual warfare.

Let the Nations Be Glad by John Piper

John Piper wrote an article called "Let the Nations Be Glad" and we read it in missions class on Friday the 29th. I really loved this article because it really put the calling of God into perspective for me. In missions class we have been harping on missions and the missionary calling of God to all people, but this article reminded me that the church's, and consequently our, main purpose and goal in life is to worship and praise Him all the time. Missions should be a response to our constant worship and praise to Him. it should be the product of our excitement and on fire attitudes toward God. Piper boldly states that "Missions is not the ultimate goal of the Church. Worship is." Piper goes on to say that we only have missions because we have praise and worship to God. the Bible, especially psalms, commands and encourages us to worship God. We should worship Him when we are happy with Him and when we are angry with Him, because He works all things out for the good of those who love Him. Piper even goes to the extreme when he calls for a diminishing of missions and a "magnifying of God." I thought this was interesting because it seemed like he was saying there is too much missions and not enough God worshiping. this could be true, I personally don't know. It seems to Piper, and to me, that people do things because they see it in the bible, like going to church and praying occasionally. The dame thing happens with missions. People see/hear that God want people to spread the good new of His Son, and so they do it without their heart really being in it. They do it without praying about it and without being led by the Holy Spirit. This kind of missions needs to stop. We need to go back to the heart of worship, as the famous song says, and refocus our thoughts on Him so that when we tell others about God we know it is Him telling us to do that and not us doing it on our own accord. This way our hearts are truly in t and we are not just doing it because we want to be good cookie cutter Christians.

The Kingdom of God

The Kingdom of God is a tricky concept for any Christian, no matter how far along in the faith you are. i never understood this difference before, but the Church is not the kingdom of God in and of itself. the Kingdom of God does not even have a true physical form, yet it still exists, which is totally mind-blowing! the church is simply an agent of the Kingdom of God. God sometimes chooses to use the Church in His plan, and sometimes He acts outside of the church. the church's true meaning is a gathering of believers. but they have other functions. the church spreads the Word of God and helps the community in general.
Sometimes it is really hard for me to see the Kingdom of God on earth because i am more aware of the negative things happening in the world, so i don't see the positive things. i definitely see how the Kingdom of God is at war; a spiritual war. God has really brought spiritual warfare to the forefront of my mind lately, so that is one way i am starting to see the kingdom of God. think about it this way: whatever you do that is not directly and clearly for God is against God. no exceptions. if you are not helping Him you are helping the Devil. i have recently learned that there is no middle ground with God. this encourages me to be on fire for Him.

1st quarter reflection

so it's October 19th, the second day of the 2nd quarter. i have successfully survived my first 9 weeks of Senior year. Missions class has been such a blessing to me through out the whole time. it has been a nice break in my day where i can learn more about God and enrich my spiritual life.
through the past 9 weeks in this class, God has been teaching me 2 main things: not to be lukewarm, and that i should not let my blessing of money ruin my spiritual life. i have always loved God for as long as i can remember, but i God has recently shown me areas in my life that i have been lukewarm in. one of those areas is reading the Bible everyday. i go through fazes where i read everyday and then i get lazy. it takes 30 days to create a habit, and one day to break it. i break the habit of reading everyday very easily, and God doesn't like it. so i am trying my hardest to read on a daily basis once again. also God has brought it to my attention that He hates lukewarm Christians. because i am lukewarm in areas of my life, He hates that, and i could go to hell for being lukewarm. this scares me, so i am desperately praying to God that he will correct this in me.
the other important thing He has revealed to me through missions class is that it is very hard to be rich and go to heaven. this also scares me because i am rich. living in America makes me rich, and on top of that, i am in the top percent of the middle class. people like me don't easily get into heaven. i have been trying to be more compassionate to the poor and weak. those who help the weak will be blessed (psalm 41:1-3). i do love God, and i want to go to heaven, so i am trying my best to make God pleased with me through how i live. i am trying not to be lukewarm in any area of my life, and i am trying not to let my wealth ruin my relationship with God.

Everything is Spiritual by Rob Bell

Rob Bell made the statement that man is a physical and spiritual being. This means that humans have spirituality, so they will constantly be searching for something to fill the God-shaped hole in their lives. God has both a physical form and a spiritual form, and humans have both. We, as creations, are hard-wired to search for the thing that created us, and only some of us find it. It is our job as Christians who have found our creator to pursue a life that is based on spiritual rewards, not rewards of the world. This is a huge struggle of mine because everything in the media speaks against that belief. The media tells people to gain worldly things, and to satisfy your needs immediately. The teachings of Jesus, however tell people to store up treasures in heaven, not on earth, and to be in the world, not of the world. This truth is forgotten among many teenagers such as myself, and will continue to be forgotten. We should remember it tho because God is almighty and He created the heavens and the earth and you and me. Who can argue with or disobey someone who created the universe? We are all sinners and fall short of the glory of God, and have all turned our backs on God or turned a blind eye to God as we knowingly sin. But we must remember that because we are spiritual beings as well as physical beings, we must live to satisfy our God who created us and everything else.

Let's Not Be Selfish With Our Blessings

In missions class A3 we talked and read about how God blesses people for the purpose of blessing others. This is a new idea to me. I have been a Christian for as long as I can remember, but I still learn new things about God and about the faith. This new knowledge changes my view of the value we place on material goods. Our American culture is driven by success and the American Dream. This success includes gathering worldly things and having lots of money. Often times we think we have gained all of these possessions all by ourselves, but really God bestowed this blessing upon each one of us. He did this for a specific reason and it is not just to make everyone happy and to reward them for doing good things. In fact, we don't deserve it at all, but he gives theses blessings to us anyway because He has a greater purpose: to bless others, especially those who go without. Our culture does not idolize this however. It does not idolize generosity and selflessness, which is what God calls us to be as Christians who are blessed.
In order for me to apply and live our what I have learned, I should give more to the poor and spend more time with them, helping them. As a blessed person, I can give time and money to the less fortunate. In James chapter 2, the bible says to take care of the poor and to treat them equally and love them as your neighbor and as you love yourself. God has been really trying to speak to me about this because this is the 3 or fourth time this topic of helping the poor has risen in conversation, at school, and in chapel. I will make an honest effort to be a doer of the word and actually do what GOd's will is for me to do.

SEW-Spiritual Emphasis Week

This week at my school we had spiritual emphasis week (SEW). SEW is a week where we have chapel everyday and there is a common theme addressed by a speaker and usually a really awesome band comes and leads worship. this year is was a really great time for the whole school. in the past it was always kind of a pain in the butt because we got out of school late and it interfered with the schedule and blah blah. but this year it was so so SO amazing for me personally and for everyone else. i know of a few people who officially came to Christ because of SEW. We had guest speaker Greg Speck and guest band Dutton! they were so awesome and so close to God and so entertaining. This week God really spoke to me through Greg Speck. I need to have no fear because 'if my God is for me who can ever stop me'!? A quick fact about myself: Im pretty paranoid in general, ask any of my friends and they will tell you. I carry around pepper spray on my keys and i walk in parking lots with my finger on the little spray button and i literally run into my house from my garage after getting out of my car because one time i though there was someone stalking me in my garage, and i always check my backseat before i get into my car alone. needless to say, being a girl in a big city today can be frightening, and i like to take precautions. But in SEW, Greg Speck reminded me that surrendering my life to Christ means that i should have NO fear because 'if my God is for me, than what can stand against me'? He reminded me that Satan is out there and he wants to stop me and scare me and ruin my life because i love God, but he also said that i should not be afraid because Satan is like a huge 7 foot tall man who comes up to me in a parking lot and tries to scare me off by threatening me, but God is like a massive 10-12 foot guy who loves me more that Satan hates me and is like my personal body guard willing to beat Satan up if he lays a finger on me. because of Greg Speck's analogy i will remember God's love for me when i feel frightened. also Satan tries to ruin our lives by doing bad things to us, like when i injured myself this week. i had a performance coming up the following day and one on the following Tuesday, but now i can't do either of those things and i feel like i have let my other dancers down and i know that this is one way Satan is attacking my life. but my friends who were with me reminded me that Satan is only 7 feet and God is 10 feet tall, and i should not be afraid. it was so awesome to have my friends there encouraging me with uplifting thoughts about God. I LOVED SPIRITUAL EMPHASIS WEEK! i got so much out of it and i feel like God got Hid message across to me through Greg Speck.