27 · 10

Word up!

Today we started our study on The Bible, and held a surprise dinner for the girls on the course.

In Quiet Time I read as much of the book of Acts as possible, as we had been told the speaker this week wanted us to read the whole thing by Thursday. When read with an understanding that the same Holy Spirit which gave power to the followers of Jesus back then gives power to us now, it transforms the book. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of it again.

Then we had our usual Monday morning whole of base sung worship time, in which I really felt God in the room.

We then started our week's teaching on The Bible. We covered a bit about what The Bible is (a collection of 66 books written by people from various walks of life, from shepherds to Kings), and how we got that collection of books (in terms of the accuracy of the copies and the work that goes in to translating) as well as some other topics. It was another interesting start to the week's lectures. I think, again, that I'd studied a bit of what we covered before, but again, it is great to get it all in one consistent package. Some things that stood out to me: the word of God has been very accurately preserved for many, many years; you can't pin down the text to just one way of doing things - the text is inspired by God, so it moves with how God's breath moves - yet at the same time scripture is not changeable to suit the mood of the day.

After lunch, we all took part in the usual Community Care activities, and then we had a seminar on Bible Study, which I really enjoyed. We learned about two different basic types of Bible Study: Inductive and Deductive, and how Inductive study meant looking at the text till you see it clearly, interpreting it (seeing what it meant to the origional readers (and reader through the ages)), then applying it to our lives now. This was contrasted with Deductive Bible Study, where one goes to the Bible with a preconceived notion, and look for verses that support that idea. We saw that Inductive Bible Study was the best way to go out of the two. It was another very enjoyable seminar, lead by the base leader who spoke to us last week on Grace. It was good to have him back again. I really think what I learned here will be very useful for when I want to really study the Bible later on.

Once the seminar had finished, th guys went off to prepare a surprise dinner for the ladies, which I think they all enjoyed. It was good to get to serve them all in this way.

It has been another fun, but fast day here at Holmsted Manor on the YWAM DTS course. The lecture phase is already almost half done! Time is just going so quickly, but it is good to be so sure this is the right place for me at the moment. Have a great week! Please feel free to comment on this or any other blog entry.
26 · 10

Grace and guidance

Today I went to another church, where we heard a sermon on God's guidance. The preacher talked about how God took the Israelites out of Egypt, but then took them the opposite way to what would be logical to get to the promised land. In that time, God taught the Israelites many lessons they needed later on. The preacher also talked about how the Israelites went out 'in fives', and that in Biblical number systems, five represents the concept of Grace, which tied in nicely to this week's lectures.

When I got back, I found I'd lost the stylus to my phone again! This got me thinking about God's view of us. He made us for a purpose, just as the stylus was made for a purpose. Just because the stylus is lost, doesn't mean thr purpose has changed. In the same way, God loves each one of us, and wants us to find our purpose in him. No matter how far away we are from God, he still loves us.

In the afternoon I wrote an update on my time here on the YWAM DTS course for my Portsmouth church news letter, and just rested a bit.

It has been a fantastic week of teaching this week, and I have enjoyed the rest of my time here too. Next week's lectures will be on The Bible, so I think I'll have lots to talk about again. Have a great week.
25 · 10

Gift day

Today I went on one of the organised shopping trips to a town near here called Crawley. It was funny being back there, as I used to go occasionally when I used to live in Sussex. I got my girlfriend's birthday present(s), but I can't say much about that, as she reads these posts too!

Once I got back to Holmsted Manor, I helped (or tried to help) another student get some Bible software on their Mac laptop. It was quite hard as I've not actually had much experience of Macs, and none at all with installing the software they wanted to use. Also, the software was not particularly user friendly (at least during the install process). While I was trying to help with that, another student came to ask if I could help them set up a movie on a laptop in their room. The first student said they would try to get the software working by themselves, and I went off to get my laptop for the second student to use for their film.

When I got to the second student's room with my laptop, someone else had already managed to get the dvd to play on theirs. So I went back to my room and put my laptop away, then went back to the room with the film on, where I wrapped the gift(s) for my girlfriend, then watched the second half of the film (as it took me a while to do all the wrapping).

In the evening we saw the film version of 'Les Miserable', which was very enjoyable, and a fitting end to a week of teaching on Grace.
25 · 10

What is the point?

Today marked the end of our teaching on Grace, and the last local outreach for two weeks.

We started off again with Quiet Time, where I mostly set up for the worship time which the prayer triplet I am in lead. I controlled the song presentation software, while the two others sang, and were accompanied on the guitar by another student who graciously agreed to help out. It was quite a hard 45 minutes, for a few reasons, but the last song was upbeat, and people seemed to finally get into the swing of things. Then I shared something about what I'd been thinking this week during the lectures. We've been looking at how Jesus offers us 'quite a good deal' for us and 'quite a bad deal' for him, in that he takes our sins, pain, past, rejections, regrets and failures, and he gives us his grace, forgiveness, freedom, a new life and life in abundance. I was asking myself 'why would Jesus do that'?, and the answer I came up with was: because God is Love! He even said (in John 15:13): "Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.". So I shared about that, then we went for a short break.

When we received our final talk on grace, where the question was asked by the teacher: what is the point of Grace? We looked again at the picture of grace being like a double edged sword, and saw that there is a point on the sword. The point is to live a life of grace, and to pass it on to others. We also heard some great stories illustrating the point (for example, a christian who threw a surprise birthday party for a prostitute, and the son of a business man who'd realisede obedience to God's call on his life was more important than the life he could have lead working for the business too). Also there was a memorable thought about how God looks at people as they were origionally, and separates that out from any 'sin' they may be committing, and that we should do the same.

It has been a fantastic week of teaching. Next week is looking good too: The Bible.

After lunch I read a bit more of Blue Like Jazz, the first of two books that we will have to write a report on. I am very near to the end now, and have grown to like the book a lot. It seemed quite odd to start off with, but got a lot more focused from the middle onwards.

In the evening I went out for the local outreach, the homeless project in brighton. This was a great evening where we got to meet some very intersting and caring people. One man even played his guitar for us! Next Friday, being about half way through the lecture phase of the YWAM DTS I am on, is part of a `long weekend`, so we won`t be back then, and the week after we will be coming back from the YWAM conference, so we won`t be doing the outreach then either! I am actually a bit sad about that, as I am really getting into it now.

I have had a fantastic week, I hope you have too. Please feel free to add a comment.

"Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved."
23 · 10

Leading me home

Today we learned more about Grace. It was very, very good. We saw today that Grace is like a double edge sword. One the one edge there is the "undeserved favour/forgiveness of God", and on the other there is "God empowering presence in your life". This second meaning has been taught in my Portsmouth church a few times, so I was quite pleased to see it repeated here - knowing that it is a liberating message, and that Grace enables us to be free to live the life God wants for us. God's grace means we can not easily loose our salvation, and God's grace means we can freely do the things He wants us to. We also saw again how there are no works required for our salvation. Good works are a sign of our salvation, not a requirement to be saved (made right with God).
 
A funny thing happened near the start of the teaching today: the teacher said that he would be teaching based on what he had read in a book by a particular preacher. I looked at the name of the preacher, and realised I'd seen it before. A few months before finding out about the DTS course, I'd been to a youth-work conference, where the speaker had:
  • Made me realise that doing something like a DTS (before I even knew about the DTS course) could be a good idea
  • Recommended to me personally several podcasts to listen to, including the sermons of the preacher our talk was based on today!
From this, I am realising how my life is all living in the grace of God: He has been preparing me for this course for quite some time, without me even knowing it! He got me to a conference to hear someone help me think this could be a good idea, then he helped me hear teaching that has helped me in the lectures now that I'm here. In myself, I could have not done any of this. It was just Him, and His love for me.
 
There were also the usual daily activities, and an odd time when I ended up reading a magazine for brides.
 
It was another great day. I'm discovering that every aspect of life here on the Holmsted Manor YWAM DTS course is worth the fees in themselves, but we get all of them: the great teaching, the community, the leadership, the great scenery. It's all here!
22 · 10

How sweet the sound

Today in Quiet Time we reflected on a song written by a friend of another YWAM DTS student, about God's heart, and love for us. I enjoyed reading Isaiah 44, especially verses 22-23:
 
I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud
and your sins like mist;
return to me, for I have redeemed you.
Sing, O heavens, for the Lord has done it;
shout, O depths of the earth;
break forth into singing, O mountains,
O forest, and every tree in it!
For the Lord has redeemed Jacob,
and will be glorified in Israel.
 
He had already "blotted out your transgressions" - removed all our failings and failures and rejection of Him, but in the Old Testament - but through what Jesus did on the cross in the New Testament!
 
Our teaching on Grace today was absolutely fantastic. I took about 6 pages of notes! And here they all are......ok, maybe not, but here is a taste:
We started off by being given a quote by District Bonhoeffer regarding Grace, and how the life which springs from Grace is Discipleship, and Discipleship is grace.
Then we moved on to seeing how the enemy has kept using the same attack through history - attacking our identity. In Genesis 1 we are told God created man in his image. In Genesis 3 we see the serpent telling the man he would be like God if he ate the fruit. But he was already like God - made in His image. The same thing happened when Jesus went in to the desert - Satan went to him and said "If you are the Son of God, then...." and tempted Him with all sorts of temptations. But just a few days previously, God had declared at the baptism of Jesus that He was God's son, so Jesus didn't need to prove it with the temptations Satan presented Him with.
The teacher also talked about how many of the problems in our lives are because we are not focused correctly: if we focus on ourselves, then we are focusing in the wrong place. Only God can satisfy the deep needs of our lives, and so we need to focus on Him.
We also looked at God's will for our lives again: if we give God our hearts, we will automatically move in His will!
Additionally we reviewed the thought that the world says our identity is found in what we do, but God says our identity is found in who we are (in Him), which will lead on to what we do. Then the teacher quoted himself: "There is no greater threat to the Kingdom of Darkness than believers who know who they are".
We also got another definition of discipleship: "Learning to live consistently with who you already are in Christ".
A great bit of the teaching today came with the revelation that the "spiritual disciplines" - fasting, prayer, Bible reading etc, are not to make us more holy, as we are already 100% holy in the eyes of God - they are to remind us of the fact of our holiness, if we are in Christ.
That was just a selection from the first three pages! There was plenty more after that too, but let's just say: I really enjoyed today's teaching, and it just made me so glad to be here, once again. To really grasp Grace, and the fact that God sees us in the light of Jesus, and His perfection, is just so liberating and life changing. It gives us hope: we don't need to struggle with religion or ritual to be made acceptable to God. He makes us acceptable through his gift of the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, which completely removes our sins from history.
 
Our Wednesday prayer session today was for the home countries of the STS staff and students, so all of the English people (all five of us!) got together and prayed for various aspects of life here in England. This was a great time of prayer. Following this we took part in our usual Community Care activities.
 
Then came the next meeting to discuss our outreach. We have now been told a bit more about what we will be doing in India, and where exactly we will be going. Most of out time will be spent in the region of Tamil Nadu, specifically Chennai. We will be working with street kids, helping with prayer and ministry including healing and deliverance, as well as talking to prostitutes and feeding abandoned children at the train station. We will also be visiting the community I talked about a couple of weeks ago (a 36 hour train journey away!), and various other activities as and when they come up. The trip will cost about another £500 on top of what I've already paid to be on this course. If you would like to help with these costs (and please feel under no obligation to do so, although all donations would be warmly welcomed) please see the Support section of my web site (or contact Cath at the King's Church Portsmouth offices on 02392 987977).
 
Then we had this week's country themed dinner - a barbecue, in honour of the Australian residents of Holmsted Manor. It was very nice.
 
Tonight I had my one to one chat with a DTS leader. These are very encouraging times for me, where I see that things really are going well and it isn't just my imagination. It is good to have someone there to make sure I'm not deluding myself!
 
A quick prayer request: I've (and a few others), have picked up colds, and are suffering from coughs and sneezes. Please could you pray for the good health of the entire base?
 
Thanks for reading. Please feel free to add a comment to this, or any other blog entry.
 
“Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.”
21 · 10

Safe thus far

After Quiet Time, where we looked at Daniel 3:17-18, we moved in to a time of prayer for various aspects of life here at Holmsted Manor. After that we resumed our lessons on Grace. The teaching was fantastic once again. The whole gospel message was re-iterated today in such a way that if I wasn't already a Christian, I would have wanted to become one now. To know that God has dealt with all the times I have missed His perfect standard, and that He looks at me and sees the perfection of Jesus is quite simply the best news one can ever receive. Every other religion relies on the idea that you can do something/enough to reach God - the Bible shows that can't happen, and that God has reached down to us. It was also a great revelation, and one that should have been obvious before, that the whole of The Law - the laws given by God to Moses, could have not been given, and God's plan of salvation would still have been possible. No one was ever saved by observing rituals or providing sacrifices - it is only by the sacrifice God himself provided in Himself, by sending Jesus for us.
 
After lunch we took part in our usual Community Care activities, and then we had free time, where I tidied the room I share with the other male students, and relaxed a bit before our men's small group. Today we watched the film "Meet the Parents". This was quite a funny film, which I remembered I'd seen about 10 minutes in to it! It features a man meeting the parents of the woman he wants to propose to, and the disasters that follow his lies used to gain the approval of her parents. There were a lot of lessons in this film useful for people in that situation.
 
This was another fantastic day, focused on excellent teaching on Grace. I'm still loving it here on my YWAM DTS course. I hope you are having a great week too.
20 · 10

More than Amazing

Today we started our teaching series on Grace, and had a great sung worship time, as well as resuming our Community Care activities.
 
We started this morning, as ever, with Quite Time - or we were meant to anyway....due to my busy weekend, I must admit that I hadn't found the time to complete my journal, so I did that during Quiet Time! Shocking, I know, but they had to be handed in today, so I had to do it. After that we had a great time of sung worship. It energised me and gave me just what I needed to get going for the rest of the week. We also sang a song written by one of the residents that was inspired by watching "The Lord of the Rings", which I think a few people reading this might appreciate.
 
Before we started our classes on Grace, we had to write down the memory verse - or that's what we thought we would have to do.....instead, they asked that we write down the verses from the previous two weeks! I think I just about managed it, but I don't think I got the references correct. Hopefully I'll have gotten most of it right though. The small group with the most correct memory verses at the end of the course will get to have a pizza party!
 
The speaker for this weeks' classes is the base leader here at Holmsted Manor. He is a friendly, energetic, fun American called Daniel. Today he started the classes by telling the story of how he came to be volunteering for YWAM. There is too much to talk about to put it all here, but he certainly has heard from God in quite dramatic and unarguable ways. While being a good story teller, he also managed to drop in a few great quotes, such as "Delayed obedience can lead to disobedience". I'm looking forward to the rest of the week's teachings. I know I've said this before, but it is so true: I am just so blessed being here: my first duty on a Monday morning is to sing praises to God, then I get to hear fantastic teaching by interesting and engaging people. I don't think there are many places where that would be the case!
 
After lunch we performed our usual Community Care duties - or we thought we would.....but we got to one of the toilets, and were refused entry as they were being painted. Apart from that, the time was uneventful (apart from spending a long time trying to turn off one of the showers as the switch has broken!). Then we had a seminar on the Word of God. This was given to us by a friend of Daniel's, who had flown in from America to give the talk, and has a few other speaking engagements later. He said he almost never made it though: he'd forgotten to check his passport till the week of his flight, and then found it to be expired. He has another long, but amazing story about how he managed to get a new passport in such little time. It just went to show that if God wants you somewhere, He can get you there.
 
Tonight after dinner some of us watched another great movie, Donnie Darko, and then I started writing this. And now I'm going to stop.
20 · 10

Back to school

This Sunday I went back to my Portsmouth church for the first time
since starting the YWAM DTS course. It was great to see everyone
again, and be able to say what a good time I've been having.

I then had lunch at the house of my friend who's birthday party I went
to on the Saturday night, then spent the rest of my time in Portsmouth
with my girlfriend.

The train journey back to Holmsted Manor was reasonable, though I
hadn't expected to have to change to a bus due to engineering works on
the second part. It was nice to get home for an hour or so to see my
parents. My Mum then drove me back to Holmsted, and I got ready for
bed.

It was another good day.
19 · 10

Happy day

Today I spent the day in Portsmouth with my girlfriend, then went to the birthday party of another great friend. It was a very enjoyable day.

About

see more at edross.co.uk