DTS Week 8

Another week, another update!

Week 8 absolutely flew by! Seriously, it just disappeared on me! Still, I will update you as best as I can...

DTS
The topic for week 8 was Wisdom & Relationships. Our guest lecturer was Steve Aherne, the director of YWAM Australia, so it was fab to have him teaching us. The most essential message of the week for me was that true wisdom is knowing and doing the will of God. It seems kinda obvious when I say it, but the reminder didn't hurt! The relationships thing is always a tricky one. We all have different ways of describing them etc. etc. I generally figure that if you're praying, doing what God says (see above!) & testing it by seeking the good of the other person, then you can't really go far wrong, surely?

Bible Quote of the Week
"For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
- Romans 8:38-39

This verse has popped up a couple of times so far during DTS and is so incredible. It really is true that we can't do anything to make God love us more or anything to make God love us less. I actually wrote it in a friend's birithday card this week because it's easy to read these verses and think "yes, that's nice" and fail to glimpse it's application to our life. In this case, that as my friend approaches another year, there is nothing that can happen in the coming 12 months to separate him from the love of God. No matter what the year brings, God's love for him is constant. That pleases me greatly.

Evangelism
Evangelism is actually this week's topic in lectures, so I'm sure I'll have more to say on this next week, but I ust wanted to mention that I have had some great opportunities to chat about God to non-Christians over this weekend. None of the conversations were exactly explicit gospel-preaching, but I really feel that they were worthwhile. One conversation in particular stands out to me from the weekly youth event. I spent maybe 20 minutes talking to one of the young people, let's call him Jack (not his real name). He's interested in God and has attended Bible studies etc. before, but doesn't quite know what to think. I encouraged him to ask God to show Himself to him and told him a couple of stories of where I've seen God work in my life. Jack seemed really encouraged and thanked me for chatting to him. I'm praying that Jack will have that experience of God soon and start moving further into the purposes for which he was created.

Prayer Requests
Please continue to thank God for His goodness towards me. Pray for Jack and all the other people I have the opportunity and privilage of witnessing to. Please also pray about plans for our outreach as we are still a little unsure as to what we're doing for the first couple of weeks.

God bless you all & thanks for reading!