Today was the final day of lecture from Don Stephens about The Kingdom of God and Biblical Worldview. I will briefly cover a lot of the topics we're covering and if any of you would like to check out the notes from this week his website is http://www.donstephens.wordpress.com/. The central message of Jesus' teachings was on the kingdom. I had a hard time with this because it's so complex but so easy at the same time. It's something you can't just define and put in a box but be enlightened by it and have the ability to share it in it's importance. The kingdom is every place where the will of God is being done. In a nut shell, everything we do matters. The kingdom should be a reflection of our king. It is everywhere the light touches adn brings the glory of God. This means in every one of our spheres of influence. It's not just the people of church but have people from every are of society and encourage them for the kingdom. God calls us to serve where we are and serve like Jesus. It is a servant kingdom not a dominating kingdom. Family: love, nurture, and multiply. Business: to discover, provide, heal, bless. Church: proclaiming the gospel of the Lord. Government: exercise justice and restrain evil. Media: interpret info through lens of good and evil. Education: to pass on truth to future generations. Arts/Entertainment: celebrate goodness, truth, beauty. The kingdom as a whole is the glory of God's character. It's a passion of Jesus' heart, not all about sin management. Our passion and purpose come together to bring the kingdom glory by learning the culture of Jesus with radical grace, valuing who people are, not just converting them, and giving courtesy and kindness and honor one another above yourselves. (Romans 12:10)
Learning the true meaning of what the kingdom is to me is such a fun journey for me. Disciple-making is a process not just a one time conversion event. My heart for discipleship training school is about love and relationships. To me the kingdom is more of an action and lifestyle. Every action, every thought, every word, and everything I do matters. For the glory of God I do the things I do. Not for recognition or satisfaction but through my love towards others, people can see and experience Jesus through me. I want more of Jesus' heart and passions. "His ways are far above my ways". I'm just praying this week that God will give me a revelation of what His kingdom looks like.
Weekly verse: "The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, for his mercies never fail, they are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness." --Lamentations 3:22-23
We had our small group this week where 7 girls and a leader all meet to sort through a lot of the lecture and discuss questions we had. I'm being challenged and by the end of the three months, I hope to memorize the book of James. We need to wallpaper our minds with God's word, his truth, and promises. It's such an exciting thing and I'm going to find much value in knowing the Bible via word of mouth. It's so powerful! Tonight we have community worship in Ohana Court with all of the students on campus and people from the community. I'm so excited for everything that God has in store for me and everything I've learned this far! I hope you guys enjoy reading and following along on the adventure! :)
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