Wazzzzzup Bizlog Worldz. Here, back on the internets after a very nice Thanksgiving break. This week we had the pleasure of having Shay Robbins talk about the subject of intimacy, intimacy with God of course. The first day we discussed the issue of intimacy with God and strategies on how the devil is trying to make our culture shallow so that we cannot have an deep and thus intimate walk with the Lord like it was originally, in the Garden of Eden. The second day, we talked about how the Holy Spirit allows us to have a relationship with God without a mediator, such a priest. The third day, today, he talked about how spiritual disciplines, such as, solitude, prayer, meditation, fasting and study can help us have successful intimacy with God. On the first day Shay established this quote, "God never runs from us because of my sin and shame." This was very powerful for me. Everyone in the world has sin, any action or thought that separates us from God, in their life, including me. So if God never runs away from me, even when I do the things that separate me from Him, then that means that he will never leave me and God is always with me. Powerful. But wait there's more! If God never leaves us even when we do the worst of sins then this must mean that he wants to have a relationship with me and everyone else and all we have to do is accept Him and seek Him, He has already accepted us. On the second day we discussed about the Holy Sprit. In the times before Christ had died, the covenant between God and man is called the old covenant and required the high priest of Israel to annually enter into the temple of Jerusalem and go into the Holy of Holys and give God an animal sacrifice, to cleanse the sins of the nation of Israel. I say all of this because now, after Christ has died, we are in the new covenant and we have the Holy Spirit which lives inside believers and guides us to God and helps us have a more intimate relationship with God. This spoke to me on how much effort God put put into having a relationship with me. On the third day, Shay closed out his session on the topic of intimacy with discussing five spiritual disciplines on how to have a successful and intimate relationship with God. These disciplines as stated above are, solitude, prayer, meditation, fasting and study. While all these disciplines are fantastic, study stood out to me. In conclusion, Shay Robbins brought insight to a topic that is an essential part in a relationship with God, and I am thankful for that.

Urban Entry

Blog world wazzup! Today I come to you with a special post! This week was not my normal lecture week. This week Link Year headed to Kansas City, Mo and Ks to help serve The Hope Center. The Hope Center is a Christian based community development center in inner city KC, Mo. We started our journey on Monday afternoon and arrived in Kc, Ks at a friend of the Donyes house, which was a rather nice house. There we ate dinner and a game begun. Each family group was given 14 tickets, representing money,and several options on what we could spend the tickets on. We were also told that there was an incentive to having the most tickets at the end of the week. What we could spend the tickets on we're Tuesday lunch, showers, if you did not already pay for them, or phone time. For my group it was easy. We spent the tickets on Tuesday lunch. After this was explained, Adam threw us another curveball and said that the guys had 27 dollars to buy breakfast at a local grocery store for the three days. So, us guys put our heads together and had the brilliant idea of buying what you most need in the morning, carbohydrates and protein. Naturally we bought bread and peanut butter and coffee, a great decision. So Tuesday morning we hop in the Kanakuk vans and head over to what we would find out to be the Hope Center. When we arrived we were met by the founder and one of his loyal employees and have us the low down on the hope center. After this we hopped on a van and had a tour of the neighborhood to see what problems the neighborhood had and how the founder felt God was calling him to help fix them with the main mission of sharing the Gospel. During this tour the founder showed us that he lived in the poverty stricken, violent neighborhood that the Hope Center was affecting. This was a great lesson on how to minister. If you want to minister to people then live with them and get to know the people, the culture and the problems so God can use you most effectively. After the tour we ate lunch and helped clean a house, that was in the same neighborhood that was going to be given to one of the people helping start the leadership development program at the center, and helped clean out a church that the Hope Center prays to use one day to open up their ministry to adults. On Wednesday I had bread and peanut butter for breakfast and again hopped in a Kanakuk van to go serve at the Hope center. Wednesday was all about serving. For most of the morning and afternoon we cleaned and cleared out the church mentioned earlier, so by the time it was done, it was almost ready for service. That night we went to a lady's house that we had met earlier in the year and ate what most people would consider a feast. Afterwards we were done we cleaned off the tables and made 400 bagged lunches that were going to passed out the next morning at 4:45 a.m. Wednesday night we slept easy knowing that the hard work was over and that we would return to Branson the next day. Woke Thursday, ate some peanut butter and bread and got ready for the day. Today was different that Tuesday and Wednesday. Today we watched a movie. Not just any movie, but a movie about how Adam Donyes invested his time and energy into a special needs kid in Hollister, Branson's less affluent neighbor, and taught him how to play basketball and showed him that he had greater potential that he had ever known. This really motivated to find someone and really invest in their liv show them that God loves them and if they use the gifts that God has given them that they can acquire goals that they themselves did not believe they could achieve. In conclusion, I appreciated this week because it showed me how blessed I really am and how I should take advantage and be a good steward of what God has given me so I can truly fulfill my God given potential.

Week 5

What's up blogger world? Time to get that weekly review in!! Without further adue, let's unpack this week. This monday sure was a surprise. Adam knows everyone and he knew a dietician from Kansas City and she came and spoke on nutrition. The main topic she focused on was balance. Nutritional balance is considered eating lots of vegetables, less fruit, less grains, less meat and less fats, oils and sweets. Though this was very insightful, what she taught is hard to do with a small budget and the facilities here but mystery Monday was still a good learning experience. This week was an awesome week with awesome speakers. The week was planned so that we would have Marvin Daniels, the director of High Point at Kids Across America, for the three days but God is in control and he could not switch a meeting so we had Keith Chancy drop some wisdom on us today. On Tuesday, Marvin talked about connecting faith with all of life. This was fantastic. He discussed issues such as faith and politics, faith and culture and faith and sexuality. Talking about faith and politics, he brought up the issue that we should be neither Republicans or Democrats but Theocrats, people who are driven by divine guidance. You see as Christians called to further the Kingdom of God, Matthew 6:10, and not our political party. Talking about faith and culture, he reminded me that we are called to be ambassadors of Christ, 2 Corinthians 5:20. As ambassadors of Christ, we are called to be the salt of the Earth, Matthew 5:13, but if you take salt and mix it with other compounds it no longer becomes salt. This basically means that I need to be mindful of who I hangout and what I interact with, because if I get mixed up in inappropriate relationships or start taking drugs I start to mix with "other compounds", thus I start to loose my saltiness, thus not following a commission by God. Talking about Faith and Sexuality, he talked about the importance of understanding Genesis 1:27, "God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them". As Christians we are called to be like Christ and understand that we are made in the image of God, and I firmly believe that God is not homosexual. I am not here to offend anyone but I am here to tell the what the Bible says. On the other hand, God is an all powerful, all knowing, omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent God, creator and controller of the universe. Why would you not want to be in His image? Today, Keith Chancy spoke to us in replacement of Marvin. This was a surprise and a blessing. Keith is the director of Kanakuk Institute, a hardcore supercharged version of Link Year that prepares college graduates to use their God given talents in the world ahead. Keith is very energetic, smart and knowledgeable. With this combination he explained the importance of first three chapters of the Bible. Even though I will probably not remember most of what he said, his knowledge, passion and enthusiasm inspired and encouraged me to dig deeper into God's word, be unapologetic and to love unconditionally. In conclusion, I really feel that God has blessed me in coming here with all of the wise and convicting speakers that have helped me strengthen my walk with Christ.