Genesis 5

Each week, apart from listening to the main speaker, we take some time to have what is called "Bible Overview." This week we learned something so exciting from a geneology chapter. I don't know about you, but I have always skipped over these boring chapters, but did you realized that Genesis 5 fits in with the Bibles main theme (the main theme being to encourage man to have a relationship with God)?!?

So back in the day, names had significant meaning that tied to the person's identity or a historical event that occured. Keeping that in mind, check out Noah's geneology:

Adam = Man
Seth = Appointed
Enosh = Mortal
Kenan = Sorrow
Mahaladel = the Blessed God
Jared = shall come down
Enoch = teaching
Methuselah = his death shall bring
Lamech = the desparing
Noah = rest & comfort

Put it together and we get, Man appointed mortal sorrow, the blessed God shall come down teaching. His death shall bring the desparing rest and comfort. Wow. Even a geneology in Genesis directs us to the cross! Pretty incredible, don't you think?

O.k. So this is an absolutely ugly picture and I love it!!! I hope you all get a good laugh. Jess and I sure did. We laughed until we cried. 

SINNLESS (week 4)

Is it possible to live a sinless life? From the day Eve ate of the apple in the Garden of Eden, we have lived in a fallen world. Sin seems to be a part of all our lives. What if I told you we could live without sin? Didn’t Jesus Christ die on the cross to take away our sins? If they are taken away, why do we still hold on to them so tightly?

Exodus 24-40 walks us through the covenant God gave to Moses including the Ten Commandments written in stone and instructions to build a dwelling place for the Lord. Up to this point, He did not live among the people, and in Exodus 25:8 the Lord told Moses, “Then have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them. Make this tabernacle and all it’s furnishings exactly like the pattern I will show you.” Just understanding that it takes 15 chapters to explain the tabernacle’s design gives us an idea of its extravagance. At the center of the tabernacle was a room considered the most Holy Place. The only person allowed in this room was the High Priest with no sin. Once a year, the Day of Atonement, the High Priest sacrificed offerings for the people and entered the most Holy Place. If the High Priest went in with any sin, he was struck down dead and the people of the land would mourn for a year because they were not cleansed of their sins. Sounds pretty harsh. Luckily for us, this old covenant was replaced with a new one.

The old covenant brought the law and an awareness of sins. The new covenant allows us to leave sin behind and walk into life. 2 Corinthians 3:6 explains, “He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter (the law given to Moses) but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” Not only does the new covenant offer life, but also establishes that the Lord’s dwelling place is no longer in a room, but inside each of us as Christians. The tabernacle is now only a representation of the new covenant, except the most Holy Place is in us. “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?” (1 Corinthians 6:19). Referring back to the old covenant, we remember that the Lord does not allow sin into His presence. Friends, our identity is no as a sinner! Hebrews 10:8-10 explains that by the new covenant “we have been made holy” through Jesus’ death. Note the verb tense. This has been done. We are holy. The passage goes on to reaffirm that this has been done “once and for all.” We are completely free from sin. 1 John 3:9 goes a step further to say that Christians cannot sin. “No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning because he has been born of God.”

Biblically, we have the evidence in front of us that we are not sinners, yet the problem stems from where we place our identity. We hang onto sin and allow it to define us. When we realize that Jesus died for our sins, all of them, we can begin to see ourselves not as people bound to sin, but rather people completely free from sin. We will quit accepting sin and learn to walk more and more as saints.

God is Infinite (week 2)

According to Psalm 147:5, God's understanding has no limits. In Psalm 90:2, we learn that God has always been. The concept that God is infinite is key to understanding the basic character of God. Infinite, defined by www.m_w.com, means endless immeasurably or inconceivably great or extensive, subject to no limitation, extending beyond any preassigned finite value no matter how large.

Infinity is a concept that we, as humans, struggle to understand because we live in a finite world. Everything we know has a beginning and will have an end. Yet God is set apart because he has no beginning, no end, no starts, no stops, nothing to add or subtract. Visualize a bookshelf that continues up, down, left, & right forever. Visualized that bookshelf filled with books, half are white and half are black. When you take all the black books off the shelf, the number of books remaining on the shelf are the same as before. This doesn't make any logical sense to us as humans, but this is what it means to have no limits. Now think of our universe and how large it is. Beyond Pluto are endless galazies. Some we have yet to discover. Yet as large as our universe is, it is still finite! It still has an end. WOW!

God is infinite in three different apparent ways. Matthew 19:26 describes God as omnipotent (all powerfull). In Proverbs 15:3 He is described as omniscience or all knowing. Finally, Hebrews 4:13 indicates God is everywhere or omnipresent. God has power over everything, He knows it all, and He is everywhere.

We will never fully grasp this character of God, but beginning to understand that God in infinite, even just a little, sheds new light on who God really is and what a magnificent God we love.

Wash My Eyes (Week 3)

Are we blind to the way God created us to see? When did we start seeing the ugly rather than the good? We are all guilty of it. I see a girl with tattoos and body piercings dressed in black, and I wonder why she is like that. "She must have had a rought family life," I think to myself.

God did not intend for us to see how people are dying but rather inteded us to pull out life in our world. When man was first created, Adam and Eve enjoyed an abundance of life in the Garden of Eden. Centered in the middle of this lucsious garden were two trees: the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:9). God only prohibited man from the latter of the two (Genesis 2:16). The tree of life was for man to enjoy. Then the serpent came and offered Eve something mankind already had. He told her she would become more like God(Genesis 3:5), but we know from Genesis 1:26-27 that man was created in His image. The fall of mankind brought knowledge of sin, and introduced self-centeredness and seperation from God. Still, God loves us so much and wants life so baldy for us that He sent His son, Jesus Christ, to die for our sins and bring us back to fullness (John 3:16-17).

Now that Jesus died for us, what keeps us from fullness of life? Our focus on sin, not sin itself, prevents us from truly experiencing fullness, and we tend to spend our energy trying to fix it. Ironically, the has already been fixed through the blood of Jesus. There is nothing more we can do to earn salvation. It is simply a gift out of love that we must accept. It is our love for God in return that nurtures a desire to follow Him. Jesus, of course, is a perfect example of how to live this love out. When Jesus asked us to follow Him, He desired us to see life and others through His eyes.

First, we must understand that life in Christ is about discovery not destination. No end point exists to life in an infinite God, and understanding that God is everywhere and in everything leads us to a fresh perception. Last week I met two homeless people hanging out near the beach of Pa'ia. Of course, my first instinct was to figure out why they were homeless. I assumed drugs were a part of the problem. As we went deeper into conversation, I saw characteristics of God shine through them. I realized that God loves these two people just as much as He loves me. In two monthsI will be in a nation that is 85% Muslim. These people may not know or accept to loving God I know, but He is visible in them through the hospitality and generosity of their culture. God wants us to see life.

Mark 8:22-26 tells a story about how Jesus restored sight to a blind man through not one, but two eye washings. My prayer for us is that God may spit on our eyes each day, restoring our ability to see life the way He intended for us.

Hi!! Thanks for stopping by to check out my site. Hopefully you can get more of an idea about what my life is like here. If you see anything you like or have more questions on, post a comment!!! 

Once a month, we have a Ohana (family) dinner where we must dress up to a theme. We had a beach theme and here you see Ruth, Jessica, Nicoline, me, and Ashley in our homemade palm branch skirts.  

A sunset from Pa'ia!!  

Bangladesh attire!!! This is what we will be wearing every day!! Me, Suzanne, Tik, Christine. 

I am so lucky to go on outreach with these to very musically talented people, Sam and Tom. They have amazing voices and everytime they are worshipping together, I get goosebumbs. 

One nice Saturday, a few of us hitched to a place called Bamboo Forrest. Hidden in this actual forrest is a river with several beautiful waterfalls.  

A sunset from Kihei. It was so beautiful that night, even this picture doesn't capture it. 

A picture from a beach in Kihei, the southern side of Maui. I wish I could claim the sandcastle to be my masterpiece, but it is not. 

Christine, me, Tom, Derrick outside the chapel before lecture one fine night. Christine and Tom are both on my outreach team to Bangladesh. Derrick is going to Nepal. 

WOW, IT IS THE WEEKEND AGAIN. IT IS AMAZING HOW FAST EACH WEEK FLIES BY, BUT IT IS EVEN MORE AMAZING HOW MUCH I LEARN AND GROW IN GOD EACH WEEK. THIS WEEK OUR TEACHINGS WERE FOCUSED ON BASIC CHRISTIANITY. FOR BEING A "BASIC" TEACHING, IT WAS EXTREMELY DEEP STUFF. WE LOOKED AT THEOLOGY AND HISTORY OF THE BIBLE AND IT'S WORDS. WOW, THERE STILL IS A CONCEPT OF FAITH NEEDED, BUT THERE IS ALSO A TON OF EVIDENCE THAT THIS STUFF IS HISTORICALLY CORRECT.
BEFORE WE MOVED ON, WE TOOK A LITTLE TEST TO SEE IF WE KNEW WHAT WE BELIEVED. IT TURNS OUT THAT I PERSONALLY KNEW THE TRUTHS, BUT DIDN'T HAVE VERY SUPPORTED REASONS AS TO WHY. SOMEONE COULD HAVE EASILY SHAKEN MY BELIEFS. NOW I UNDERSTAND (NOT COMPLETELY, BUT BETTER) AND HAVE SUPPORT FOR WHAT I UNDERSTAND. THE BIGGEST INSIGHT I HAD WAS ON THE INFINITY OF GOD, AND IN LIGHT OF THAT, I UNDERSTAND THE TRINITY SO MUCH BETTER AS WELL. I ALSO SEE THE CROSS AND THE BLOOD OF CHRIST WITH A NEW PERSPECTIVE.
ALL THIS STUFF IS SO MUCH TO WRITE, BUT IF ANY OF YOU EVER WANT TO DISCUSS ANY OF THESE THINGS WITH ME, I WOULD ENCOURAGE YOU TO WRITE ME. BEING CHALLENGED OR JUST SIMPLY EXPLAINING MORE OF WHAT I'M LEARNING WILL HELP ME RETAIN THE INFORMATION AND BETTER PREPARE ME FOR WHAT IS AHEAD!
FINALLY, I CAN'T END WITHOUT ONCE AGAIN THANKING YOU FOR ALL OF YOUR SUPPORT. YOUR PRAYERS AND ENCOURAGEMENT MEAN SO MUCH TO ME. MY PRAYER REQUESTS THIS WEEK INCLUDE:
1. HEALTH AND ENERGY as i have been feeling run down, and also have been waking up each morning with new bug bites all over my body. They do itch and can be a distraction somedays.
2. A GROWING HEART FOR THE PEOPLE OF BANGLADESH as we prepare, pray for team unity and a passion for what we will be doing
3. NEW REVELATION EACH DAY OF WHAT I AM LEARNING AND WHAT GOD WANTS ME TO LEARN.
Thanks again to you all. I love you and miss you. love always, Lindsay

Team KNACKERD: Richard (from England), Sam (our fearless leader from NYC), Derrick (from California), Bethany (Canadian), Ashley (our fashionable leader), Me, & Corrie (Winnepeg).  

This is where I am going to for my outreach. We leave late November/early December. Our entire group will first go to Thailand for 10 days. From there we split up and the group I am in is heading for Dhaka, Bangladesh!! Tik (holding the "D") and Matt (holding the "K") are our outreach leaders!! They are both awesome people of God.  

DIRT BALLS! This is after our EXODUS experience. We spent 3 days away from civilization with no shower, no deoderant, no change of clothes, no toothpaste. It's funny to see us so close because I remember how badly we all stunk. I think we were just glad to see food other than Ramen noodles and Oatmeal. I know we were all looking forward to a shower!  

Here our group is at IAO Valley. The peak you see is called the IAO Needle. 

Top: Emily, Bethany Bottom: Suzanne, Sarah, Brittany, Christine. This is taken outside the chapel. 

This is Corrie (from Winnepeg). She is amazing person and already an awesome friend!! 

Me, Ashley (from Washington), and Jessica (my roommate from Canada). This was opening night. Everyone looked so good. 

Here is Jessica and my room. We really lucked out because there is only 2 of us. All the other girls have 4 to a room. I sleep on the bottom bunk. 

This is "Shelby's," our lovely home in Pa'ia, Hawaii. I live with 20 girls and a few mice. We all share 2 bathrooms. FUN!