Week 11 has come and gone here at YWAM Ozarks in the blink of an eye. The topic of the week was "The Father Heart of God" taught by a man by the name of Dick Schroeder. The purpose of this week was to bring to light the false images of God the Father that have been popularly accepted and to reveal who God really is as the Father. Along with this primary focus, Dick also spent some time talking about Forgiveness and Bitterness. He read Matthew 18:21-35, The Parable of the Unforgiving Debtor, to make the point that if we do not forgive, we will not be forgiven in return. He went on to talk more about forgiveness and how it is a choice, not a feeling, how it means to "tear up the debt," and how it is a response to what Jesus has done for us. He followed up that to talk about bitterness. He talked about how a root of bitterness can affect many around us (Hebrews 12:14,15), it leads to broken relationships, and it binds us to the past. We spent some time on Thursday night to forgive those who we had been harboring bitterness towards, and though I did find a few I needed to forgive, I thought for the most part that I did not have very many at all. I realized how many blessings God had given me (and is still giving me) throughout my life with the people he had surrounded me with; it was a good and refreshing realization.
More topics that Dick covered with us are shown below:
- We are to base our lives on the word of God and not our emotions
- Sonship is found in learning to be led by the Spirit
- Shame is a sense of being uniquely and hopelessly flawed. Shame leaves a person feeling different from and less valuable than other human beings
- Parents are the first scope through which we see God the Father
A bit of expanding on the last thing mentioned in that list. Before classes even started Dick had us fill out a packet about how we viewed our parents and the relationship we had with them. As far as negative things go, I had a really difficult time filling out the packet and finding things that I thought were negative about my parents. I'm not saying this to talk my parents up or anything like that, but I'm saying it because that's really how it was. Truth be told, I feel like not a lot of information presented this week regarding God the Father was new news or mind-boggling to me, and when Dick told us how our first views of God are originated from our views of our parents, I understood why. God blessed me with wonderful parents who loved God and loved their family, and because of that, I got an appropriate view of God because of the great view I got of my parents because of how truly great they were. Even though I think I may not have learned very much from this week, I was able to find out how blessed I am with my parents specifically. I know that I will never be able to repay them as they deserve, and I know that they love me unconditionally. For that, I thank them and I thank Dick for being able to show this to me.
A passing comment Dick made this week was that he thought that Christianity in the Western world focused too much on head knowledge, and not heart knowledge. What he meant by that was that people are too focused on learning a lot of facts and attaining knowledge about the Bible and God, instead of actually applying what they learned to their life and attaining the heart and character of God. Now, knowledge of God and the Bible is NOT a bad thing to have or strive for, in fact it is extremely good to reach and strive for. The point Dick was making was that people are becoming too consumed with merely knowing things and not living those things out. When he pointed that out, I felt very convicted that he was talking to me. God had been giving me a deeper love for studying the Bible ever since I started the DTS and it had been growing ever since. The problem arose when I became so consumed with finding answers in my studying that I forgot the part about applying those answers to my life. What's more is that this week we were going to do a 40-hour fast, where we choose what we each individually fast. From this conviction I decided to fast studying the Bible so I could focus more on talking to God through prayer and simply "being" with Him. Through that time, I didn't really receive any words from Him, but I did receive an overwhelming peace and satisfaction of devoting time to just being with Him. I'm sure that to many, what I am saying doesn't make much sense, maybe because the whole concept is strange or foreign or because I'm just poor at explaining it. Either way.
I am about to enter my 12th and last week of classes here at YWAM Ozarks, followed by a local Christmas outreach here in Ozark, Arkansas, and I can't believe how rapidly my time here is diminishing. I pray that I remain open to things God has for me and I keep my eye on the prize as I grow more and more excited to come home and visit family and friends. I appreciate all of your prayers as well and thank you all for your support and love. God bless!
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