Sunday, October 4, 2009

My Chileans

Pichilemu sunset

My lovely Chilean roomies, Damarice and Daniela

Cleaning our cute casita

The view of the ocean from our porch

Where we live - "La Casa Blanca", the White House of the base

Welcome - introducing ourselves

Andre drinking Yerba Mate, this weird herb stuff South Americans love to drink. You put it in a little hollowed-out gourd and pour hot water in it, then drink it through a straw with a filter on the bottom. It's their water!

Arabella Daniela and I

Spring on the base is so beautiful!

First day back with everyone!


This is our classroom - we live here. All day, almost every day.



TGIS - Thank God it’s Saturday. Even though Saturday means classes ALL day (double class sessions on a sunny Saturday and I can see the ocean from the classroom window, it’s just not right), it has been an amazing week and I’m thankful we had classes today because they were the best classes so far. We studied the Israelites’ temple and altar, which ushered in the presence of God in their midst, and how their process of rebuilding the temple and altar mirror our process of rebuilding your heart, mind and life to be in God’s presence continually, which was a really incredible comparison. 


First the Israelites came out of captivity and slavery to their enemies because of their repentance, which we need to have in humility and brokenness to be free from sin and turn back to the Lord. We have to be broken down in order to be rebuilt.


Next they were attacked and intimidated by their enemies, who told them they can’t rebuild the temple, which the enemy always wants to do in our lives and prevent us from being in God’s presence. They stopped for 16 YEARS then finally got a word of encouragement and got their faith moving again and rebuilt the temple. 


But the Lord’s presence couldn’t be with them until they made a radical change. They had disobeyed God and taken foreign wives, so they had to remove them from their land. Basically they had to kick out tons of their own wives and children in order to be true to God’s commandment of being set apart. It was sacrificial, painful, and seemed cold-hearted but it was worth the pain to have God’s presence back among His people. 


The question was, “What do you need to radically renounce in your life, no matter how painful it may be, in order to be set apart for the God who took you out of slavery to sin and made you His child? What do you need to clean our of your heart so God’s presence can be with you and give you the abundant life you were created to have? How long have you stopped rebuilding your heart as God’s temple because you listened to the lies of the enemy?”


Good class. 


It takes heart-searching and giving up and breaking points, but to have God’s presence in your heart and with you day to day is worth whatever lame thing you need to give up that only hurts you and others anyways. So worth it.


We’ve also been looking a lot at emotions, and how living by your emotions will only destroy your life. Emotions are real but they aren’t always the truth. We are called to live according to the truth, which is God’s Word and character, led by His Spirit, followed by our minds and emotions. Imagine if we did. How different our daily life would be, instead of riding a roller coaster of emotions, trusting His truth and his Spirit, obeying and enjoying the good things that He has for us.


“Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord”... Zechariah 4:6


PS- leading worship actually went great. I knew all the words - I think I practiced them in Spanish so much that I knew the Spanish verses better than in English!



1 comment:

  1. Brooke! Our homegroup has officially "adopted" some missionaries to pray for. Guess who's one of them...

    Praying for you girl!

    Jess Ransom

    ReplyDelete