Discipleship Bible School, Australia
Once again, after a long dry season of no journal entries I have felt the Spirit stirring me to return to my website. For all of you who do not know I am currently taking my second secondary school with YWAM called Discipleship Bible School (DBS) in Byron Bay, Australia. Thanks to the previous generous donations for my prior school I was able to save the extra and pay for this school. Since this is a YWAM base there is also a Discipleship Training School (DTS) going on here as well, which is the prerequisite for every other school. DTS is what I did last year at this time when I was in Hawaii and Nepal. I have been blessed with getting to speak into the lives of the DTS students and pouring out into them while taking my doing currently doing DBS. This entry will update you on what a day of DBS looks like, the DBS homework, the DTS student discipleship, and what we have been learning.
Top left to right: Cam Canada, Anders Norway, Katie Australia, Hannah Michigan, Ellie Washington.
Bottom left to right: ME Minnesota, Naomi Australia, Hannah North Carolina.
Not pictured: School Leaders Dahn and Liz Herrman from Switzerland and Oregon
DBS
The heart of DBS is to read the Bible inductively rather than deductively. This means we read scripture with an understanding of who it was written to, what the author and audience's worldview and current beliefs were, the timeframe in which it was written, and the passages original language. In understanding those things we remove our previous expectations and do not look for certain pieces of scripture that fit our narrative and belief system but rather we let the scripture write the narrative and let the Holy Spirit translate the message to our minds. When you go through scripture only looking for what encourages your beliefs and current view you are deductively studying and it can be hard to grow and can cause unique doctrines to sprout up. With that in mind we will spend 3 months reading through the entire Bible as a group. A normal day would start with some morning prayer or worship for an hour or so with the whole YWAM campus. Then we would split up and us in DBS would have a 2 and 1/2 hour lecture. In lecture we talk about the books of the Bible we are reading that week and learn the background information, structure, literary type, and much more information to help us better understand the content and context. When lecture concludes we eat dinner with the DTS students then go to a comfortable place to read. We usually read for about 3 hours a day, varying on the amount of chapters scheduled. Then when we are done reading we will have supper and usually be done for the day with corporate stuff. We have a pretty good load of homework ranging from a weekly summary to writing about two specific Godly characteristics that stood out to us in one of the verses of the current weeks reading or listing off 10 Biblical Action Principles from the weeks reading. An example of a Biblical Action Principle would be Exodus 20:21 when Mosses goes into the darkness where the LORD was while the people stand far off. The Biblical Action Principle of this could be "pursue God's presence" or "be courageous". Many Biblical Action Principle can come from just one verse! My favorite assignment is the application assignment. We are supposed to take one of the ten Biblical Action Principles that we chose for the previous assignment and apply it to our lives. A big aspect of DBS is to not just be readers of the word but also doers. If I complete an entire DBS and even memorize the entire Bible but do not apply it then I count it all as vain. In the Application I have to state why the principle is important, how I am going to practically apply it, what God thinks about, how the principle helps me know God and make him known and other questions. Most weeks while doing this homework with some worship music in the background I am being encountered by God and sometimes I stop what I am doing and just sit in the awe and glory of the LORD's presence.
Making Disciples
Before coming to Australia I felt God speak to me directly and through others that I am called into a shepherding position. Shepherd meaning a leader and teacher to others. One big reason I chose to do a DBS was so that when I was in positions of leadership and teaching in the future I would be doing it in truth and with a biblical worldview and foundation. In James 3:1 it states that not many should become teachers because teachers are held to a higher standard and judged with greater strictness. There is so much Grace but this really did put the fear of the LORD in me that If I am teaching others I want to be speaking truth. The amazing thing is, God has not waited to give me opportunities to shepherd others until after DBS but rather already placed DTS students to build up and encourage right now. Many days while eating with the DTS students or just hanging out they have asked me questions regarding a certain verse or passage in scripture. Thankfully because of what I have already learned in DBS I can answer their question with confidence and present them with scripture that backs it up as well! This has been such a blessing and honor to be completely honest. Just a year ago I hardly knew anything other than the typical Sunday School Bible stories. I have also got to individually pour out into the DTS students by setting time apart to hear their stories and speak life and truth into them. I invited one of them named Cooper over to the DBS boy's house. I made him some of my special pancakes and we just hung out. Pancakes turned into him sharing his testimony with us and going deep into the way God has transformed his life. I could feel God's heart for Cooper and saw such a bright future for him in youth ministry and all that God has for him.
Another student named Luke I got to encourage by giving him experience on the soundboard for Friday morning intercession. I volunteered to lead the campus wide Intercession for a couple weeks while someone was gone. During that time I encouraged Luke in tech and shared with him the importance of the tech man in a time of worship. He got to see how a prayer/worship set operates and how the Spirit moves throughout the whole thing. Another student named Benji I encouraged to play the Cajon. He did not have much experience playing and was not super comfortable with it. I felt he has such a calling on his life in music and the drums so I tried to create a non-performance environment and really exhorted him to join us for the worship portion of Friday morning intercession. Thankfully he joined and did great and really came out of his shell. Afterwards he thanked me for encouraging him to do it. I feel immense gratitude towards the LORD that during my previous secondary school (School of Worship) God equipped me with the knowledge and wisdom so that I could lead worship/intercession and involve people like Benji and Luke. One of School of Worships mottos is "releasing the sounds of the nations", which is so cool because as I watched Benji play "who is originally from the Congo" I could see him releasing the sound of the Congo as he beat the drum, I felt he was releasing his soul's sound. The Congo and most African countries are known in music and worship for their drums. Getting to see Benji who is from Norway but originally the Congo bring his heart and hands into our corporate worship/prayer time in Australia as we are praying for Israel really displayed the beauty of God's Kingdom and God's heart for each and every nation.
Redemption Plan
I am currently writing this in the ladder half of week 6 so it would be difficult to summarize the immense amount of information gained. We are already done reading the early prophets, so that puts us with only a couple books left in the Old Testament. One aspect of the Bible that I never really knew was so important is a covenant and what each one means. There are 7 total covenants in the Bible "some say 8" and each one is very important and significant. The first covenant happens when God gives Adam and Eve dominion over the earth and it is called the Edenic Covenant. Adam and Eve sadly commit the first sin by focusing on what they lack because of the deception of the serpents twisted words. God shows a radical display of grace by kicking Adam and Eve out of the garden so that they might one day die and return to him rather than living in eternal separation from him. God has to kill an animal because sin leads to death and he uses that animal's skin to cover the Adam and Eve's shameful nakedness. Jewish tradition believes this animal was a lamb which points so perfectly to the forth covenant which is the Mosaic Covenant made between God and the people of Israel and Mosses. God gives the people of Israel "The Law" which is to make the people Holy/set apart for God's perfect will. One of those laws is the sacrifice of a male firstborn lamb that is without blemish to atone/cover the debt of the people's sins. This Lamb was not so much the full debt paid off but rather an IOU until the actual perfect messianic Lamb would come. All of scripture points to this Lamb but in 2 Samuel 7 it this Lamb becomes even more clear. God makes his 5th covenant of the Bible with King David and promises that from his descendants one would come that would reign forever and establish a kingdom that is never going to end. God does everything in his power to protect David's line and even through exile it is protected. Then in the time of the prophet, Isaiah, we receive some of the most profound and spot on prophecies of the Messianic King who comes to bring hope. Isaiah receives visions and messages from the LORD about a boy who is going to be miraculously born of a virgin women, and he is to be called Wonderful Councilor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace. The government is going to rest on his shoulders and he will reign on David's throne with Justice and and Righteousness forever accomplished by the Zeal of the LORD. Isaiah writes that this Messianic King, Perfect Lamb, Savior, is going to be rejected and despised, familiar with suffering and pain. He will take on our pain and our suffering and will be pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities. By this Messiah's wounds we will be healed. This man will be beaten beyond recognition. He will be the sacrifice atoning our sins, paying off all the IOU's of the past and sins of the future. He will be assigned the grave of the wicked though he will do no violence nor will he ever allow deceit to leave his mouth. Later, long after Isaiah's time a man comes named Jesus and he comes to fulfill "The Law" that is why he calls himself the way the truth and the light because "The Law" in Hebrew translates to "The Way". Just as the lamb was killed in the garden of Eden to cover the sins of Adam and Eve and as the lambs were slaughtered to cover the sins of the Israelites, so is Jesus, the Son of Man, the Prefect Lamb without blemish crucified as the result of our sins. But technically we are only up to the prophecy of Isaiah so to hear the rest, tune in for the next Journal entry. Thanks for reading, I hope this entry encouraged you and edified your spirit.
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I strive off your story’s dakotah and miss you but yk you got a real good future writing books in my opinion. But I know your having fun and living life to the fullest hit me back