This past Monday was the final session of Gracepoint Training School. I took Soul Care with Kelly Kang, and the class was a real blessing to me. I think the best thing for me is that I walked away with the sense that I need to take the main lessons and start to live them out daily. The text book was great too. There were some memorable and inspiring quotes from Richard Foster's Celebrations of Discipline. For example,
During the final session, Kelly Kang shared with the class some of the ways in which she personally worships. A couple of them really struck me as something I can apply immediately:Real prayer is life creating and life changing. “Prayer – secret,
fervent, believing prayer – lies at the root of all personal godliness,” writes William Carey. [Celebration of Discipline, p.33]Often I am inclined to think that joy is the motor, the thing that keeps everything going. Without joyous celebration to infuse the other Disciplines, we will sooner or later abandon them. Joy produces energy. Joy makes us strong. [Celebration of Discipline, p.191]
- Before dt, expect to hear from God by silencing myself for 1 minute and asking him to speak to me.
- Do things to honor God even when no one is looking.
If you were blessed in any way through your GTS class, please feel free to share.
2 comments:
i'll try Kelly's suggestion of silencing myself for 1 minute and asking God to speak to me prior to my devotion times as well!
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I took New Testament Survey taught by Andy Tung. In addition to learning the content and themes of each NT book, we covered the authors' background and the historical and cultural context in which the books were written.
I was most encouraged by learning about the early Christians, who faced a lot of persecution and huge cultural opposition to Christianity, yet persevered in living out their faith together in community. They must have felt very fearful at times because their beliefs, values, and lifestyle went against the cultural norms of their day. But they ended up deeply influencing their societies precisely because of their countercultural values. For example, Christians were the ones who showed compassion to people who were sick and suffering due to deadly epidemics, and eventually the Judeo-Christian values of compassion and the inherent worth of a human being became norms of Western culture. I hope I can gain the courage to live out God's values in my life too, as I am spurred on by others in this CSU East Bay community!
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