Blog 12

How do I read the Bible?

When I read the Word I try to take it slow. I like to chose a book of the Old Testament and a book of the New Testament. I alternate which book I read each day if I do not have time that day to read some from the Old and New. This summer I worked at Pine Cove and my bible study leader gave me her example of how she read and I loved it. I have applied it to how I read now. When I chose a book I read the whole book in one sitting to kind of get the whole picture and then break it up piece by piece, day by day. If the book is too long to read in one sitting I split the book into two. I have found this very helpful.
Another thing I like to do is read a comentary about the book before I read it. I have a study bible so I like to read the backround, time setting, and information about who wrote the book.
I love digging in and learning new things about God. The more and more I seek after him in his word the more I realize how small I am and how little I know of him. Which in turn makes me want more.
Sometimes I fail at this, most of the time I fail at this. I don't always have a constant bible reading everyday. I can definitley tell when I haven't in just the way I look at things or the way my attitude is. The beautiful thing though is that God is so good and forgives. He looks at how little I know of him and how sometimes I forget about him and still loves me. I am always amazed and in awe of why and how much he loves us!

Why are we growing churches apart from transformation?

What is the difference between conversion and transformation?
Conversion can happen so fast. I like how Roberts gives the modern day conversion in a church: non-believer comes to church, hears a message, walks down the aisle, prays, and boom he's converted. "You can convert- change who your religions- but stay the same person on the whole."
Transformation is when something completely changes. I like to think of a transformer. When they transform they are no longer a car, that is no longer who they are, their identity. They are now a Robot. They can do different things, things they couldn't do as a car. "Unless we are altogether transformed into the inage of Christ in how we live and behave, we are no different from any other religion in the world promising enlightenment and self-improvement."
"I am convinced that the greatest hope we have of seeing our culture transformed is first to make the gospel clear in our practice of evangelism"
The gospel is constantly changing my life. I have been constantly reminded of how the gospel should excite me all the time. I feel like as "church goers" we can get so used to hearing the gospel presented over and over again that it just becomes something we hear and not give full attention too. God is changing my heart and giving me excitement about his truth and showing me that I need to get excited about the gospel. I need to preach the gospel to myself everyday!

Blog 10

"If God loves the nations, and he does we have to do more than love what we see in our own backyeards if we're going to plug into the kingdom. When we're more concerned about our own fiefdom than God's kingdom, we will believe being the biggeset church is more important than churching the communities around us."
I love how Roberts words things in this book. He is so right in the fact that the church was made for missions. If the church as a whole were to take the Great commission and run with it as a team it would be so effective. When a group of people work together they accomplish things way better.
"God wants to espand and restore theat call within the church as a whole"
There is a difference between "doing missions" and "living the kingdom". In doing missions we think working, serving, going to foriegn places. When we think of living the kingdom it is more of a "furthering the kingdom" mindset. We tend to see others around us through the eyes of God and want to not only meet their physical needs but their spiritual needs too in order to further the kingdom.

Blog 9

A missions principle that can be learned from The Great Century would be William Carey's Approach to missions. He had 5 key components to missions.
1. Evangelism
2. Bible translation
3. Immediate church planting
4. Understand culture
5. Indigenous leadership
Carey knew that in order to be a successful missionary all five of these components were necessary. You can not be as affective with just one of these components.
We can apply this to our mission techniques today. We need to apply this to our strategies when we go serve in a different culture. 

Adonriam Judson

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0RRU67DKwc

    Adonriam Judson was the very first missionary sent out from America. In this short message Ravi Zacharias tells us a little of Judson's biography. Judson was a brilliant man. When he went to college in Rhode Island Ravi says that Judson believed that he was smarter than God. Judson had a huge influence on others around him. Because of his huge influence he had on a certain individual named Jacob Ames. Jacob was a Christian until he met Judson. Judson left college claiming he was an athiest.
    Judson later had found that Jacob had died in a random inn with no one by his side. It was then that he turned to God and found himself in the Lord.
    Judson moved to India to be a missionary and they kicked him out. He then moved to Burma and had a huge impact on the people there. It took him 7 years to see someone come to know the Lord.
He translated the Bible in to the language of Burma. Judson was a man of huge impact.
    Ravi Zacharias says, "Unless you and I recognize that the person out there without Christ is lost, we will never carry a burden and a personal pressure within our own soul."
    We need to realize that there are lost people out there that need Jesus. We have a huge impact on this world, people are watching us and paying attention to what we do. We are to always be looking for opportunities to reach others for Christ!

Blog 7

The Anabaptists were somewhat of a sound theology of mission. They believed that the baptizing of infants would not exercise a personal faith. By them believing this they made the statement that not all of Europe’s church members were Christian. Europe then became the mission field of the Anabaptists. They believed that every believer should live out the Great Commission. By taking the Great Commission seriously and going out and preaching the gospel, they lived out missions. 

Blog 6

"In the Orthodox and Catholic paradigms, monks played a key role in mission for more than a thousand years." 
  Monks played a key role in missions, they’re job was to minister to the people. Monks gave up all of their wants and needs to serve God and the Church. The daily life of a monk consisted of worshiping, reading and manual labor. They are a prime example of what missionaries are, they give up all they have and desire to serve God and the people.

We can learn from the way monks lived their lives. We ought to deny ourselves and devote all our time and efforts to serving and glorifying God.