Hey all, it's been awhile since I have updated all of you. since I last sent out an update we had our first of two one week breaks from classes and finished the New Testament minus Matthew (we will study through the gospel of Matthew last to see really just how Jesus was the fulfillment of everything the Old Testament pointed to). Because it's been so long, I am going to try to give you all a broad update of all that has happened in the past couple months and a few details of things that God has been teaching me.
I don't know how much I have shared with you all about what I do for ministry here. Each student has ministry once a week for three hours, my ministry is co-teaching a guitar class and then afterward, going downstairs and having conversations with Taiwanese where we teach them English, it is a great opportunity to share the gospel with people because people come in with such open hearts to hear about Jesus and it stretches my imagination to try to figure out how to share the gospel with someone who does not speak the same original language as me to find simple yet clear illustrations of who God is and how our sin separates us from God and that every single human being on the face of this planet deserves the wrath of God and how God pursues people and saves them from their sin if they will repent and turn to him.
Up to this point, as I have already said, we finished the New Testament and we have finished Genesis and Exodus and are currently studying through Leviticus. Every book has spoken something different to me and shown me something different about who God is or how he sees his people and so I just want to share with you all a few things that have impacted me throughout my study. The gospel of John was the last book we studied before break and outside of maybe Colossians, that book has probably spoken the most to me so far throughout SBS (School of Biblical Studies), especially two passages. The first truth I really got to see was how the love of Jesus is, was, and always will be unchanging. It is clearly demonstrated in John 13:1 when it says that Jesus time had come to depart from the world and he loved those who were his until the end. In John 12:23-28, Jesus is talking about how his hour has come (his hour is referring to the hour of his death) and he says that for this reason he came. Ultimately, he showed that his love doesn't change by taking the cross for the sin of whoever would believe in him. Why this really spoke to me was it showed me that even in the absolute worst hour that Jesus has ever or will ever experience, he still was obedient to do the work that he was called to and his situation didn't change the fact that he loved his people, if he loved his people even in his worst hour, he will surely love his people when he is glorified and with his Heavenly Father.
Another thing that really spoke to me in the gospel of John was also about God's love. In John 17:26 Jesus is finishing a chapter long prayer to God for his disciples and he says that I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them. This really showed me just how God loves his people, he loves them with the same love he loved his only 'begotten' Son with and that love literally dwells inside believers, what a privilege believers have to have the love of God in them. If these things are true, (and they are) the lives of every person who believes them should be totally changed. If we believe that God is all powerful, if we believe that God raises the dead, if we believe that we will dwell in eternity with God (many people have a terribly misunderstood view of eternity, we won't just be disembodied spirits floating around but we will have physical bodies and be able to do physical things, probably a lot of things we do on this earth even), if we believe that Jesus truly is the Son of God, then our lives should look so much different than the rest of the world. We are justified before God totally by faith and not by works, but a truly changed life for God should look different than the world. It shouldn't be what the majority of Americans looks like who simply say, I am a Christian but walk out of church, if they go, unchanged. The lives of Christians shouldn't just be characterized by he or she is a nice person, it should be characterized by the person and work of Jesus. If we believe in God's love and his power, not one of us should have an excuse not to give our entire lives to this God, and this scares some people,(it still scares me often) because it might mean they have to give up their cushy lives, it might mean they have to leave the country to do missions, it might mean they have to sell their houses or a car for the sake of giving to the kingdom of God to give more, it may even mean you have to give your life, but it's worth it and the reward you will have in heaven for surrendering your life to Jesus is great, far beyond anything you can imagine. All that to say, the love of God should change the life of the person who truly believes in it because the love of the Father is in them. This doesn't mean we are perfect now but we WILL be changed if we truly know and love Jesus.
After finishing John we went on our first break. Most of the students had to leave the country to renew their visas, but I was able to stay in Taiwan. It was for the most part a very refreshing and relaxing break. I went to a couple movies, went to the water park once or twice, and a group of us went camping and just got to enjoy creation while we had some time off. Got to spend some time under the stars just talking about how great God is and swapping stories with one another, but break came to an end rather quickly.
The last thing I'm going to share with you guys is just something that happened and what God challenged me with through the book of Genesis. The book of Genesis is full of God's sovereignty, how God is in control of every event that happens in this world. I was really challenged by the life of Joseph, a character that is relatively not talked about in church but almost fifteen chapters of Genesis is his story, which is actually even more than Abraham. First off, Joseph gets sold into slavery by his brothers and his integrity really challenged me. Never once do you see him doubting God, and it is ultimately his trust in God that he ends up ruling the land of Egypt. He also was a man of integrity and did the right thing. IN the face of temptation day in and day out, Joseph chose not to sin because he knew his sin would be against God even though he may have gotten away with it.
There was one point in the book of Genesis that really got me though that I need to share a little bit of background first. When God made his promise to Abraham that he would make a great nation out of him, he promised them that he would give the descendants of Abraham the land of Canaan, which is modern day Israel. Now I had read through some of this, but one night as I was sleeping I had a dream. I don't remember anything from the dream, but I remembered the words New Canaan. When I thought about it, I recognized pretty quickly that since Canaan was the promised land for the Jews at the time, so New Canaan would then be the New Heavens and New Earth that God is going to give to believers in the end, when we reach our true home, but that morning I went to Starbucks, totally out of the norm to study and two other students showed up as well. I told the students about my dream and they decided to pray for me. (Mind you, I didn't give any specifics I just told them the words that I got and maybe a little bit of an explanation.) We prayed and I didn't really get anything or hear anything from God, one girl showed me a map of Canaan and how it was modern day Israel pretty much to the T. The other student though, a Korean named Chanmi, got something. She said that she really felt like God was calling me to think about the New Heavens and the New earth, to focus on heaven and think about it and believe in it, something to that effect, and the crazy thing was, that was exactly what God has been speaking to me throughout the past nine or so months. It was a word from God confirming things I have already been challenged by.
Other than that, not too much is new, I have been learning a lot and working harder than I have ever worked in my life, but this school is an incredible blessing. I have learned so much about who God is and the Bible in such a short time and it has been a huge growing experience. An added benefit to all the work has been that I have learned for the most part how to manage my time well, although the fact that I am writing this at 11:14 at night when I should have been in bed forty-five minutes ago doesn't speak to that. A few prayer requests.
1. Ministry- It is easy to focus more on my work than on ministry and ultimately I want to reach the people of Taiwan, not just learn a bunch of stuff. Also, sharing the gospel is not always easy for me, there is a lot of fear of man and I don't always desire to share it.
2. I can always use prayer for my own heart that I would be vulnerable to what God is going to do as well as for my heart in comparison. Oftentimes, my motivation to work hard isn't because I want to learn about God and work hard for him as much as it is motivated by wanting to get good grades and be ahead of my classmates and it just kills my work because I'm not focused then on doing it for God but for myself and I get angry or frustrated when my peers are ahead of me. (I just want to be transparent with you all, I have plenty of struggles)
3. Future- I have been beginning to pray about what is next. I have made my own plans, but just that God would speak to me and just give me some clarity on what he wants me to do after SBS. I plan on coming back to Fargo, but I want to be submitted to God's plan.
For real, the last thing this time. I am sitting with most of my support raised, but I am still in need of some funds for school. I don't have the exact numbers but I am still about 1,000-1,500 away from where I probably should be to be fully supported. Again, if you want to send any support, you can send the money to 805 12th St. SE, Watford City, ND, 58854 and address it to me personally. I love you all and as always, I would love to hear about your life and would really appreciate a facebook message or even a comment or anything just to hear about all of your lives. I think there is a misconception sometimes that people think their own lives are mundane or boring, but I love and I think most people overseas like to hear even things simply like how work is going and how your walk with the Lord is going, what you ate for lunch, just the simple things in life are great to hear. Anyway, I appreciate you all and thank you for taking all this time to read this, I know it was a long one. Have a good Sunday if you read this today, if not, have a great week.
His Servant
,
Travis
I don't know how much I have shared with you all about what I do for ministry here. Each student has ministry once a week for three hours, my ministry is co-teaching a guitar class and then afterward, going downstairs and having conversations with Taiwanese where we teach them English, it is a great opportunity to share the gospel with people because people come in with such open hearts to hear about Jesus and it stretches my imagination to try to figure out how to share the gospel with someone who does not speak the same original language as me to find simple yet clear illustrations of who God is and how our sin separates us from God and that every single human being on the face of this planet deserves the wrath of God and how God pursues people and saves them from their sin if they will repent and turn to him.
Up to this point, as I have already said, we finished the New Testament and we have finished Genesis and Exodus and are currently studying through Leviticus. Every book has spoken something different to me and shown me something different about who God is or how he sees his people and so I just want to share with you all a few things that have impacted me throughout my study. The gospel of John was the last book we studied before break and outside of maybe Colossians, that book has probably spoken the most to me so far throughout SBS (School of Biblical Studies), especially two passages. The first truth I really got to see was how the love of Jesus is, was, and always will be unchanging. It is clearly demonstrated in John 13:1 when it says that Jesus time had come to depart from the world and he loved those who were his until the end. In John 12:23-28, Jesus is talking about how his hour has come (his hour is referring to the hour of his death) and he says that for this reason he came. Ultimately, he showed that his love doesn't change by taking the cross for the sin of whoever would believe in him. Why this really spoke to me was it showed me that even in the absolute worst hour that Jesus has ever or will ever experience, he still was obedient to do the work that he was called to and his situation didn't change the fact that he loved his people, if he loved his people even in his worst hour, he will surely love his people when he is glorified and with his Heavenly Father.
Another thing that really spoke to me in the gospel of John was also about God's love. In John 17:26 Jesus is finishing a chapter long prayer to God for his disciples and he says that I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them. This really showed me just how God loves his people, he loves them with the same love he loved his only 'begotten' Son with and that love literally dwells inside believers, what a privilege believers have to have the love of God in them. If these things are true, (and they are) the lives of every person who believes them should be totally changed. If we believe that God is all powerful, if we believe that God raises the dead, if we believe that we will dwell in eternity with God (many people have a terribly misunderstood view of eternity, we won't just be disembodied spirits floating around but we will have physical bodies and be able to do physical things, probably a lot of things we do on this earth even), if we believe that Jesus truly is the Son of God, then our lives should look so much different than the rest of the world. We are justified before God totally by faith and not by works, but a truly changed life for God should look different than the world. It shouldn't be what the majority of Americans looks like who simply say, I am a Christian but walk out of church, if they go, unchanged. The lives of Christians shouldn't just be characterized by he or she is a nice person, it should be characterized by the person and work of Jesus. If we believe in God's love and his power, not one of us should have an excuse not to give our entire lives to this God, and this scares some people,(it still scares me often) because it might mean they have to give up their cushy lives, it might mean they have to leave the country to do missions, it might mean they have to sell their houses or a car for the sake of giving to the kingdom of God to give more, it may even mean you have to give your life, but it's worth it and the reward you will have in heaven for surrendering your life to Jesus is great, far beyond anything you can imagine. All that to say, the love of God should change the life of the person who truly believes in it because the love of the Father is in them. This doesn't mean we are perfect now but we WILL be changed if we truly know and love Jesus.
After finishing John we went on our first break. Most of the students had to leave the country to renew their visas, but I was able to stay in Taiwan. It was for the most part a very refreshing and relaxing break. I went to a couple movies, went to the water park once or twice, and a group of us went camping and just got to enjoy creation while we had some time off. Got to spend some time under the stars just talking about how great God is and swapping stories with one another, but break came to an end rather quickly.
 |
| A group from my school on our Sabbath last weekend at Tea Mountain |
There was one point in the book of Genesis that really got me though that I need to share a little bit of background first. When God made his promise to Abraham that he would make a great nation out of him, he promised them that he would give the descendants of Abraham the land of Canaan, which is modern day Israel. Now I had read through some of this, but one night as I was sleeping I had a dream. I don't remember anything from the dream, but I remembered the words New Canaan. When I thought about it, I recognized pretty quickly that since Canaan was the promised land for the Jews at the time, so New Canaan would then be the New Heavens and New Earth that God is going to give to believers in the end, when we reach our true home, but that morning I went to Starbucks, totally out of the norm to study and two other students showed up as well. I told the students about my dream and they decided to pray for me. (Mind you, I didn't give any specifics I just told them the words that I got and maybe a little bit of an explanation.) We prayed and I didn't really get anything or hear anything from God, one girl showed me a map of Canaan and how it was modern day Israel pretty much to the T. The other student though, a Korean named Chanmi, got something. She said that she really felt like God was calling me to think about the New Heavens and the New earth, to focus on heaven and think about it and believe in it, something to that effect, and the crazy thing was, that was exactly what God has been speaking to me throughout the past nine or so months. It was a word from God confirming things I have already been challenged by.
Other than that, not too much is new, I have been learning a lot and working harder than I have ever worked in my life, but this school is an incredible blessing. I have learned so much about who God is and the Bible in such a short time and it has been a huge growing experience. An added benefit to all the work has been that I have learned for the most part how to manage my time well, although the fact that I am writing this at 11:14 at night when I should have been in bed forty-five minutes ago doesn't speak to that. A few prayer requests.
1. Ministry- It is easy to focus more on my work than on ministry and ultimately I want to reach the people of Taiwan, not just learn a bunch of stuff. Also, sharing the gospel is not always easy for me, there is a lot of fear of man and I don't always desire to share it.
2. I can always use prayer for my own heart that I would be vulnerable to what God is going to do as well as for my heart in comparison. Oftentimes, my motivation to work hard isn't because I want to learn about God and work hard for him as much as it is motivated by wanting to get good grades and be ahead of my classmates and it just kills my work because I'm not focused then on doing it for God but for myself and I get angry or frustrated when my peers are ahead of me. (I just want to be transparent with you all, I have plenty of struggles)
3. Future- I have been beginning to pray about what is next. I have made my own plans, but just that God would speak to me and just give me some clarity on what he wants me to do after SBS. I plan on coming back to Fargo, but I want to be submitted to God's plan.
For real, the last thing this time. I am sitting with most of my support raised, but I am still in need of some funds for school. I don't have the exact numbers but I am still about 1,000-1,500 away from where I probably should be to be fully supported. Again, if you want to send any support, you can send the money to 805 12th St. SE, Watford City, ND, 58854 and address it to me personally. I love you all and as always, I would love to hear about your life and would really appreciate a facebook message or even a comment or anything just to hear about all of your lives. I think there is a misconception sometimes that people think their own lives are mundane or boring, but I love and I think most people overseas like to hear even things simply like how work is going and how your walk with the Lord is going, what you ate for lunch, just the simple things in life are great to hear. Anyway, I appreciate you all and thank you for taking all this time to read this, I know it was a long one. Have a good Sunday if you read this today, if not, have a great week.
His Servant
,
Travis
que bueno leer nuevas noticias tuyas, adelante ,te apoyo en oración amigo,bendiciones!! isaias 41:13.
ReplyDelete