This is what I have been up to the last two weeks

The last two weeks we have been at Sherwood Cliffs, a drug and alcohol rehabilitation facility, in Coffs Harbour, Australia.  It is a place that is about forty minutes on a gravel road outside of town, so it is out in the middle of nowhere.  This rehabilitation facility is a place that has been running for 32 years now and was founded and runs still today by faith in Christ.  It was founded by John and Honi and they started with nothing and lived by faith for all of their lives.  They bought the land that the rehab center is on by money they were given when they talked about the vision God had given them and each bigger vision they got they received more funds to supply for that vision.  Sherwood Cliffs is a place that is just for men so after it got started and was off and running they had this vision to start a women’s rehab facility that they could host women and their children as they get away from their addictions.  On May 7, seventeen years later from when they had the first vision, Sherwood Glen a women’s drug and alcohol rehab facility will open and begin changing lives of women as Sherwood Cliffs has done for men the last thirty-two years.

So now a little about what we did there and how we got into our outreach phase of our DTS.  We started each and every morning at 9 am with praise and worship and a daily devotion, which each one of us read and discussed how we thought God was speaking to us through that reading.  We then would have our work day start at 10:30 am and we would work until 5 pm with an hour lunch break in between that.  For our work we had the opportunity of doing a lot of manual labor at Sherwood Glen, the women’s facility that will be opening in May.  When we got there they had just received a huge donation to get all the paving of the walkways and sheds done as well as plants and trees for the gardens to make the place look and feel welcoming.  When we got there they had two guys working and not a lot had gotten done as they hadn’t had enough help or resources to make any advancement on the property.  So our being there and everything else falling into place as it did was a divine intervention from God.  As we left they thanked us for the blessing that we were for getting so much work done, which was very hard at times when we had to dig holes for fence posts. 

While we were up there we also got to interact with the seekers, whom are the recovering addicts at Sherwood Cliffs seeking to find Christ.  The rehab is only successful in making a change through God, which is the new life that He offers us once we repent and commit ourselves to living a life that is holy and guided by Him.  In interacting with the three that were there at the time we got a good perspective on what changes they had and are making in their lives.  One particular seeker, Jaime, is one that I can see the most change in and how he is now living a life for Christ.  It was his third time back at Sherwood as he found relapsing was very easy if you don’t take up Christ, the only true change to a life of purity.  He is a guy who has had some pretty horrific things happen to him and also has made some pretty horrible choice that has lead him down a path of destruction, which drugs easily do to you.  Jaime after his thirds stint of six months at Sherwood Cliffs now is looking to Christ and has began to feel a conscience inside of him that leads him to making the right choices; some may call this the Holy Spirit guiding him.  Whatever the case this is a man that has been through a lot and has made a lot of bad decisions, but now has found Christ and is living for Him and leading several of his friends and family to the Lord.  What a testimony this guy has about God and His grace that He offers us and that is a message that we got to help him see that he could share with youth about choices of a righteous life.

During our time there we also got to speak at All Nations Church, which is the home church for the Living Water Ministries we are going to be working with in Borneo, Indonesia.  At this Church we all got a chance to speak about what God has been speaking to us throughout our DTS and how we see that working in our lives and what impact that will have in the ministry in Indonesia.  This was in Woolgoolga, a surfing culture town that is swarming with young people.  By going into this church we got to speak to the youth about the importance of their decisions they make now and how it will take them on either a path that hinders them or a path that blesses them.  This was a huge message and we got to talk to these youth and the rest of the church two times that Sunday and we really saw the message sink in.  We saw 15 of the youth from the church come out over their school holidays and devote two days to help out working and doing manual labor down at Sherwood Glen.  This was pretty impactful as we got to speak into the lives of many of them and see how they were already stepping out and making choices to follow Christ and that is a choice that they will reap benefits from for the rest of their lives.

So during the entire time we spent at Sherwood Cliffs we were able to experience a variety of things and help others serve the Lord through the rehab center and the huge mission field of youth that Woolgoolga is.  From this we saw a number of blessing as people bought us meals came to see us at Sherwood Cliffs two different times to speak to us about what God had planned for us and how they blessed our team with $1450.  Through our outreach team being obedient to God in the decisions we made about what to speak about and how to communicate it we saw the blessings of God pour out upon us and overflow our cups.  This is the application of the lecture phase that so many people hear about and yet never experience but I can say I experienced that first hand twice.  For example I was about $1,000 short of being able to fund my trip to Borneo so I emailed my church and they took up a donation and they raised $1,371 and that was the exact amount of money that I owed to be able to go on this outreach, without taking any money out of my own bank account.  I just want to say that God is amazing and He knows our needs and if we step out in obedience and trust in Him then He will provide because it is who He is in His character and His character never changes, it is as consistent as the day is long.

Vision and Calling

This week was our final week on our Sports DTS and we had the topic of Vision, Calling, and Destiny.  Our speaker was Teveta Coffa and he is originally from Tonga and has lived in Australia and China much of his life carrying out the calling God has put on his life.  Tevata was a part of this base here in Newcastle, Australia and also has been a huge part in the rising up of Christians in China.  Teveta has a family and they are a part of his vision and calling and they way he interacts with his 3 kids makes it evident the love the God is pouring into his life.  He explained that when talking about Vision, Calling, and Destiny we need to take into account four things; beginning, you, world, and convergence.

When we look back to the beginning we have to understand what was on God’s heart when He decided He wanted to create us out of an abundance of His love.  The way we were created by God brings up many questions in one’s faith, but if we take each and every one of those questions back to God and ask what was on His heart we will be astonished at the abundance of His love.  Some of us in the world today believe that history happens on a timeline and other cultures believe that the timeline is very cyclical.  Either way when we look at history we find that events tend to repeat themselves in one way or another.  So if you want to see where you are going in the wise, perfect, and best plan of God then you need to know where you come from.  Each of our names means so much and within that family each of us has a certain place.  This is similar as our last name gives us an identity in our community and for certain people even in the world as someone who carried their last name did something amazing that revolutionized the world that we know today.  My last name Lucas means, ‘bringer or light,’ when we look at that I can see how that will fit into my calling of the future.

Calling, what does it mean to be called to do something?  God makes it very clear that he has predestined each and every one of us to be like Jesus and bear the image of our heavenly father.  However, if we are going to actually hear and take in what God has planned for our lives then we need to hear God in the way He leads us and also we need to respond and take a step out in faith.  In doing this we actually go through three stages of development, which takes us into a deeper intimate relationship with Christ.  We first come to God as children in a childlike sense confessing our sins and knowing our father with forgive us.  We then become young men or young women and overcome through knowing the word of the Lord is in you and being strong because in Christ all things are possible.  Then through understanding the Father we know Him who is from the beginning and if we keep our eyes fixed on him then there is no way we will falter.  When we think about our calling we can see it as a child first starting to walk and you keep encouraging them and picking them up when they fall down.  You know that the child is trying their hardest, yet they just don’t have enough balance and strength to fully go forward so you guide them while still protecting them from getting hurt.  Our heavenly father is just like this He is going to pick us up when we fall down and if we keep our eyes fixed on Him then we won’t ever take a tumble that we can’t overcome.

We have the knowledge of where we came from and how we fit into that, but how do w fit that into what is happening in the world and how we go about changing it to glorify the kingdom of God?  This is the initiative that is very difficult and requires a lot of faith, but also is the time where you learn the most and develop character.  YWAM is doing this and this is what a DTS is all about, building character and letting that character be defined by God and the relationship He has with you.  Our world today can be split into seven spheres; family, church, education, arts/entertainment, media, business, and government.  Each one of these is very important for us to reach as Christians.  YWAM currently is filling the section of the church as a body of Christ ministering to the nations.  Each one of these sphere however is interlinked and helps us to know how to reach out to all the children of God in a way that speaks to them and will help them glorify God.  For example, China is a huge country that some think may overtake the USA as the national power and the huge area in which they plan to do that is by the business sphere as so much stuff we buy as consumers comes from there.  China however has over 400 million Christians in it and is seeing 33,000 people convert each and every day.  The blessings of God came upon the USA due to the focus on God, so maybe is it now as more Christians come out of China now that country has blessings from God also?  These are just thought and help us to see the magnitude of how each of the seven spheres will impact our world in one way or another.

Once we see how our beginning in history affects us, how we answer the calling of the Lord, and what that means in the seven spheres of the world we then have to know how to fit all that together to do God’s will.  That is something that is a huge task, yet really if we wait upon the Lord we will see guidance and blessings pour out.  If we continue to sow in to the word of the Lord each and every day and let it live in us then we will see reconciliation among nations and hundreds of millions of people led to the inheritance of God each and every day.  It is up to us how much we want to walk in faith with God, but Moses also had that choice at the burning bush and if he wouldn’t have listened to the call of God imagine where we might be at today.  These are the great lessons I have learned this week and speak volumes to me as I go on outreach looking into what my calling is while there and then also some of the huge things God has called me to after completing my DTS.

A few pictures to keep you all updated

 My Sports DTS and the Rugby DTS

 A Goanno...this is for my nephew Noah (hope you enjoy)

A little taste of Sydney from a couple weeks ago

Missions

This week we had the topic of mission and what that means in our lives as we go on our outreach trips and what it means in the spectrum of the rest of our lives.  Our speaker was Waqa, who is from the Island Breeze YWAM base in Brisbane.  He is originally from Fiji and came to Australia about 15 years ago and has lived a life of mission ever since doing his own DTS.  He gave us a few statements telling us what being a missionary is about and it basically isn’t a job or an event it is a lifestyle.  With that lifestyle we are called to make disciples and not to make Christians out of all nations.  This is something that hit me as we try to make so many people fit into what we have molded Christians to be in the way we look, yet we fail to teach them how to live it which is the true mark of a disciple.

We discussed how the God we serve is a missionary God and if we read Genesis 1:1-4 then we can actually know all we need to know about who our God is.  In verse 1 we know that God created the heavens and the earth and everything in it.  God is omnipresent which means that He is everywhere all the time which we read in verse 2.  In verse 3 we know that our God is a God who communicates to us and His voice is a voice that brings peace within our spirit.  Verse 4 explains how our God is all knowing about everything and that He is all powerful and has power or authority over everything such as the enemy we face in the devil.  So when we look at who our God is in we hear about His glory and how Moses wanted to see His glory, but really in the Hebrew meaning which Genesis was written in there is no word for glory as it is unexplainable.  That is the God that we serve and are in partnership with, the God that takes our words away because of how amazing He is.

With our God being a missionary God the Bible is our missionary book, which was inspired by Him and His works.  The bible is the way that we can become closer to God and become in tuned with His will.  We all have many different bibles and if it all is inspired by God then why are there so many translations such as the KJV, NIV, and the Message?  Well the many different versions allow it to be cross cultural as it makes it possible to get past cultural and language barriers.  Waqa preached to us how it is so important to understand the vision of God and you can only do that by getting into His word, the Bible.

In getting in tuned with God’s word and helps us to see His vision and through that vision then we are able to be disciples and make disciples.  With this we have 3 challenges in every culture that we have to get past in order to achieve our mission or goal of a lifestyle, which missions is.  We have to overcome the issue of money as a source of integrity, sex as the foundation of a relationship and not using it in the context of why God created it, and power as a means of authority because God is our authority and we get our rights from Him.  These challenges are ones that are huge and in each area you have to get in tuned with their culture before you can actually tackle these issues.  This all takes hard work and time and this isn’t just in third world countries it is right at home in the community and things we need to teach ourselves and the next generation.

This week we got a true taste of missions and how it is something that is cross-cultural and one in which you have to be relational and take time to get to know other cultures and their interest.  Waqa is in charge of the Rugby DTS and brought down nine guys with him and 8 of them were from Fiji and one was from Scotland.  It was amazing to learn about their culture in Fiji and just see how generous and relational they are in the Fijian culture.  The truly love their neighbor over there and it is custom to invite others over for meals and if you don’t then you are seen as lesser of a person because you are going against the culture.  The Fijian guys here are very generous as they gave me this Fijian Rugby jersey, which is an $80 gift and they still don’t have enough money for them to go on outreach.  They also put on a show for us with their dances and songs and it seriously is some of the most beautiful songs I have ever heard, sounded like angels singing.  This generosity just continued to pour in from others this week as I was about $1,000 short for outreach and my church and its members took up and offering and through that has provided me with all the funds I need to go on outreach.  Our God is a God of love and with that He wants us to be a unified body from missions to Sunday church service and everything in between.  When we have faith and works in our faith with that love we are blessing others and God will bless us and I have seen those examples in my life over these last couple weeks.

Spiritual Warfare

Our topic this week was Spiritual Warfare and we had the privilege of having our leader Jeff Boardman speak on this topic.  Jeff has had a number of things happen throughout his life and was left to raise three kids on his own.  He is a man that has been through a lot and has a great testimony on what it is to engage in spiritual warfare.  He laid everything out on the table and gave us the fact that every day we are in war at all times and it is part of life not an event.  The only way that we can prepare ourselves for warfare is by knowing who we are in Christ and living responsibly before God.

Our verse for the week was Eph 6: 10-20, which talks about putting on the Armor of God.  By putting on this armor means that we know God and his character and through that we may cast out any dark forces that present themselves in our lives.  Some of the dark forces may be as simple as sin and the desires of it that the devil puts before us, however, they may also be manifesting in another person.  We need to understand that our battle isn’t against our flesh and blood it is against the supernatural dark powers.  The devil wants to lead us into deception, bondage, and destruction and that can manifest in a number of ways in each of our lives and we can all think of a few pretty easily.  So the foundation of staying away from dark forces and casting them out of your lives and others around you is to put on the armor of God, it helps you to recognize the strategies of the enemy, refuse to cooperate with those strategies, and then cut the strategies of the enemy off by the name of Jesus.

Every day we are in war yet we determine how much of the enemy we have to fight be wavering from the word of God.  The war we fight is based upon how tight we keep an eye on the gate, meaning what decisions we make in different circumstances.  We can make sure that we keep the gates closed by not believing inferior or condemning thoughts in our minds, giving our attitudes and emotions over to God and denying and fleshly nature, the words that we speak, and the relationships we live in.  To do this we have to see the cross from the top and the outpouring of God’s love for us as His children.

If we take up the Armor of God we have authority over the evil forces based upon what Jesus did to Satan.  Jesus disarmed Satan and destroyed his works.  We can our authority for what Jesus did for us, He delivered us and the authority to exercise His power.  When we deny our flesh we have God and realize He that is within us is greater, the devil stops when we use the name of Jesus.  So how do we exercise this authority that Jesus has bestowed upon us?  We us the name of Jesus, the word of God, the dynamic guiding of the Holy Spirit, the blood of the lamb (denying the flesh), and the word of our testimony all in congruence with one another.  When we do this we realize that God and his character are perfect and it stays consistent as the day is long.

So then why is there evil in our world if God is so powerful and loving and just?  See this is the argument that we hear a lot and we give into the strategies of the enemy and doubt the character of God.  We should never try to interpret the character of God by circumstances, we need to see the circumstance, bring light to it through scripture, and then compare that to what we know about the character of God.  God gives all humans free choice or free will and people tend to give into the flesh easily and are then in a battle because they took off the armor of God and gave in to sinful acts.  Know that the temptations that we have each and every day are not more than any of us can handle because there is always a way to escape, we can depend on the character of God because it is our only true hope.

The next time you are faced with circumstance I hope that you aren’t looking up and asking why God has put you in this place rather you are looking down seeing the love of God and blessings He has given you.  We are always looking for more from God and we forget to give him thanksgiving and praise for the wonderful thing He has already done.  This is something that I struggled with this week as we are getting ready to go on outreach and I am thinking about when I get back home in June.  This is tough for me as I am unsure of so many things and how they are going to work out.  This was a time where I gave into the enemy and let my mind think about the “what if’s” when I get back and doubted the character of God.  By doing this I open the gate to be attacked by the enemy and I was as I was almost in panic mode, but then I went back to the word and found the verse Luke 12:24 which says, “Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn: yet God feeds them.  And how much more valuable you are than birds!”  This put things into perspective for me and helped me to realign with the character of God. 

I have two more weeks of lectures until I go on outreach to Coff Harbour, here in Australia for two weeks and then off to Borneo for the final eight weeks of outreach.

Lordship

This week we had the topic of Lordship with Mark Parker.  Mark is a guy who is very passionate about God and what it means to give Him Lordship of our lives.  Mark could be seen throughout the week shouting and losing his voice about one time each lectures session, it is this passion for God that allows his message to carry a lot of weight in your memory.  Mark is from New Zealand and comes from a background that wasn’t the best, he rebelled as a teenager as his older brother tried to bring him into the kingdom of God.  He had refused several times and then when he saw himself at the end of the road and not knowing what to do as he was in misery, God showed him His grace and mercy.  Mark claims this was the closest thing to an audible voice of God he has ever heard and it brought him to realizing how his life was taking a turn and it was a choice of life or death.  At this point Mark was about 20 and most of our world decides what we will follow between the ages of 18-24 and it drastically changed his life in being able to talk to us about how Lordship is a part of his daily life now at the age of 55.

During the first lecture we had Mark told us about a word that he had gotten for our DTS group, the word was overcome.  Overcome is so much bigger in this season, season of change, when we apply it to the year of 2011.  The number 11 is a number of incompleteness, destruction, shuffling, and uncertainty.  So then if we look forward to 2012 we know that is a solid number it is a solid foundation as there were 12 disciples.  Most of us are aware of the earthquakes in New Zealand and Japan and the possibility of more and that is no coincidence, as the body of Christ we need to reach out and overcome these circumstances.  When we think about the earth and how it is being shaken we need to realize it is our time to bring the people into the Kingdom of God.  We don’t need to take God to these places because God is already there what we need to do is to go there and find God that lives in each and every one of them.  The enemy, Satan, is out there trying to kill and destroy everything and what are we doing?  Are we going to let the enemy overtake these people, our neighbors, or will be overcome and persevere in the midst of all the catastrophes. 

Matthew 7: 20-21 basically tells us that we need to know God to declare Him Lord.  It isn’t that we are asking God into our lives He is already there as He has invited us into His life.  Where we fix our eyes will tell us what kingdom we will glorify.  When we come to Christ and repent for our sins and are forgiven we are cleansed of all our transgressions.  Yet, so many of us try to live a Christian life where we try not to sin and if we have our eyes on sin then we will always fall to sin, however if we have our eyes on God we won’t sin.  What we have our eyes on will control us and of course we may fall and sin, but we will know right away as our conscience will be convicted.  So the Kingdom of God is filled with day by day choices and to give God that Lordship is the decision we make and can align with these three questions.  Who is your Master?  What is your Mission?  Who will be your Mate?  These all are some of the greatest questions people have in their faith and they need to align those with what God is speaking into their life and what He has given them.  We need to obey, love, produce fruit, be disciples, carry the cross, give up all possessions that rule your life, and be reliable when God moves.  If we are doing all of these things, which are fruits of the spirit, then we will honor God and His kingdom because He has created us as image bearers of Christ as we were born to rule Gods creation.  What we fix our eyes on will control us.

In the Old Testament the Tent of Meeting was a place in which the people sacrificed animals on the alter before God.  Today in the New Testament we don’t have a place that we come to and sacrifice such things.  Today we the body of Christ are the Tent of meeting and we give a living sacrifice, which is ourselves to God so we may die to our flesh and let Him work through us.  So our body becomes a temple and it contains a body, soul, and spirit.   To get do the perfect will of God we have to have Him fill us in all of these areas and the biggest way the enemy will try to deceive us is by doubting the character of God.  God said, “I AM” so when we think about that we get a glimpse of the glory of God as He is the beginning and the end and the holiest of holies.  So we need to live for the I am rather than for the I am not and we will see great things happen through God.   This means that we are to sacrifice ourselves before the Lord each and every day and ask Him what He has for us in what we do rather than us trying to make what we do fit into Him.

So how do we go about putting ourselves on the alter each and every day before we start our day?  We have to start by giving Jesus thanksgiving as He was the one who paid the ultimate price for us so we may live.  Then we have to praise God and thank Him for the great things He has done in regards to His character that the enemy wants to make us doubt.  We need to come before the cross that Jesus died on for us and confess any sins that we may have so we can be cleansed to hearing the voice of God.  With hearing Gods voice we need to surrender things before the cross so our flesh doesn’t get in the way of God’s plan.  This means giving up any material possessions that hinder you from doing God’s will and giving up anything from school, mission, and/or relationships that He hasn’t yet spoken into.  God has greater goals and plans for us than we could ever imagine so when we give ourselves over to Him, He will give us greater things than we could ever imagine in the right timing.  If we humble ourselves and resubmit each and every day to God we are going to see amazing things and He is going to work miracles through us and supply us with more than we need.  If we do this we will have a greater foothold on the enemy as we will always see the good no matter the circumstances because God is good.  So this is the message we need to take to these nations in the midst of catastrophes as we can love our neighbors from half way across the world into the kingdom of God and fill that emptiness they are all suffering from.

So I experienced the abundance of God’s love this week as I was given more than I can imagine possible. I came to Australia with an 8GB iPod that I used to listen to music and hear God, as it was a way for me to feel his love through worship.  Well in about the second or third week I heard God tell me that I was to surrender my iPod to someone here on base.  It wasn’t that the music on there was bad or that I made it an idol it was just something I valued and limited me from hearing God’s voice.  So I gave it up and it was very difficult as it was expensive and something that I valued as it was the only worship music I could listen to as I can’t play any instruments.  Before the cross I surrendered my education, my relationship with Rachel, and my passport as I had no other things to surrender as I already surrendered my iPod earlier in DTS. During the time of surrendering things at the cross that hinder us from hearing God I was given and 32GB iPod, which is four times the size of my old one and I was in awe of how God was giving me an abundance of His love.  I was thinking that it was amazing how He had given me an iPod that is greater than the one that I had from me being obedient.  Then I received and overflowing abundance as I was given another 8GB iPod and now I have two iPods due to surrendering things to God.  I learned a very valuable lesson about surrendering things to God this week and through that also I realized that by being obedient He is going to bless us and not always take away everything we surrender to Him, thank goodness.  So each and every day when wee surrender ourselves to God as a living sacrifice we will be able to be used in a way that glorifies Him and maybe even see amazing miracles or changes in people.