Pursued by Police from Prayer

It is important to set the scene for this post. It was 2:09AM and I had just finished my prayer watch at Ellerslie (nightly from 12-2AM). I had returned to my car (BIG BLACK SUV…) and was warming up the engine for a few minutes. Just as I decided that the engine was ready to go, and started pulling out from the curb another car came around the corner and down the road. It seemed rather strange that there would be another car coming through the neighbourhood at this time in the morning, but I just kept on driving (keeping to the right side of the road…). As I passed the car, I noticed that it was a Ford Territory (or similar) with extra lights on the top, and the sign “Windsor Police”. Not being at all worried about this, I chuckled to myself and kept on driving down the road.

Now I had decided beforehand that I would go to King Soopers (our local supermarket) which was meant to be open 24/7. The only problem, was that the police car had gone past, and seeing me pull out from the curb decided that I was up to no good. They turned the car around immediately and started back up towards where I was driving. I guess it didn’t help that to get to the supermarket I took a left, then a right, then a left again. They followed behind me by about 50m right into the car park, and then drove off.

So I jumped out of the car and walked up to the door… only to find that the supermarket was now open from 5am-midnight. Not wanting to wait a few hours, I walked back to the car. As I got into the car, I saw the police car waiting about 100m away in another car park with its lights off. I had obviously added to their suspicion by making my way to the car park of a supermarket that was CLOSED…

So I drove out of the car park and down the main street of town, and naturally the police car followed. To make things worse, I was driving about 10miles under the speed limit (warming up the engine still), and was making sure that my driving was A+. Now being smart, I stayed in the left lane until I was coming up to the corner that I needed to turn down. Just 100m beforehand, I indicated and moved into the right-hand lane, and drove around the corner. The police were given sufficient time, but they didn’t follow me down that road, or so I thought.

After 10 seconds I saw their lights behind me once more as they had done another U-turn and turned back down my street.

Puzzled by this, and thinking that they were really wanting to follow me wholeheartedly, I forgot exactly which road I had taken. This meant that I turned down a street one too early, and again had to turn left, right, left, right. With this puzzling display of deceptive manoeuvres the police edged closer until I finally pulled into my cul-de-sac and turned off the lights. The police unit kept going down the street quite quickly, and disappeared into the dark of night.

Confused by all of this, I gathered together all the bits and pieces in my car, grabbed my bible and locked the car. At the end of the street, I saw approaching lights. Ah hah I thought to myself… they DID want to come and talk to me. Sure enough, it was another patrol vehicle (sedan this time) which pulled right up to me.

The officer wound down the window as I stayed, waiting in the cul-de-sac. The first question that came out of his mouth was “Is that your bible?”. I answered in agreement. I guess I am lucky that I am not in China as I answer that question. But after that brief interaction, the police officer was quite satisfied that I was not up to any mischief and explained that they were just checking out anything that looked suspicious. He actually had quite a smile on his face when I explained how I thought that King Soopers was still open, and how I had taken the wrong turn on my way home, all leading to increased suspicion.

So there I was, standing outside the house where we are staying, talking to a police officer at 2:30 in the morning, after being followed for a couple of miles by the police. Well, I know that it is not that exciting, but it was definitely a different experience, being followed home from a prayer meeting.

Photos of the Week (24/3/12)

Hi,

Sorry that we haven’t published many of these later… have not been on any really interesting outings for the past 2 weeks to get some new material.

Enjoy the following.

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Set Apart Girl Weekend…

The day was started off by waking up in the dark of the morning at 4.30am. Instead of feeling sleepy, I jumped awake as I knew today was the day us girls got to enjoy time together ~ without any boys around! It was a lovely concept… I’m not sure why, as there’s nothing wrong with boys as far as I know, but spending time just as girls has always been fun and exciting.

We met at the Lakehouse for a steamy cup of hot chocolate, tea or coffee. I chose the first, as I have really come to love it, not more than Milo though! I do miss a couple of the Australian products, which to our surprise aren’t sold here. Then we all filed outside, into the chill and walked through a nearby paddock kind-of-thing, which has a lake, a stream, ducks, prairie dogs and who knows what else. It was still dark and the stars and moon were out, it was beautiful, but slightly colder than I was prepared for. I should have worn thermals under my jeans, as my legs slowly froze and seemed to reach the early stages of hypothermia – or so I thought!

We walked along, quietly thinking upon a small scripture each of us had recieved as we left. Mine said, ‘ For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believes; to the Jew first and also to the Greek. (Romans 1:16) and I had a quote from Charles Swindoll ~ ‘We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.’

Then breakfast time came, I am off-campus, so I went with the family we are staying with – well the girls. We decided instead of going home, we would have fun and go out to get pancakes! We had a great time! The restuarant had a little shop too, so we explored and the family found some presents for their cousins and some little cowgirl booties for a friend’s baby. They were so cute!

Thinking it would be time to get back, we checked our watches and were amazed at the benefits of getting up while it was still dark; it was only 8.30am! So we decided to visit a sewing shop so the girls could get some fabric to make flower hair clips and I could get some materials to make a skirt (hopefully). The people at the craft supply shop were somewhat lacking in zeal, but I have since found a more helpful and better priced place to go, of which I am very glad.

We then went back home, made some hair clips, I made a blue one! They turned out immeasureably better than we had imagined, using some fabric which was cut into different sized circles, then some netted fabric to overlay it, burning the edges, to create some contrast and turn the corners upwards, finally fixing a diamonte like stone in the middle of the flower and a clip onto the back with a hot glue gun! We all thoroughly enjoyed it, if only we could have taught the rest of the girls!

Back to Ellerslie we went, to have lunch, which was a lovely indoor picnic, set up with rugs and blankets all down on the floor and decorations all around. We were served baskets of cheese, bread, olives, carrot, fruit and sipped away at hot spiced apple cider. As we ate, a couple of the SetApartGirl team and interns shared some short and pointed testimonies about how God had been with them through trying times, mission trips they had been on, health problems and His provision through it all. It was great to be encouraged and strengthened. Near the end, we each picked a name out of a hat and we were asked to pray for that girl for an hour or so and write a letter encouraging and challenging them.

I prayed and wrote a letter to a girl I didn’t really know at all, but I was glad God knew all about her. I hope what I wrote was encouraging, I may never know. The letter I received later that night was an amazing encouragement to me and just what I had needed! I then borrowed a book called ‘Set Apart Femininity’ written by Leslie Ludy and read for most of the afternoon, as we had quite a while for free time. The book was incredible, as it described our society and culture and the way it shapes young girls to present their bodies so wrongly to men and to the world. She challenged so much of what is rarely questioned in this day and age and spoke of stories that completely contradicted one another.

One was of a woman who is a supermodel, her name is Adriana and she claims to be a Christian, she has outward beauty to a great degree or at least the world thinks so and yet in an interview she said that everything about her from her head to her toes was fake, including her heart. She describes the essence of so many girls who pursue this world, only to find it has nothing to fill them.

The other story was of a woman named Jackie, who entered a city in China and worked with prostitutes, drug addicts, the poor and destitute. She said to God one day, that if she could only win one man who sorted through the garbage each day, then it would be worth it. She does not seem of much worth in the world’s eyes, but she found purpose beyond herself and beyond her own body and earthly beauty. She looked to the very one who created beauty and her face used to shine so, that when people walked past her on the street, they would stop and ask her why she was so beautiful. ( I may have mixed 2 stories up just then, my bad if I did sorry)

Dinner then came. We had a treat, the girls had made all sorts of little things for us ranging from fruit sticks and nachos to grace’s biscuits which seemed inbetween shortbread and scones, they were lovely! We ended up watching the movie of Corrie Ten Boom, ‘The Hiding Place’, about the Holocaust and the Jews being taken to concentration camps. It was challenging, but also very needed, as to be a real Christian, we need to be prepared for what the world will or may one day do to us. The Ten Boom family’s courage and joy was something to look up to. I hope one day if I was ever put in such a situation, that I would be able to be that courageous.

So yeah that was the set apart girl weekend. I wish I had taken some photos, but Roy was given the pleasure of being able to take the camera up into the mountains, which he really enjoyed, so I’m glad he got to take it. For any of you who are interested, Set Apart Girl has a magazine for girls and women, which I find great when I get the time. I would highly recommend it though! It’s online and the link is: http://www.setapartgirl.com/home.html

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The Crucified Life – A.W Tozer

“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. ” (Galatians 2:20 KJV)

Whilst seemingly a verse full of contradictions, this verse is not only central to the entire epistle of the Galatian church, but also a central concept for living the “deeper Christian life”. For those who have received great mercy from God and who have received redemption from the old way of life, Tozer walks through the principles of living a crucified life. It is to those who are not satisfied in being a 30-fold, or 60-fold Christian, but are wanting to press onwards and live life as a 100-fold Christian, that Tozer writes “The Crucified Life – How to live out a deeper Christian experience”. Actually it is a compiled edition by Rev. James L. Snyder, but a good one.

With the motto of “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30) self is taught that it MUST DIE, so that the life of Christ in us can become manifested. Whilst many esteem living the resurrected life of Christ, most are unwilling to count the cost. Tozer walks through the many barriers obstructing the modern Christian from living the crucified life and exhorts the reader to push onwards into the promised land. There is an all-out call to abandon every area of our life and lay it at the feet of the cross. Luckily Tozer does not leave us at the foot of the cross, but refreshes the reader with glimpses of the victory that is won in Christ Jesus and the blessing of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

This is a must read for all Tozer fans, and for those who know that there must be more than what is portrayed in modern Christianity, not wanting to move to liberalism but standing on the word of God and experience the “deeper Christian experience”.

Contents:

• Part I: The foundation of the crucified life
• Part II: The dynamics of the crucified life
• Part III: The perils of the crucified life
• Part IV: The blessings of the crucified life

Purchase @ Amazon

Favourite Quote:

“No matter who you are or how learned or religious you are, if you have not been regenerated, renewed, made over, brought to the light by the quickening of the Holy Spirit, you cannot know God. You cannot know spiritual things at all; you can only know the history of spiritual things. Any enthusiasm you have for religion is but an illusion.” (pg. 65 para 2)

Warrior-Poet Weekend

If you have ever read any of the Ludy’s books, or experienced a taste of Ellerslie, the term “Warrior-Poet” will not be new for you. However, it is my assumption (from knowing a large percentage of my audience personally) that most of you have no idea.

So let me introduce the concept to you:
MEN being MEN.

The concept of a warrior poet is a man who will indeed exert the manly strength required to fix things, to stand for justice, to stand for the cause of the oppressed, to show a boldness and brave-hearted attitude of a warrior when the situation demands it to be so. However it also demonstrates a tenderness which cares for others, beholds beauty, and is not brutish in ignorance. Ultimately, this warrior-port has made a

 ”sacred covenant with his holy King. He has chosen to deny himself, take up his cross and follow Christ. He no longer lives to please his own selfish desires. He lives to please his Lord. He is not seeking to draw attention to himself but to draw all eyes to Jesus. As John the Baptist said “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30). That’s the motto of the warrior-poet’s life. ” (excerpt from Answering the Guy Questions – Leslie Ludy)

 Well, with that in mind, what would constitute for a manly warrior-poet weekend (or Saturday) whilst studying here at Ellerslie. By the way, think William Wallace (Braveheart) and you may get somewhat of an idea… then again, maybe not (I haven’t seen the movie for over 10 years).

 Start off with a beautiful sunrise rising over Colorado, warming the bright sky (actually that wasn’t technically part of the WP weekend, but still cool).

Sunrise over Ellerslie Campus

 

 Spend time as a group of men in prayer for the women of the campus who were going to be having a “set-apart girl weekend” (See the Set-Apart Girl Magazine for more clues on what that might hold).

Head out to “Vern’s” a hole in the wall dinner north of Ft Collins, Colorado for a manly breakfast of HUGE cinnamon rolls (I was told not to expect all cinnamon rolls to be anything in comparison), hash browns, eggs, bacon etc.

Vern's Dinner - Laporte, Colorado

Drive through scenic Colorado foothills to “Horsetooth Rock” state park. Here at Horsetooth, we climbed the track through the foothills on winding, slippery, dry and snow-covered paths until we reached the summit and climbed upon “Horsetooth Rock”. This rock provided a great view across all of Ft Collins and even across to Windsor Lake. Unhindered by the other ranges, we beheld the expanse of Ft Collins, and our new surroundings. After a time of seeking God through scripture and prayer we had the mighty Ben Z recite some manly poems and spur us onwards and upwards, deeper into the life of Christ.

Horsetooth Rock - Summit

The Final Ascent

View from the Summit

Needless to say that because lunch was awaiting us back at the cars, the descent was ridiculously fast. With men sliding down over icy sections of track, and running down paths around corners there was soon a separation from the main group. With hiking boots tightened, camera backpack thoroughly strapped on, and a video-camera mounted to my bag, I tried to keep up with these fit young men in running gear.  Unfortunately the video didn’t turn out of us running down the mountain, but it was definitely fun.

On arriving at the bottom we were also greeted by a number of fire trucks, rangers and an ambulance. Don’t worry it wasn’t any of our crew. It turns out that a dog had fallen off the rock and was needing to be rescued by the firemen  abseiling down to the dog and bringing it back up.

We then enjoyed an afternoon full of Ultimate Frisbee (with lots of pain associated for the next 4 days) and some American football (I am still not sure if I like the football code, but we will see once we have a proper game).

The night ended with a home-cooked chicken soup dinner and some great time just talking with one another.

All in all, a great warrior-poet weekend.

- Roy

“The emphasis of holiness movements tends to be that God is
producing specimens of holiness to put in His museum… God’s
purpose is not to perfect me to make me a trophy in His showcase;
He is getting me to the place where He can use me. Let Him do
what He wants.” – Unknown.

“God’s choice acquaintances are humble men.”
-Robert Leighton

“We fear men so much because we fear God so little. One fear
cures another.”
- William Gurnall.

Reckoning with Truth

Well,

What can I write of God’s exploits at Ellerslie so far this week? (I actually started writing this 2 weeks ago) For us, this 3rd week at Ellerslie has been most unusual. There has been a distinct interruption to the general flow of what could be classified as a ‘normal’ bible school, whilst structure has continued to be adhered to where possible.

For a start, it is evident that the Holy Spirit leads our staff as they seek him at the beginning of each day in regards to what they should teach / how they should lead us as students.

At our 5:30am prayer meeting on Monday morning, we reviewed the attributes of God, and in response many of the students felt a real call to surrender their lives  fully to Christ, and his working in them. This was followed later in the day by us being given the option to follow hard after God, or use the exit. This was followed by us re-examining the realities of hell. Yes we believe in a literal Hell.

Christ’s Call to Follow in His Footsteps – KP Yohannan

With men and women kneeling, pacing, sitting in seats and weeping over sin we commenced a time of public confession. This time lasted close to 5 hours without a break for lunch. Rather, we listened to the same plain melodic background music loop as God convicted many on points of sin and need for forgiveness from the rest of the student body. I don’t know about you, but this is one of the first times that I have ever seen this type of Christianity function in the body of believers.

Needless to say, as the Holy Spirit continued to bring us into a greater relationship with himself, and ever-increasing yieldedness to His agenda, there were some who needed to be carried to the feet of Jesus. In this endeavour, we spent Tuesday praying  for those students who needed extra support as they reckoned the truth with the different staff members. It is quite something to behold a full student body pace the chapel, kneel between the chairs, and sit in prayerful silence as we uplifted our brothers and sisters in prayer. With a short break for lunch, we were there praying from 10am till 5PM. Oh what joy there was when the first couple of men who had been reckoning with this truth returned. Needless to say, God was given all glory as testimony after testimony showed the power of prayer and how God had transformed lives. It wasn’t anything that the staff had said to these men, and it wasn’t a counselling session. No, it was the proclamation of the ‘Truth’ as found in the Word of God. But these men had now taken hold of that truth, and the promises that were available to them due to the shed blood of Jesus.

The next day, we heard the testimony of all the women who had been in the same situation in the ‘back room’. What a joy and celebration that was evidenced as we heard of the victories that God had wrought in everyone’s life the previous day, and during their time at Ellerslie. The testimony of those who had been praying was also proclaimed during this time. The battle that had gone on during those hours of prayer on the Tuesday, and the victories and strength that God had given to individuals as they prayed and had specific prayers answered.

This past week, we have also had such powerful messages as “Canon”, “Man under the Stage”, “The Costly Gospel” and “Spiritual Athlete” which have  been wonderful messages, giving God the glory, and us the motivation to live for him.

Links to a version of some of these messages that have been given in Sunday sermons previously:

• The Costly Gospel
• Man Under The Stage

It is such a joy to be in the midst of men and women who hunger after God and are learning to live accordingly as the body of Christ .

 

Get ready for our next post on:

- Set apart girl weekend – Chrissy

- Warrior-poet weekend – Roy

Recent Photo Adventures (06/03/2012)

Hi everyone,

Sorry we have not been able to update the blog recently. There has been a lot going on at Ellerslie (more about that in our next proper blog entry), but in the meantime, please enjoy some of this week’s collection of photos.

Roy

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“A religion that costs nothing is worth nothing.”
- W.B. Dunkum

“The secret formula of the saints: When I am in the cellar of
affliction, I look for the Lord’s choicest wines.”
—Samuel Rutherford

Our experiences driving on the WRONG side of the road!

Yes, we have been let loose on the roads in America, and after all our training in correct driving technique (in Australia), it definitely feels like we are driving on the wrong side of the road. Every left hand turn, I expect to be hit from traffic coming up the other side of the road. It surely reminds us to pray each and every time that we go for a drive.

But oh what sweet release from bondage to the footpath. After walking everywhere around Windsor (and getting a few lifts) for the past 2 weeks, we REALLY appreciate having a car. Being Australians in a foreign country, and wanting to be able to explore EVERYWHERE we didn’t just buy a small car, a car that would just get around town. We bought something that would take us (and everyone else) throughout the country…

Our SUV!

… An SUV. Yes after a bit of fixing up some problems with it, we are able to drive it and others around and enjoy the freedom that comes with having a vehicle. No longer do we fear the fierce winds and cold weather as we walk one and a half miles back home, or a couple of miles to the shops, but rather with heated seats and a working heater we can now stop and offer fellow students lifts to wherever they are going.

So we now expect to be posting quite a few photos from our various adventures that having a car has opened up.

Getting our Plates on!

The Journey – How and why we moved to America

It seems the most common questions asked in the first week of Ellerslie were , ‘Where are you from?’ and ‘Why did you come to Ellerslie?’ So for those of you who are curious, here’s the story, at least the one we’re sticking to…

So once upon a time there was a perfect little blonde-haired boy named Roy and a crazy red-head named Chrissy. They met in grade six and it seems God had a very interesting plan for their lives. They ended up becoming close friends throughout high school and after four years of courting, decided it was time they were married.

Okay lets cut to the chase, the U.S.A! Well last year (2011) as Roy was working at his parents pharmacy and I was doing my fourth year of Education and working as a nanny, we decided it was time we started thinking about the coming chapter of our lives. We both found ourselves thinking we would “Go west young man”. But we soon found God had different plans. It made sense to us that we would work for a few years, rurally as it would be an interesting experience and jobs were much easier to get than in the city. That way we would have some money saved up, so that if God decided it was time to send us into missions, then we could easily say ‘sure’, as we had all we needed (or so we thought) to follow His lead.  But instead of simply following what we thought was right, we prayed.  We prayed fairly consistently for a few months “God, what would you have us do in 2012?”, and he answered.

The day that everything changed, I (Chrissy) was sitting at university during a tutorial and I received a text message from Roy saying, “What do you think of going to America next year?” That definitely caught me unawares! America! Since when did Roy ever think of leaving Australia and for what? America isn’t a country that needs missionaries – well it wasn’t a country I had on my list to go to. People weren’t starving, kids weren’t roaming the streets with no family to go to. I was pretty curious as to why Roy had picked such a country. When I arrived home, he filled me in. (BTW don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against America, some of my best friends from primary school live there, I was just very surprised).

He had been praying and God prompted him to go to the brave hearted gospel website (which was one of Eric Ludy’s book websites that Roy had seen a few years ago). As he looked up the page, it had redirected to Ellerslie’s website and shown the course (of which we are now a part) to do basic Bible and missionary training. Roy felt that God wanted us to come to Ellerslie for a year and complete this course. We were really blessed by the various videos that were featured on their website (www.ellerslie.com) and felt that the messages they spoke resonated with what God was saying to us.

The rest is pretty much history. We looked into the organisation, we emailed to see if they had space for us and living arrangements were made. We looked at buying plane tickets to Los Angeles and at purchasing bus tickets to Fort Collins – which is about 30 minutes away from the town we are in, Windsor. We prayed about money and packing up our home and God helped us arrange everything and opened all the doors so that things ran amazingly smoothly.

Near the end of the year we had a bit of a hick-up though. While I was on practical for teaching, I became sick and ended up losing my voice. The school I was at discontinued my practical and I ended up needing to redo the whole 4 weeks at another school and in the next semester of university, therefore pushing my degree six months behind. This was a specifically trying  time for us. I explained to the university that we had plans to go to America the following year and that I was unable to postpone it six months. The arrangement ended up being very interesting. They ended up allowing me to do my final practicum in America, as long as I could find a school and a teacher that was willing to take me. This was an amazing answer to prayer!

I ended up being placed in a grade 4 class at Skyview Elementary School in Windsor, which just so happens to be possibly up to 2 minutes walk from where we are staying for the year! God is amazing the way He plans things, He never leaves out the small details, in fact sometimes I wonder whether He prides Himself in those tiny details we forget to ask Him about. He is a father, He cares and provides for us.

So after packing up all our belongings in Brisbane, catching a plane, bus and car, we are here in Windsor, Colorado, USA. Windsor has been so welcoming to us and we are daily growing in our love for this diverse location God has brought us to.

So there are the answers to our most commonly asked questions.

If you want to ask us more, simply email us here

Chrissy

Do you know what you believe? (Foundation Week)

Do you know what you believe?

Well this week as our first week at Ellerslie we developed an understandings of the basic truths of the Bible which we would claim to be the very Word of God in text. For the Bible says about itself that

“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine (teaching), for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all god works.” (2 Timothy 3:16 – KJV)

With this as our basis, believing that the Word of God is inerrant, it is truth, and it is central because God himself declares his nature and declares his plan of salvation through Jesus Christ we built on this solid rock exploring foundational truths to Christianity.

At Ellerslie there is great diversity. Students are gathered here from nearly every evangelical denomination imaginable. Some very conservative and others from very liberal backgrounds. Yet here at Ellerslie there is unimaginable unity as we fix our teaching, discussion and study on Jesus. We stick to discussing central doctrines and are free to have our own expressions of worship, praise, prayer etc. The main thing is for us to respect all in the way we express our freedoms in Christ, and not to distract and disturb our fellow students. Seeing this unity in the body of Christ is surely a joyful experience and reviving to the soul.

At Ellerslie it has always been the commission of the men to live as men ought. To live lives of valour and honour. Men act as gentlemen and you will ALWAYS see them opening the door for each other and especially the ladies, cleaning away the dishes and taking the initiative to pray for and protect the women of our campus. Their focus is to ensure that each and every woman in the course is supported in seeing JESUS and the guys are definitely not getting in the way of that with romance or attention-seeking behaviour. It is truly an experience to live among the guys here at Ellerslie as they learn what manhood truly is. It is also an honour to see these women begin to radiate and showcase authentic beauty in this protective and empowering environment.

So what have we been learning?

For many, the word “sin” merely expressed the so-called ‘bad’ things that humans do to one another, and towards God. We dug a little deeper into what this christianese term may actually mean, and why it is so offensive to God. In medical terminology we could classify ‘sins’ not as just multiple sin but more accurately as the symptoms of a root condition, a predisposition of ‘sin’. These ‘sins’ therefore are the effects that we see within our culture. Sins of commission (what we do to God, others and ourselves), and sins of omission (what we do not do that we know we should – James 4:17) are those that stem out of the very root of this problem – the spiritual condition known as “sin”. Sin itself has often been defined as “missing the mark” finding its derivation from an archery term… but how do we miss God’s mark?

Well simply put, it is us placing “self on the throne”. When self is on the throne ruling and running our lives we miss the natural order of things and do not realise that GOD should be on the throne of our lives and that we SHOULD be taking direction from Him. Us being on the throne of our life puts us in direct rebellion to God. It could be likened to a little child going into a palace, finding the throne-room, getting up on the throne in front of the king of that nation and demanding his / her toys so that they can do what THEY want.

Apart from rebellion, there is another problem with us taking the throne of our lives. This problem is rather deceptive and subtle in its workings and the way in which it plays out in life. The problem is described in scripture as the “flesh”. No I don’t mean the largest organ of the human body which covers over bone and muscle tissue. Rather I am talking about the insidious master who actually runs your life when YOU are seated on the throne. The flesh which binds YOU to the throne and is in direct opposition to you getting down off that throne and letting Jesus come and take his rightful place instead.

I have witnessed in so many “christian’s lives” that they continue struggling with sinning and try to conquer their thoughts, tongue and actions through self effort, or even prayer. The problem for many is that ‘self’ remains on the throne and hence the desires / lusts of the flesh run rampant. And remembering that those who remain on the throne are a slave to this cruel master of the flesh, and are bound it is no wonder that so many christians feel like a failure. But “THANKS be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Rom 7:25) that Jesus comes, sets us free from the bondage that keeps us on our own throne and we can step down, and allow Him the rightful place in our lives. On our throne!

Through our studies this week we have seen that the ‘flesh’ has ALWAYS been at enmity with the ‘spirit’ (and / or the righteous ways of God and God’s rulership of our lives).  Throughout the bible there are examples of mans self effort (flesh) and then God’s solution (spirit). This has often been called the 1st born (flesh) vs the 2nd born (spirit) because it has played out exactly that way. The 2nd born in the natural is always the supernatural solution. A couple of examples follow:

• Ishmael (Abraham’s self-solution by union with Hagar) vs Isaac (Child God had promised to Abraham and Sarah in their old age – supernatural)
• Esau (Despised his birth-right and place in Gods salvation of the world) vs Jacob (Struggled with God to get a blessing and was Gods chosen man to be the father of a nation – Israel)
• Saul (First King of Israel – the nations choice “head and shoulders above all others” but disobedient towards God – and henceforth rejected of God) vs David (A man after God’s own heart who sought God and was obedient)
• Adam (first man – rejected God and became his own God through eating the fruit) vs Jesus (the 2nd Adam – reconciled man to God through his obedience, fulfilment of the righteous law, death and resurrection).
• Old Man (Flesh – the way we live with self on the throne) vs Spirit (The way to live according to God with JESUS on the throne).

I do realise that I have just spent a HUGE chunk of this post on some of these things that we have taken hours to learn this week – actually that was just a small part of the first session (and admittedly I am not the best one to explain these things), but this is merely an expression of the many things that we are currently learning.

Other topics this week include:

• The Gospel (see video)

• Intercession (see video)

• Holiness (the #1 attribute of the person of God and how we should view him)
• Egypt, the Wilderness and the Promised land (an old testament picture of the saving work of Jesus Christ)
• Fatherhood (Can we really trust God?)
• Fact, Faith and Experience
  • Okay so I really need to explain this one. Fact = Word of God, Faith = our actions / application of, Experience = experience. In our modern Christianity we often base our life, living, and salvation on what we ‘feel’, what we can ‘see’, and our past experience. Examples include prayer – we feel so defeated because it seems that God just hasn’t answered our prayers in the past, so is it really worth praying again?
    The truth is that we cannot trust experience. Rather we must trust the truth found in scripture. We must learn not to look at circumstances, situations, and stories of the past, rather we must hold onto the very promises of God found in the Bible. So that when we turn away from the nagging voice of experience and fix our gaze firmly on the truth of scripture we can truly walk out the life of victory with faith in the promises of God. This confidence is based in two critical facts:

• The word of God is the word of God (John 17:17, 1 Thess 2:13)
• God cannot lie (Numbers 23:19; 1 Sam 15:29, Titus 1:2)

I could also write of the messages about “reckoning with truth”, “the anatomy of truth”, “the body” but you would probably be asleep.

Not that this week has been relaying any foundational doctrine (teaching) for us, but rather we have gained a deeper understanding of many facets of the gospel and Christian life. We have had the beautiful opportunity of seeing many of the other students come through times of testing what they believe or have grown up being taught and seeing Christ at the centre and clinging to him as their ‘all in all’.

What our day looks like:

• 5:30AM (Corporate Prayer)
• 6:30AM (Individual prayer and study)
• Breakfast
• 8:15AM (Corporate stillness – prayer, reading the bible, etc)
• 8:45AM (Devotional)
• 9:00AM (Corporate Worship)
• 9:30AM (Session 1 – 2 hours of intensive teaching by staff)
• Lunch
• 1:15PM (Session 2 – more teaching by staff)
• 5:45PM (Dinner)
• 7:00PM (Student Life Activities)

Yes it is a rather hectic schedule, but we have found it really beneficial.

Other Stuff:

We have also had many other joyful experiences this week including:

• Getting to know our classmates
• Welcome Banquet (a very formal affair with a wonderful message by Eric Ludy)
• Sermons of Yesteryear (This week: Paris Reidhead – Ten Shekels and a Shirt)
• Social outing to Lilly Lake (Currently frozen – Estes Park – Northern Colorado) – pictures included below
• Being invited to lunch at an Ellerslie family’s house and sharing wonderful fellowship.
• Working on our SUV that we bought… still working on it (Roy)

But a WONDERFUL first week – oh and we aren’t quite as cold and out of place as we were at first. Altitude settings have been adjusted successfully, and we there are just so many friendly people around town. We love living in Windsor.

Lilly Lake... In winter

Chrissy on our Hike

Roy on our hike

Overlooking Lilly Lake and up into the mountains

The Creation Station - a really cool little cafe in Estes Park