heart transformation

The first semester of Link Year is over. I cannot believe how fast time flew by!! I could not have picked a better way to finish off the week than hearing from DA Horton. DA spoke to us while we were volunteering in Kansas City! I absolutely Love listening to him speak! He is very engaging and keeps you awake and thinking! DA grew up in inner city KC, so he knows the "hood language" if you will. So when he speaks he often flips back and from speaking ebonics to plain english. Its pretty amusing! So DA spoke to us on heart transformation and maximizing moments. Personally I took more away from the "heart transformation" section, so that is what I will be writing about today! I thought the timing of this topic is perfect. As we all head home for a month long break we will be faced with temptations the world will throw out. Now more than ever we need the constant reminder to focus on heart transformation. DA based his talk on Romans 12:2 and Psalm 51:10. He began by breaking down Romans 12:2. I love this verse, and its always been one of my favorites! Adam Donyes based Link Years purpose off of this verse as well. It reads "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." God calls us to be different. He calls us to renew our minds, and to not let the world influence who we are.  By doing so we can better understand His will for us. If we are caught up in the world and worldly thoughts and actions we are no longer focused on the Lord. When our focus is off God and put on the world, it's pretty hard to see God's will for our lives. If we refresh ourselves with God's word and renew our minds daily, God will slowly begin to reveal his good and perfect will. When we have all been in Branson surrounded by endless amounts of accountability for so long, it will be hard to go home and face all the worldly temptation. But if we fix our eyes on Jesus and focus on renewing our minds in Christ, we will be able to face them. Psalm 51:10 was the second verse DA talked about. Another one of my favorites. "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me." This verse is also perfect for our class and this point in our lives. We all desperately need Christ in our lives, and in the past 2 years it has hit me how dirty and full of junk my heart is. Only the Lord can give us a clean heart and a new spirit. So, as believers we have to ask for God to come in and remodel our hearts. Remodel them into hearts after Him. HEART. This process takes place in your heart. Not in your actions. You can talk the talk and not walk the walk. Me, I want to talk the talk and walk the walk with Jesus Christ my savior. I just love how straight forward these verses are. There is no mystery to what you have to do. DO NOT CONFORM. easy peasy. Do as Jesus does, not as the world does. Renewing your mind is done through asking God to clean out your heart and make it new.
Leaving to go home with these verses on the front of my mind will make life a lot easier when I am faced with new temptations in the next three weeks.

Luke 9:23

What does Luke 9:23 mean to you? That is the question Brian Wang asked us the first day of class this week. “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” What stands out most to me in this verse is the word DAILY. God calls us to carry the cross daily. Not just on Sunday or whenever you make time, but everyday! 

Brian broke this down into 3 things. Self denial, complete dedication, and willing obedience.  He started with self denial. In Luke 9:23 it says “let him deny himself”. To me this means that we have to give up our own wants and desires and open our hearts to God’s will and desire for our lives. 

The second part of  following Christ daily is complete dedication. Often times we love Jesus Christ but we are not always ready or willing to give things up just as Christ did. Jesus carried his cross and just as Luke 9:23 tells us, we must take up our cross daily and follow him. Dedication means devoting or setting aside time for a particular purpose. Brian had us ask ourselves what we are dedicated to. Are our priorities in the right place? Maybe. But are our RIGHT priorities in place? To be completely dedicated to following Christ we must make time to spend in His word daily, and rid ourselves of all distractions so we may better focus on His calling. 

The last part of following God is willing obedience. There is a difference between being obedient because you have to, and because you want to. To be obedient means to comply with submission or authority. Brian asked us “How obedient are you willing to be?” He used the story of Abraham sacrificing Isaac as an example. No one wants to sacrifice their son, but Abraham loved God and was completely dedicated to following Him. Because he was completely dedicated to following God, he was also willing to be obedient and submit to Him even though Abraham didn’t really want to do what God had asked. “So Abraham went as the Lord had told him.” Genesis 12:4. We just have to trust in God’s direction and timing for our life, and to do that we have to be willing to obey his calling. 

I really loved Brian’s talk this week. Considering the stage on life we are all at, I believe that it was just what we needed to hear. It is important to me that I know exactly how I am going to successfully follow the Lord before I get thrown into the crazy world of college. And through self denial, complete dedication and willing obedience, I believe that I can reach that goal. 

A Path Toward Greatness

This week here at Link Year, we had the joy of getting to hear from Kyle Unruh. The first thing he said to the class was "I believe by making the decision to attend Link Year, you all are now on the path to greatness." Path to greatness? Really? Having no clue where I want to go to college or what my life will look like in the next year represents a path to greatness? Well according to Kyle Unruh it does. I believe that we just have to trust that by being here God will place us on a path towards greatness. The first stop on this path is experiencing a clear calling. Kyle used the fisher men in Mark chapter one as an example. Jesus appears to them and calls them to follow him and become fishers of men. In that instance, it was pretty clear what Jesus was asking them to do. I mean, he was standing right in front of them. If Jesus walked up to me and told me my calling I wouldn't argue either. So Kyle tells us this and I think "okay, no big deal, I just have to hear my calling. Sounds easy enough to me!" Wrong. God's calling for our lives is not only heard by the ears. He can stir your heart as well. I'm done for. How am I supposed to "hear" this calling if he may not actually speak to me? I don't know what kind of stirring in my heart I am supposed to feel. When God calls, we will know. It will be so clear that we cannot ignore it. You know how you can screen calls? We've all done it. Your phone rings and you check to see who it is before you answer it. You can't screen his calls. When God calls, you answer.
The next thing on the path to greatness is a clear understanding of sacrifice. Kyle described sacrifice as a privilege of the mature. We are not called to do something Christ hasn't already done himself. Sacrifice is good!! It can be very hard and scary sometimes, but it's always a good thing when done with a pure heart. In times of sacrifice we are most like Christ, he did not come to be served but to serve. With serving comes sacrifice.
Next up on the path to greatness is steadfastness. God tells us to not return to our sin, but to flee from it and follow Him. Stay on the course of steadfastness and it will lead us to greatness! To stay on the course is a daily struggle. This is where steadfastness comes into play. To be steadfast means to fixed in direction and firm in purpose. When you are steadfast, you aren't turning back. Put our faith in Christ, follow him, and then we will have strength to be steadfast.
Lastly, we have to allow our weaknesses to bring us strength. Kyle told us the story of the boy who carried two pots to get water from the well each day. On the way back down the mountain the pot with a crack lost half of its water. But the boy carried that pot on the same side every time, and he sprinkled flower seeds on that side of the road. Slowly flowers began to grow. That pots weakness allowed for beautiful flowers to grow. The pot allowed for the boy to turn his weakness into strength. In the same way, we should allow Christ to turn our weaknesses into strength.
Follow these things, and God will use us on the path to greatness.