I Can’t Stop Smiling | YWAM DTS WK 6 Points

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INTRO

This last morning I woke up with the song Life Is A Highway by Rascal Flatts playing on repeat in my head and no I didn’t recently see the movie Cars. I decided to play it on my phone and felt really good taking my morning shower, and also read the lyrics later. The palm trees in the background of the video being almost like another little hint.

MOVING

I have been contemplating moving to South Carolina. When I was in my DTS with YWAM, I kept seeing the picture of the State in my mind. It’s a State I’ve visited before and loved and thoughts of South Carolina have been coming up again in my head. After reviewing the State I’ve decided I would like to live in or near Charleston, SC since it’s not a long drive to either the beaches or lakes if I want to go fishing in my Old Town Predator PDL fishing kayak. I’ve also heard many great things in my research.

TOGETHER

In April I decided to switch to part-time at work to rest but also so I could spend more time with Kayla. Kayla and I have been seeing each other and talking for months and it’s the first time I’ve ever felt so close to someone. She contacted me on X after reading several of my posts on my blog here and had questions. From there we kind of hit it off and she lives in my area too!

She’s everything I could ask for, Christian and conservative, and Pro-Trump, we send each other memes we find on X and laugh. She is against the far-left liberal agenda and I love it! She is spiritually minded too and has been through similar tribulations I have been through. She is always asking me interesting questions and we talk for hours and speculate. I told her about my idea of moving to SC and she is very open to it since she has noticed the same things with people around here in Wisconsin.

One recent example is a girl I met at Church and helped move her to a new apartment with a handful of others. After the move she left the WhatsApp group, she created, and unfriended me on Facebook too, essentially like we were just used. I laughed at it when I noticed because I wasn’t surprised, backstabbing and disrespect seems to be the way in Wisconsin from my experience. This is another reason I think the Lord wants me to move to SC, better people lol.

One amazing thing about Kayla is that she has also kept her purity like I have. I don’t have to have thoughts of another man’s junk having been in her if we decided to get married. I mean it’s just not a Holy thought to think of another man in your woman, it’s repulsive to me. God didn’t bring me this far to have a compromised partner with soul-ties or bondage. Also Kayla is very devoted to God, you should see some of the art she makes! She sells art and teaches it too! We’ve kept our relationship a dead secret for now to avoid spiritual warfare in our connection and social media attention since you never know who has ill intentions. So far so good but she said I could talk a about it now on here at least.

When we first kissed, my lips felt super tingly afterwards and I told her and she just laughed at me since I was trying to find some spiritual reason for it. I was kind of joking but was also kind of serious like, did you put something on? Which made her laugh more and we kissed some more and then I got a little dizzy. Yeah it has been awhile for me haha.

CATALYSTS OF THE PAST

YWAM DTS POINTS

The DTS is a six month program blending classroom learning, small group activities, personal reflection, practical service, and community living.

Most often, the training comes in two parts: lecture phase and outreach phase.

Week: 6
Day: Monday
Speaker: Jon R
Topic: How to Study the Bible

• Reading the Bible is like eating food. You can’t live on one meal a week. Your emotions, hunger, get unstable.
• We value the voice of our Dad, intentionally listening, is what we need to do.
• When reading the Bible don’t think as a student, but as a disciple or apprentice.
• Reading a whole book vs small chapters opens more of the context of the content. More investment, you become hungry for more.
• Read vocally vs internally to remember and soak in more of the content, more immersion.

Week: 6
Day: Tuesday
Speaker: Jon R
Topic: How to Study the Bible

• Exegesis – There & Then – Who was the original audience?
• Try using a 5 words or less tactic for every chapter or book to really think about and define what you just read.
• Understand the flow of the Bible, the audience and order of each book.
• There are 3 rules when reading the Bible, all 3 are context, but this shows importance on the content of the Bible.
• Pre-Kingdom = (Gen 12 – 1st Sam 9), United Kingdom = (1 Sam), Old Testament = Ends in Kings.

Week: 6
Day: Wednesday
Speaker: Jon R
Topic: How to Study the Bible

• We are created by God and we have commonality with God.
• The Tree of Life, was a symbol of submission and obedience.
• The essence is the focus.
• How much are we still hiding from God? What do you really think of God?
• I would rather remove you and redeem you fully than let you live forever with the wrong idea of Me.

Week: 6
Day: Thursday
Speaker: Jon R
Topic: How to Study the Bible

• Online commentary, David Gusik.
• Find a creative way to present a book in the Bible, song, skit, drawing, makes you think and remember the reading more.
• Read 2x, then read for observations, read for questions. Who is the author? Who is the audience? What’s the point?
• The questions really helped with the online commentary section. The online commentary addressed some of the questions.
• Creating a skit in our group really caused us to think about the reading and how to impact the audience.

Week: 6
Day: Friday
Speaker: Jon R
Topic: How to Study the Bible

• Wake people up to who they really are.
• We need to focus on spirit, not fleshly desires, otherwise we can’t hear God.
• When reading the Bible ask, “How do I want to see myself in this story”?
• Look at things in the Bible and ask is it personal or missional.
• We can have all the knowledge but for God to really move we need to know who we really are in order to reveal that to others.

CONCLUSION

Well if this post didn’t make you smile then I hope something else does today. I have been smiling non-stop and I can’t wait to see where God takes me next. Here is the music for this entry.