Paul had a lot of signs that help prepare him to be a missionary. One way was he was a Pharisee. Pharisees are people that knew the old testament front and back. He was also a duo-citizen, he was a Jew and a Roman. This meant that he was able to get proper trails and not get beat by guards. One way that God could use me to spread his word is hockey. there are a lot of people that I play against making it a great place to spread the gospel. Another way is in games I also play a lot of video games, therefore he could use me to spread the word there.
Caeden J.D. and I studied the country of Russia and what it looks like to be a Christian there. One thing that we learn that we thought was crazy is that Russia is mainly Christian but, there is still persecution that happens there. This is weird because if there is more Christian than any other religion, why is there still persecution? We figure out that it mostly has to do with their government. Another thing that we learn is that they are not allowed to spread the word of God out of the church. If they do they can be put in jail or worse! The last fact that I am going to share with you is that there is no trace to pastors after they say something the government does not want them to say. Meaning that they are completely off the grid. I am very proud of how my group did. Mostly in the google sites we made. There is a lot of facts on it and it also has a lot of other helpful links for people that want to help Christian.
Topic 1-
Covenant
Visual- Contrat with a hockey team
A Covenant is a deal or promise between two groups. The covenant that I am talking about is between one or more of God’s people and God. One of the Cultural mandates that we thought of is, I’ll give you the earth and you will take care of it. My summary of this is that if you obey you get a blessing. If you disobey you will get a consequence. The reason I chose a hockey contract as my vision is that when you sign a contract you commit to working hard for a team and not breaking their condition.
Topic 2-
Sent to Promise Land
My thoughts- My arm
The promised land was a place that was going to give people freedom. The people on their way to go to the promised land were hungry. Moses summons a bronze snake and manana and quail came from God. Moses reminded the people Obey = blessing Disobey = curse. They crossed the Jordan River. And went into the promised land without Moses. My summary for this is TRUST GOD as he can get you through life even with the hard patches. And also Choose this day who you will follow God or Idols. One way that I have had to trust God when I broke my arm. I did not believe that it was going to heal because I had a bone cyst in my arm. If it did not heal I would have to get surgery to get it removed.
Topic 3-
Salute to the King
The visual- clothes
The Israelites were going through a cycle In this cycle:
Go well with judges
People sin
Send enemies
Cry out to God
Repeat
Once the Israelites went through this cycle a few times they cried out for a king like the of countries. They wanted to look like the others so they wanted a king that they could see. The summary is this is the Israelites want to be like other people because other people were different from them. I learn that sometimes it is good to be yourself and not someone else. My visual is clothes because people buy clothes to look like others and they try to be cool. Just like the Israelites were trying to do.
Topic 4-
Symbol of a Lamp
Visual- Life Below Zero
God promised his light will never go out. What he meant by this is that he will be in the line of Jesus and that whatever he did he will still be related to Jesus. God still loves people even though they made many mistakes. David’s line ends up leading to Jesus and he is the light of the world. The reason I choose the visual of life below zero is that they stay out in the cold no matter what happens. I learn to never give up because God will never give up on us.
Topic 5-
Something is Rotten
Visual – Hockey
In this unit, Israel had one bad king after another. God sends the prophet Elijah to talk to the people. He ended up testing the people that baal was fake. He asked them to have their god to burn a fire. He said that he must be asleep or on vacation. Then when they gave up after calling for baal, he made people pour water on his offering. After them pouring a lot of water I mean a lot of water. He prayed to God for two seconds then BOOM! There was fire all over. This made baal look bad. My summary for this is that you should believe in God no matter what. Do not be tempted to do anything that you should not do. The reason I choose hockey as my vision is that in hockey you can be really tempted to leave God but you have to stay with him.
Topic 6-
A Savior
Revelation
People could not listen to the law. God was in a great mood. He was being a savior. He wrote the law in their mind and put it in their hearts. This covenant that he made with the people will not be required to make sacrifices. The summary for this is Jeremiah gave the people a new covenant that would not require a sacrifice. This was the first time the Israelites had seen a covenant like this. God was being a huge savior. The book of Revelation talks about God coming back to earth and being a savior. That is why I chose this as my visual. I needed a savior in my life when I broke my arm. There was a possibility that it could have been cancerous. Jesus came in big and saved me when I figured out that my arm was not cancerous.
Topic 7-
Slide to Destruction
Middle School
Israel had one good king after all the bad ones went through. After him, they still ended up worshiping baal. God let the people of Syria divide them up into groups that cause a lot of harm and people learn their lesson that God has been trying to teach them for years. Judah on the other hand had two kings but still ended up getting taken over by Babylonians. The summary of what happened is that Kings wanted to have power and popularity and to get popular they worship false gods. They got told to listen and go back to God but they did not listen to the prophets; this is why you have to listen to the prophets in your life. I have chosen middle school to be my visule because people do anything they can to be cool. This also how wars happen in real life it is all about popularity.
Topic 8-
Call
Africa
God called Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to follow him to another land. He promised to make their nation great. He tells them to look at stars and the sand and says that is how many children you will have. He called them to move and do something that he needed for them to do. They did it and obeyed God. The summary for this is that Calls for you to do things. Listen to him and he will make you great. You also should be by people that go to your church and people that make good decisions. Remember to trust and obey. The reason that I have chosen Africa as my vision is that there are people from my church that get a call to go there to teach others about God.
Well, two more days to go. I really am ready to get this done. Cold showers are not that bad they are just COLD. Living with only cold water is not that difficult. One thing that is different is their preferences some people like cold showers and others don’t.
One thing that I learned was that in other countries the only thing that is different is that they have a hot climate and cold showers are not that bad. I still am thankful for hot showers. and I am thankful for snow because that is the only reason I am probably playing hockey is because of snow.
Last night was not so bad with my shower is was cold be it did not really affect me. I think this didn’t really affect me because I am at the ice rink half of my day. I am really hoping that I don’t freeze to death because of the cold. I really kind of feel bad for the people that have to take cold showers everyday because they might freeze.
For my consumption challenge, I chose to take cold showers. I chose this because I think this will teach me to not take warm showers for granted. This is going to go for 1 full week from Thursday the 8th to the 15th. I also chose this because this is going to remind me of the poor.
