True Friends

My favorite little bowling partner Aiden

This week was a great week here on “the island”. We started the week off with a trip to the bowling alley for Mystery Monday at Hillbilly Bowling. It’s always fun to start the week off in community with the whole group; I really enjoy the activities we do. Sometimes it’s annoying not knowing what we’re going to do but I love the surprise and trying to guess what adventure is next each week, so I was little disappointed to find out what we were really doing an hour before we left campus.

           

Ak, me, and Jamie at Hillbilly Bowling

 Since it is Easter we had to have an Easter egg hunt. Yes, I am aware that I am 19 years old but I don’t think anyone is ever too old to hunt Easter eggs. I have always enjoyed a good Easter egg hunt and I thoroughly enjoyed myself as I searched the lower fields at K-Kauai. We also had a relay race in which my sweet partner had an egg crack on her. It was great time to spend with the Kanakuk Institute girls who planned the whole event.

Jamie and I in our bunny relay masks

                                         

   Me and my relay partner Claire     

My sweet mentor and friend Autumn  

            With all the fun going on I did learn a few things this week. Though it’s something that has been encouraged throughout the year at Link Year, I think it’s really important to share with everyone. At the Fort, a young adults ministry on Wednesday nights, we looked at Proverbs 27 with Joshua Straub. Proverbs 27 talks about TRUE friends. Joshua used an acronym for what a true friend is that I really like.

Speak Truth

              Speak  Encouragement

   Be        Sensitive

     Be       Teachable

It is so important to have true friends in your life; a friend who speaks truth is valuable. We are afraid to hurt people, but it’s important to hear and give truth. We also need encouragement. True friends are sensitive, we have to be sensitive to situations and feelings of others and the way we handle situations. Lastly, a true friend is teachable. We don’t just need to look for these TRUE friends in our lives, but we need to be this friend. We have to learn to be teachable and humble to accept the truth when your friend tells it to you. It’s hard to be teachable at times but remember if it’s from a true friend, it’s more than likely out of love. Proverbs 27:17 says, “Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.” We need to be iron in our friends’ lives and sharpen one another! Be a true friend and surround yourself with TRUE friends. Speak truth, speak encouragement, be sensitive, and be teachable. So ask yourself are you being a TRUE friend? This teaching can be heard on www.fortworship.com along with teachings on each chapter of Proverbs. I encourage y’all to check it out and listen to some; we have some pretty great speakers pour into us at The Fort each week.

Be a true friend and have a happy Easter! Celebrate our savior’s death and resurrection!!!

Weekly Link!

            What a week! This week has been crazy. Several students are or have been sick, we’ve been dropping like flies, one after another with fevers and upset stomachs. So far I have been one of the few girls that has not sick, and for that I am very grateful! Saturday we went to Lamberts then we went ice-skating and played broomball. Broomball was a disappointment, because we didn’t’ actually use real brooms, but besides that it was a really fun night spent with the whole class. On Monday we started off with a little maintenance work then loaded the bus for our Mystery Monday activity. We headed to Springfield for lunch at Chic-fil-a (a favorite for many Link Year students, but somewhat rare since the closest one is 45 minutes away) and then rock climbing.

            For class this week we had Ben Williams as our speaker. He taught on different worldviews, and gave us overviews of some western and eastern religions.  He defined a worldview as: a holistic approach to life rooted in a set of basic beliefs that you have whether you know it or not, that determines your view of and for the world. He explained to us that each worldview have different answers for these things: origin, identity, meaning, morality, and destiny.  He also talked about the validity of the Bible. We don’t have original documents of the Bible, but we don’t have any original documents from that time anyway because the paper didn’t last. We roughly have 3,000 manuscripts of the Old Testament in Hebrew.  8,000 manuscripts of the Old Testament in Latin. 1,500 manuscripts of the Old Testament in Septusiant  (the Greek Bible). In 1947 the Dead Sea Scrolls were found in which 35% were Old Testament copies. These are just a few of the fun facts we learned but it’s really cool to see how many copies there were.

            

Enamored

Enamored
taken with, charmed by, captivated, smitten by

If you read 1 Peter 1:3-12, you will see how Peter is so enamored with his salvation and his relationship with Christ. This is a very common theme among New Testament authors. Why is it that these authors stress salvation so much in their writings? It’s because they value and appreciate the gift of salvation so much, it’s the most important thing in their life. Christ DIED on the cross for us!!!! That is no small thing, he gave his Life, and we see Peter (along with other New Testament authors) just enthralled by and in awe of this! However, it’s rare that we see people in our world today respond in the same way Peter does, but why? Here are some questions with answers that we discussed this week, these are valid questions but some of the answers are quite disheartening.

Q: Why aren’t more Christians enamored in their relationship with Christ?

A: The gospel is often sugar coated, and misinterpreted. This can lead to great expectations and when they are not met people become disappointed. People often just grow complacent and lose their passion for the Gospel.

Q: Why is it that in most Christian communities people aren’t ready to enthusiastically share their salvation?

A: People have a fear of rejection and the way others will react. It can be hard and uncomfortable to address. Many don’t feel equipped to do so and many believe that salvation is only for the beginner (this is not true, salvation is for everyone).

Q: Why does it matter if our society lacks enamorment with Christ? What is the price of a community losing this enamorement?

A: There’s a big price to pay! These Christian communities are growing complacent, losing their passion and desire for Christ. They are “chasing experiences” to be filled, and this is exhausting.

 NEWS FLASH: the Christian life isn’t an experience that comes a few times a year.

The answers to these questions make me so sad. Christ died for US!!! Don’t’ ever forget that! We should be passionate about that all day every day!! We can’t forget this or take it lightly. We should be so captivated, so grateful and so excited about the gift of salvation, but it is so often taken for granted. We cannot allow ourselves to grow complacent, as a Christian the Gospel should still and ALWAYS enamor us! Are you enamored with Christ? I challenge those who read this to read 1 Peter 1:3-12 and see how enamored Peter was with Christ’s gift of salvation, then ask yourself again, am I enamored with Christ?