Relationships

"Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God & whoever loves has been born of God & knows God." 

~ 1 John 4:7

This past week at a glance...

*Sunday the Three Musketeers (Malia, Brit, and myself) attended Bridgeway Church. We went to hear a speaker by the name of Randy Clark. He basically told us of his testimony and how God has been so loving and persistent throughout his life.
Worship was so dynamic! There were instrumental solos, and you could really see the love and passion that the musicians had for the music, each other, and God. 

*In the evening a few of us went to see the new Batman movie, which we thought was awesome! The movie theater is called, The Elvis, which is similar to our Kendig theater back home. :)

*One thing that I've gotten to have the opportunity to do is to help out some girls with their hair and makeup!

I've always loved doing my own, and having knowledge from when I sold Mary Kay really helps!  Of course those things don't truly matter and our identity in not found in them, however, we are girls! (We love this stuff) I love being able to give and teach these girls! :)

*This week for Community Ministries we went to Shannon's Hope which is a safe house for single mothers with young children. We went and spent time with the women's children! They were taking Christmas pictures for cards so we helped out by holding the babies and keeping them calm while watching a Disney movie. I know that we were a huge help, especially to a mother with two newborn twins, and she even had her arm in a cast/brace of some kind. Man, those babies were so tiny, young, and sweet! Oh my goodness I loved being there and getting to not only love on these little ones, but love on the mothers as well.

*Having Brit here this week was such a joy! We had a blast doing Safeway runs, Starbucks dates, indoor soccer, hanging out by the pool table, and just plain laughing and talking. I miss her like crazy!

*This week for small group we had dinner at Hapa which is a sushi place in Downtown Boulder, Colorado. Afterwards we walked the streets of Boulder and headed to a book/coffee shop. :) I love small group times!

::Guest Speakers : Nathan and Jess Alley::

This week we have had the privilege of hearing from two of the staff that work here at YWAM Denver. Nathan and Jess Alley are a sweet married couple who love to teach others about relationships. Here are some of the notes that I took during their class.

-It is essential that we speak life and encouragement over people as opposed to sarcasm and discouragement. Did you know that the root of the word sarcasm in Greek means to tear flesh, gnash the teeth, and speak bitterly? There is a difference between sarcasm and being facetious.

*Romans 12:16 "Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited." (We should live in harmony and unity with one another) ;)
Honestly all of Romans chapter 12 applies to what we have been learning and we broke down the entire chapter piece by piece.

-"Love cannot exist without choice."
-"Become an expert on what God intended originally for us and for relationships. Then people will see what healthy, loving relationships look like."

-The enemy wants to bring separation while God wants unity. Satan wants to introduce testing over trusting.

-"We need to be transformed to have relationships and we need to have relationships to have missions."

-Have you ever looked at how the dictionary defines love? Check this out, the dictionary defines love as this: 

1.      A profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person.
2.      A feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection, as for a parent, child or friend.
3.      Sexual passion or desire... (really? that IS love??)
4.      A person toward whom love is felt, beloved person; sweetheart. 

So basically worldly love is based on; feelings, conditions, sexual desire, selfishness, love is used flippantly, and it is expected to be received more than given. hmm. No wonder our view of love is distorted. 

What does God say about love? What is true love? As a class we brainstormed and looked up different scriptures that tell us what love actually is. A few scripture we looked at are; 

1 John 4:18 "There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and                    whoever fears has not been perfected in love."

Ephesians 4:2-3 "Be completely humble and gentle; be patient bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace."

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (of course!) " Love is patient, love is kind, it does not envy, it does not boast, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres." (personally that should be the definition of love right there.) 

-We came up with a list of what love is based off of these verses and so many more. 

Love is; sacrifice, honor, trusting, forgiving, disciplining, choice, humble, protective, risky, relentless, sparkling (guess who said that one!), relationship, joy, provision, fearless, communication, keeps promises, has no boundaries, unconditional, unconventional, giving, selfless. Those are just a few. 

We also looked at "levels" of relationship and how they generally progress. It starts with acknowledgement, then social interaction, friendship (this is intentional), companionship, committed (you commit to pursue), spiritual intimacy, marriage, sexual intimacy. Each level of relationship includes a smaller and smaller amount of people which is how it should be. Besides family and a significant other you should avoid having "committed" (and the following level relationships) with people of the opposite gender. 

-Investing in relationships and people is so important. The world says that a relationship that needs work is not a good relationship, and that is so false. 

"Time = Relationship"

The 4 T's of Relationship

TRUST: (Character and Faith) Confidence that is not based on proof.

TENACITY: (Fierce) Holding fast. You fight for the relationship.

TRUTH: Relationships should always be based on truth. 

TIME: Shows people that they are valuable.

We moved from friendship relationships to dating relationships...

-"Our desire should be for each other, not marriage."

-"Don't put relationships on a pedestal, but present your relationship to God."

 Some verses that we looked at were:

-Ephesians 5:22

-Proverbs 31

-Song of Solomon 

-"Emotion is not the deciding factor of love. Emotions are not our stability. We should instead filter our emotions through truth.

-"Your assurance and identity come only from God. It shouldn't come from a relationship."

-"With great risk, comes great reward."

At one point we looked at qualities to compare and see if you are equally yoked with someone. Here are some:

-What are your callings? (individually. If you're called to be a missionary in Africa and the other person is called to be a doctor in Canada... chances are that's not gonna work out :))

-Are you both pursuing growth?

-What is their work ethic like?

-Are they a Christian? (If not, you could become their god :(...)

-Is this person spiritually mature? 

If you've made it this far commit this person in prayer to the Lord. If this is somebody that you decide to pursue then be intentional about your intentions, don't leave your options open (be "all in"), risk failing, fight for that person, and press on to the goal. 

Last couple things!! (I promise)

-"When you're in a romantic relationship, make sure that your friendships with the opposite sex are at the appropriate boundaries."

-"If you're willing to fight for others then you need to be willing to fight for yourself."

-"Guard each others hearts, not just your own."

::Thailand/Cambodia::

We are getting closer and closer to departure!!! A couple things still remain until that happens though! This week we took our pictures for the visas that are required to get into Cambodia! We have had some "bonding" times with our team as well so that we can really know each other better than we already do! 15 of us will be doing everything together for almost 2 months and we want to be an amazing team that utilizes each others strengths and encourages others in their weaker areas! 

GUYS!!! I am only $350 away from being able to pay for my second outreach payment! That seriously blows me away!!! I need to be able to pay the full amount (which was $1,850) on Monday November 26th. That is the Monday after Thanksgiving... a week from tomorrow. God is good and has provided thus far so I'm just resting in the fact that I know He wants me to go to Thaibodia and that He will provide! In that I want to say thank you to those of you that continue to support me not only financially but in prayer and encouragement as well!! You are all such a blessing to me. Thank you!!!

::Resound Conference::

Thursday evening, all day Friday, and all day Saturday we attended the Resound Conference in Boulder, Colorado! This was an AMAZING conference! We had times of worship, lectures, and different bands that came and performed. 

During the lecture phases we I got to hear from:

Jeremy Riddle- (Christian singer/songwriter) His session was called "Furious Love: A Worship Leader & Songwriters Experience/Journey into the Love of God. It was more on Spiritual Authority which was awesome! He explained how we writes songs and what methods he uses. 

Melissa Helser- (Jonathan and Melissa Helser are a Christian husband and wife duo) Her session was, "Discovering Your Breakthrough Sound." 

Jason Roberson and Nick Kofahl- "The Heart of the Artist" 

And Jonathan Helser. These speakers were all amazing and I have tremendous notes from all of them. Daddy especially, we should talk about them sometime :) 

The Artists that performed were:

Jeremy Riddle, Jonathan David & Melissa Helser, Ascend the Hill, and Kye Kye

(Kye Kye was by far my favorite! They were so amazing and I encourage you to check them out! Well all of them really.)

The reason why I have kept the above short ^^^ is because I have some stories from the concert that I absolutely MUST share! 4 to be exact!

1.) The first night we were there I sat a couple seats down from an older gentleman by the name of Tom. We just briefly chit chatted in the beginning of the conference and then at the end he asked me if I was with YWAM. I said yes, of course, and he said that he wanted to bless me. He went back to one of the booths and he bought me all 3 of the Helser's Cd's! I was speechless and so thankful that he felt led to do this. The Cd's are wonderful and such a blessing! 

2.) I've realized (which may seem elementary) that I have a more powerful outlet than playing music and running. Let me explain. When I get upset I have always turned to playing/writing music and running as my outlet for my frustrations. While these are healthy ways of distressing, I have found that pouring my heart into worship and having passionate conversations with God are more helpful!!! It's so amazing. 

3.) One of my roommates, Abigail, has had 6 tumors on her spine that cause her discomfort to an extreme sometimes. Well Friday night many people prayed over her and I'm not kidding you when I say this. She is HEALED!!! Every tumor is GONE!!! You could literally feel and see the tumors in her back and they caused her to have bruising and they are 100% GONE!!! We all were going crazy that night and I'm crying right now thinking about it!!! God has healed her! She loves being pain free!!! Thank you Lord!!!

4.) This is totally truth, what I'm about to tell you, and there is not exaggeration at all!!! Chad Johnson was speaking to us during one of our sessions. (He is the founder of "Come and Live") We were discussing healing and how one of Chad's favorite things to do is receive words from the Lord and be the vessel that God uses to heal people. He will pray over them and a lot of times people are healed. I believe that this is hugely due to Chad's gifts that God has given him and the faith that Chad has in God. He said about how he wanted to have a practical application part of what we were learning. He told us the two main ways that he will get a word of knowledge for someone. 1.) Through the voice of the Holy Spirit prompting him 2.) Sometimes for feeling a physical ailment that he doesn't normally have. I was sitting there thinking that this is cool and believing in it, but it has never happened to me or for me to be healed of something, so I purely took the role of spectator. Then all the sudden I felt a pulsing and muffledness in my right ear. It panged on and off for about 30 seconds and it has never ever happened to me before! I was a little stunned sitting there and asking God what this was. Then Chad asked if there were any YWAM students that had never received a word of knowledge for anyone to come up front if they had received something from the Lord. I nervously raised my hand with some of my peers and came up front to be paired with a person on the ministry team of Vinelife Church, which was the place where the conference was held. I was shaking for a while and then I heard the voice of God say to me that I should be calm and all He needs of me is to be obedient. So Chad started going down the line of people and we all spoke out the words of knowledge that we had received. At the end he said that if anyone needed healing in any of these areas that they should come up and receive prayer. At first I was nervous that no one would come up to me and my partner Emily, what if I had heard wrong? Was this God, or just me? Then I remembered what God had said to me earlier about just being obedient and trusting in him. 

As soon as Chad gave the invitation 8-10 people came up to me immediately!!! I was able to pray for all of them!! Only two of them had this ailment in their left ear, everyone else had the muffled panging in their right ears! Oh my gosh! I was blown away! What blew me away even more was a man that came up to me by the name of Jonathan. He said that he had this exact ailment for a majority of his life and that me using the adjective "muffled" was exactly how to describe it. Emily and I laid hands on him and we prayed. He started sobbing and all the sudden got very heavy. He started swaying back and forth a little bit and I kid you not, when we finished the prayer he literally fell to the ground!!!! I was in shock. I was believing with all of my might that God would heal him but I had no idea what form that would take. He laid there for about 10 minutes just sobbing. 

Later that day Chad asked for testimonies from people and Jonathan went up to speak. He told about how God had COMPLETELY RESTORED and HEALED his hearing and ear!!!! WHAT?! How Good is our GOD?!?! While Jonathan was on the ground Emily and I continued praying for others and Chad came over to Jonathan and asked him to come and pray for a lady. Jonathan found out that this lady had a condition the same as what is father had so he knew about it and was able to pray for her. He was amazed at the transpiring events and how God wove everything together beautifully from beginning to end. 

I myself started to cry. 1. God talked to me and that is such an amazing feeling when you see confirmation of that, and 2. because if I wouldn't have been obedient and done what God asked me to do, I wouldn't have gotten to pray for all of those people, and God wouldn't have been able to use me as a vessel and tool for Jonathan to receive healing. 

Wow. I've been speechless thinking about it from time to time. 

Anyways!!! That has been my week in a nutshell. A very big nutshell! 

^^^ This is Kye Kye ^^^

Thank you for taking the time to read it all.. ha ha and keep writing and letting me know how you are all doing! I love it! Oh and I hope that everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!!! Feel free to give my parents a little extra lovin' since I have a feeling that they will be missing me! :) 

Love you all!

From My Heart,

Brielle Renee

P.S. Here is our video cast from this week! Brit even made it in at the end and yes, that yellow hat thing that Malia is wearing?? Yep, I made that for her ;) #crochetprofeshhhh  :) Laugh it up Abby and Anna! And yes all of those scarves are mine except for 1, so Derek you can laugh at that! I miss you all. 

YWAM DENVER VIDEO CAST