Prayer: Rebellion!!

Wow. Wow. That's all I can say right now about what I'm learning in the Perspectives course. I'm learning about God's purposes from the beginning of time- His plan of redemtion and His plan for us to enjoy him forever. Quite amazing to think about, isn't it?

It's incredible, I'm only into the third day of the course. There are still a dozen more lessons. Just to give you an idea of what my days taking the perspectives course will look like, I spend 3 hours in the morning hearing a talk. (For the next 4 weeks, each morning we'll hear from a different missionary!--you probably have no idea how pumped I am about this!) Tuesday's talk biblically blew my mind away by showing that God is a missionary God from the start, emphasizing the book of Genesis and the gospel given to Abraham... yesturday was about worship and how its all for God's glory; that He is most glorified when I am most satisfied in Him... and today was about God's kingdom and the good news of the kingdom as well as a bit about bringing down evil strongholds with prayer!

I've been spending about 8 hours a day doing the workbook, reading the material, and doing the daily essay quiz online. The funny thing is, its A LOT of material, but I feel like I could keep reading and reading and reading! I just want to soak it all in, every bit that I learn about God's greatness and goodness!!

I've been in Philly for a week now and already I am learning how to love better, how to worship truer, how to understand the bible and God deeper, and how to pray more effectively/in accordance with God's will among many other things!

Here are a couple of things that got me really really excited! (I didn't include them all because I would have written a novel by the time I was done, lol)

* One of thes articles in the reading material was titled 'Prayer: Rebelling'! Who doesn't love a little rebellion now and then??

* We already have victory! Because God already vanquished the power of death, Satan, and sin by Christ's resurrection and now He allows us to be a part of his work through prayer and proclaimation of His glory!

* The Lord's prayer is a missionary prayer.

* "Missions is not the ultimate goal of the Church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn't. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man." and "Where passion for God is weak, zeal for missions will be weak." John Piper---"Let the peoples praise thee, O God...Let the nations be glad and sing for joy!" psalm 67:3-4

* There are still people who have not heard the gospel=good news of what God did/is doing/promises to do. Matt. 24:14: "and this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come." ---"Here is the challenging fact. If God's people in the English-speaking world alone took this text seriously and responded to its challenge, we could finish the task of worldwide [spreading of this life transforming good news] in our own generation and witness the Lord's return"!