Walkabout

Student Life Ministry in Brisbane, Australia with Amanda DeCesaro

Yup, I did it, I joined the gym. I am a gym member for the first time in my life. As I jump on the elliptical in the morning I remember one thing, perseverance. While there is something to be said about the thoughts of stopping as I am in kick-boxing class, perseverance wins over my aching muscles. Even waking up earlier takes perseverance for me who keeps having late nights. So as I tried my hand at the many contraptions called weight machines I wondered where this perseverance comes from. Its all about motivation. Thanks to my team/housemate Emily and my motivation to get fit I survive the gym. But in ministry I don't want to just survive and my motivation is much greater.

Perseverance in ministry has been an on-going lesson for me. There are always students who cancel, not show up, want to argue theology, shun you, and then there's always my beloved (sarcasm) administration work. Persevere. Even through all the aches and pains I have persevered and in the end I am stronger.
This past week was the first week of second semester and we were at Mt. Gravatt, Logan and Nathan campuses for stall days. We had a table set up from 10-2 one day at each campus, where we surveyed students and invited them to Student Life events. Then on Friday we had an ISM hang out time to meet new international students. Shane and Jean are both from China and had filled out a survey, they came to our hang out along with many other internationals who are already acquainted with Student Life. It was a great week indeed.

Jean and I at Ultimate Frisbee after we first met

I don't generally think of myself as clumsy but I often do clumsy things. A couple nights ago I burnt my hand with boiling oil (yeah, ouchy)-- lets just say somehow cold water got into the pot I was holding (don't try this at home). It is healing well, but my hand has purple blotches and huge blisters. It serves as a reminder of my foolishness and if I end up with a scar I would have a life reminder.


I am also hurt easily when I place relationships with others above my relationship with God. People are not perfect, so when they let me down or I feel left out it hurts even more than my hand. I am a people pleaser, I crave attention (though I'm often shy and quiet), and I always want to be included. I know that it is not their faults, I place an expectation of perfection and selflessness on them, when only God can meet that. I've realized that we all need affirmation from people but that our identity and sustaining "filling up" can only come from our Creator. It is a sin for me to place anything above God and I know that I am only satisfied when I am right with Him, but often I am splashed with the scalding oil of the world. I am no longer imprisoned by sin but I still sin. Sin is like a burn on my soul; however, when God forgives and heals that burn there will be no scar. Instead of a reminder of my foolishness I am left with a reminder of God's grace and love.

Students and Missionaries from QLD Universities

Last week we had our annual midyear retreat up at Mt. Tambourine. It was cold as usual and God was extraordinary as usual.

One of my training groups:
Peter (missionary from Korea), Max (Hong Kong), Eric (China),
Champ (Thailand), Pharos (China), Vincy (China), and me


What God Taught Me

I have to admit that I went into the week with a wrong attitude, thinking I would solely be a listening ear and a teacher; however, God intended for me to be a student as well. The main speaker was John North. For the week the theme was "Inside Out" and John took that to talk to us about our spiritual lives as the analogy of a tree.

On this tree we tend to focus on the fruit: Godly choices and Christ-like character. However, no tree ever labors to produce fruit, they just grow naturally. So it should be in our spiritual lives, it should be of no effort of our own. The first step to spiritual growth is the desire to be totally committed to the leadership of Christ in my life. But we cannot focus on the fruit; fruit grows on branches.

These branches represent Kingdom values. Our choices and character are direct consequences of what we value. Therefore, if we value the things God values our actions will also be Godly. Yet, how do you acquire our values? It is through what we fill our mind with that has direct and intensely powerful influence over us. What controls our mind, controls us: our values and actions.

The branches grow from the trunk of the tree. The trunk represents our mind. So how can we be intentional with our mind? We can make conscience decisions of where to spend our time and what will enter our mind. The mind is like a battle field and every strategic soldier does three things: identifies the enemy, understands the battle ground, and fights. There are three enemies every Christian has: the World, the sin nature, and Satan. Our battle ground is our mind:

For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
-2 Corinthians 10:3-5

Although it may be hard to do at times, we must do battle. We are faced with choices all the time, things like should I watch this movie, listen to this song, sleep in instead of spending time with God, and so on and so forth. So we should be filling our mind with things that are God honoring.

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. - Philippians 4:8

Those things that will produce kingdom values are the spiritual disciplines we often classify as the those things "good Christians" do. These are the roots of our tree and are things like devotionals, going to Church, fasting, prayer, worship, etc. But the roots are not the end, they have a purpose. Roots are for the soil, to absorb nutrients and water. If the water is the Word of God then the soil is our relationship with God.

So if it all begins with the soil we extend our roots into then we must make sure it is rich and life giving. Everything about my Christian life is about my relationship with God. Every aspect of our Christianity must be relational. Some examples are:
  • having a relational faith (it is a personal trust, "I know whom I have believed")
  • having relational prayer (conversational, "I talk to who I love")
  • having relational quiet times ("I spend time with who I love")
  • having a relational view of sin: not a view of "I messed up again" (self centered) but a view of a brokenhearted God ("I don't want to hurt who I love")
There are 5 different kinds of Christianity that John presented:
1. Nominal= Christian in name only
2. Traditional= Christian by involvement with Church (Churchianity)
3. Habitual= Christian by doing "Christian" things (following a formula)
4. Theoretical= Christian by love for God's Word but it remains just theory, no application
5. Personal= Christian by a loving relationship with God, walking with Him

As Christians our first priority is to love God and our ultimate purpose is to be used by Him. This is the Christian life as a tree which bears fruit. Don't forget that the fruit is never intended for the tree. When you bear fruit it is for the benefit of others, both Christian and not.

I really love this analogy and God taught me a new way to look at spiritual growth. He also gave me a tearful night when I spoke to one of the girls about Satan. It wasn't as though I never realized it before, but it just struck me: God is heart broken, hurt... God, my God doesn't deserve to be hurt, especially by me! I love how God reveals himself at the most unexpected times. So, MYC was a great week in more ways than one.


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amanda.decesaro@gmail.com

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