Developing My Walk With God

Last year I had the amazing opportunity to go through the Women's Development Program through The Austin Stone Institute.  To say it was life changing is an understatement.  The program wrecked my world, rocked me to my core, and completely changed how I view God.

I spent a year studying theology that I had never even thought about.   Did you know God as communicable and incommunicable attributes?  Yea, I didn't either, but he does and they affect how I view him and how I live my life.  One of the biggest things for me was to understand the theology of imputed sin and imputed righteousness; that because Adam sinned we are all born sinners AND (hallelujah) because of Jesus' death on the cross we can be seen as righteous before God if we become followers of Christ. 

We also spent the year studying hermeneutics, that is how to study the Bible.  Y'all there is no way for me to fully share how this changed my life.  Before I took this class I would open my Bible and read and hope for something to jump out at me.  Thinking that was the way God would speak to me, but ending up frustrated because it rarely actually happened.  I'd end up feeling like a failure because reading the Bible didn't have an impact on my life.  Now I can't wait to read the Bible.  Right now I'm reading through 1 Samuel and Romans.  I've been taught how to dig into the text and actually understand what God was saying through the person writing it.  I actually memorized the entire book of Philippians last year and loved it. 

We ended the year with a mission trip to London.  Our purpose was to share Jesus with people that had never heard about him before.  There is a huge population in London that has never heard the truth of gospel of Christ.  This trip was the first time I had shared Jesus with someone I'd never met before.  Sure I've shared parts of my story with people I know...what God has done/is doing in my life, but I've never put that aside and just started talking to a person on the street and told them the story of Jesus.  That we know he was God's son, that he died for us, that he rose again, and that he offers us eternal life.  It was amazing.  To see Jesus transform lives of people that were living in darkness was the best thing I've ever experienced.

 Here are two of my friends that went on the trip with me

This year I have the opportunity to lead a group of women through the Women's Development Program.  I am so excited about this.  I know how much God changed me and I can't wait to see what he does in the lives of these precious ladies.  It is a privilege to get to walk this journey with them.  As I go through this program again I know that God has big things in store for me and I can't wait to see what else he wants to change in me.