Week 11

Week 11 was taught by the YWAM Director of Panama, Richard Tracy. The topic was “Relationships”. If you think about it, all the problems in the world are all some how relational in origin. The main reason is due to our self-idolatry (selfishness). It’s so hard to wrap a whole weeks learning into a couple paragraphs so if you have any questions please email us. Humility is one of the key words to use when talking about loving someone. This word kind of has a bad wrap for being week and meek. Humility consists of so many different characteristics. Servant, brokenness, encouragement, Speaking the truth in love, giving up our rights, do nothing out of selfish ambition, seek justice by defending the weak/poor, admit our weakness and wrong-doing, gentleness, seeing ourselves through the eyes of others, receiving forgiveness, and forgiveness is not an option. All of these terms seem impossible to possess at once in any given situation/relationship but just remember God created and retains all of these with us.

We focused primarily on guy/girl relationships and how God intended them to be. He created women out of a man; this clearly says that we are made for the purpose of being together. Too often do we look to the world for what sexuality should be. What we also do that is not what He created us for, thinking that looking good is bad. Guys… it’s not the girls fault that you stumble/lust, it is what lies inside your thoughts. Just as I have said many times, God created beautiful mountains to look at as well as women. It’s what we decide to do about those feelings we get (either admire the beauty that came from God or dwell on what can satisfy our needs). Remember “nothing I am physically or emotionally cause me to violate God’s truth.” God also created attraction. We discussed the differences in infatuation vs. love. Richard said that one of the great ways to overcome unhealthy views of the other sex is to imagine them though God’s eyes, admiring their inner beauty of knowledge, wittiness, humor, etc. Two new terms we learned were lasciviousness-excess of and concupiscence-preoccupation of the opposite sex. He even touched on fornication, adultery, sensuality, and defrauding of the other sex. At the end Mr. Tracy gave pointers on how to fix past broken relationships.

Very briefly, on a side note, he touched on “Spiritual Warfare”. We were created for battle and there are 5 main tactics to use/express when we feel under pressure of satan. 1. In the name of Jesus 2. The word of God (Bible) 3. The power of the Holy Spirit 4. The blood of Jesus and 5. Testimony