My first 3 weeks.

 I can't believe it's already been 3 weeks in Hawaii. Although it seems like it's been more, it might be just the many things I've seen and what God can do in places like this. I have had other family members go to DTS in different areas and one of my brothers Chris have his here in Kona, but I never really got to talk too much about it and what DTS would have in store for me so I was half excited to meet God in a completely new way and a little bit anxious of what was in store for me.
I think one of the biggest things I've learned so far is about intercession. Before I came here I don't even think I've ever even heard the word, but for the past few weeks I learned a lot about it and came to realize that it is such an important tool in the Christian life. Growing up in church, I knew that God was real but there were so many times where I felt that God just wasn't listening or responding to what I had to say, and now after these past few weeks I've come to realize that I actually wasn't even truly looking toward God all the time and wanting to hear what He had to say.

another thing i learned that i wanted to point out is what Phil Leage explained to our class about different approaches to the Bible, the devotional, deductive, and inductive approaches.
Devotional where you are committed to going into the word and taking it as you are reading, deductive where you get into the Word already thinking you have a thesis for what you are about to read and drawing conclusions.
and finally the Inductive approach, which is probably how we should always read the bible, when try and understand the words how the author wants us to understand them.
What was it that the author was actually communicating?
What did the Word mean to the audience in the time that it was written?
 and out of those, what does the Word mean to us in today's time?
I feel like this way of Bible study changed my perspective on reading the Word. When I used to read the Bible I always read thinking that I was just going to find something out of the blue while reading randomly. Although it could work like that it doesn't seem like it should be like that every time I get into the word.
I think that another thing that has been a part of my life is about forgiveness; I don't think I've been able to forgive people for things small or big throughout my life, and I've learned that it is not good to have things like that in your heart because it's not good for it. How can you be forgiven by God if you haven't forgiven someone else?
but yeah, there is still a lot of things that I will have to learn during life but I feel like I've had a pretty good jumpstart so far.