September 30, 2011 - "A Breath in September"

Whew! It's been crazy trying to find a moment to write an update this month. I got another job about a week and a half ago and they piled on the hours for these first two weeks, but I am very thankful to have the extra income. When things are all settled down I should be working about an average of 20 hours a week now and a good portion of that being weekend hours. So that will be nice to be a little more freed up during the week. Anyways, here's a little peek into what I've been up to over the last several weeks :)

Classes have been phenomenal! In the first block we had Angelology, Romans, and Family Relationships, and I really knew virtually nothing about what the Bible has to say about angels, demons, and Satan before I was in Angelology, so I loved just soaking that up. Now I'm in my second block of classes which are The History of the Church and Missions, Romans (continued), and James. Yes, that's right. Romans and James on the same day. It's insanely good. haha I have been having my mind blown in these classes. This History of the Church and Missions has helped me understand so much about how different doctrines have been developed and just what has made the church what it is today. We'll be getting into the missions part before too long, and I can't wait. :) And let me just stop a second and say wow. All my life I've heard people be like, "oh Romans is such a good book. wow so much doctrine" and all that. Holy. Cow. This class has probably changed my spiritual life forever. Wow. And all last year the upperclassmen were always telling us, "you think you're saved? just wait till Romans. You don't even know what that means." haha and I thought they were crazy and just had never read the book before school. oh man, nope. They were totally right. There is so much to my salvation that I had never really grasped and I almost feel like I've been cut short of being able to fully enjoy the benefits of being a Christian until now. The biggest mind blowing concept for me was just realizing that, man, I really have no ability within me to produce a right life. whatsoever. It's not even like a "I'll do the best I can and God will do the rest" kind of deal. I really can't produce a darn good thing. But thank goodness - no, thank God, that because I was justified through Christ when I believed in Him, when God looks at me He sees Christ's righteouness in my place. And so then there's no pressure to try and prove to God how right I am. He is eternally satisfied with Christ. And the righteous life I live now is the fruit of the Spirit living in me that I might really be free not only from the authority of sin but also its power. I don't know if that's an adequate summary, haha but it's the effort that counts, right? Man, there's so much in there that is just so encouraging and makes me more and more in awe of God. He is perfectly just, He is holy and loving, He is powerful and there is no flaw in His ways. wow. And James of course just goes right in there about the importance of having a living faith as opposed to, of course, a dead faith. I'm also in a small group that meets Tuesday nights to go through the book "Green Letters" by Miles J. Stanford which has just been tracking right along with what we've been learning in Romans. So far it is a super good book. And lastly, I've also been taking an elective on Ruth, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon. So far it has also been really good and challenging my worldview in a number of areas, but we haven't started talking about Song of Solomon yet and I won't lie, I can't say I'm dying to sit through a few classes on that. haha lol

I feel so blessed to be at this school with the many awesome people I'm here with and look forward to the many awesome things ahead. A little more about my job: I'm now working at Legacy Assisted Living and continue to work one day a week with Tee Tee's Place Child Care Centers. Once I finish orientation at Legacy, the hours should settle down and work with my school schedule pretty nicely. It's been hard for me to cut back my hours with Tee Tee's Place because we don't have a lot of staff and right now we're basically without a program director. So my coworker who is our lead aide on staff is not sure how well we'll manage the the program without me there as much and the head office has told me that they also are sad to see me cutting back even though there is another girl taking my place. So it's hard for me to stick to my guns and I honestly do love working there, but my primary focus is school, so I can't plan my schedule around work. Work needs to work around school.

Please pray that things get worked out there so that the program will be able to continue and I'll be able to move forward with the new work schedule.

You can praise God with me that after a tight month my finances are coming together and God has just been really cool in providing. It's humbling every month. I am feeling better about how things will work out for getting through this semester and I just trust Him to be able to work out how to make next semester come together. I trust that if He wants me here, He'll be able to work it out. :)

So, I think I've covered it all... and then some. haha Sorry this was a pretty long one. I've been pretty excited about all that I'm learning right now. :) Thanks again for the prayers, the encouragement, and your friendship. It means so much to me, and God is definitely using all three to His glory.

Blessings,

Jessica King