Winter Retreat
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The whole fam on Christmas!
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Merry Christmas and happy new year! Hope you all had a great holiday season full of family, friends, and rest. Our semester is picking back up and we kick off the winter spring semester with our Winter Retreat every year. It's going to be this weekend, Jan 12-15, and our speaker is one of my seminary professors, Dr. Daniel Lee. He's coming to speak to our students about disruptive grace.
Theology of Grace
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My niece hugging her unborn cousin!
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When I took his class a while ago, it was his teaching on the theology of grace that finally made the gospel click for me. Having grown up in church, heard about God's grace, and learned the good news of the gospel, it just seemed like something that all Christians had to believe. And there was work to be done to spread the good news and teach others about the grace of God. But it was his lectures and readings on how crazy and backwards God's grace is, how extravagant it is, how free it is that finally turned the good news into actually good news. That there was no cost or payment plan that I needed to sign up for to receive God's grace. It's not a pyramid scheme or a wage garnishing method. God's love and grace are not contingent on my work or goodness. It freed me up to minister out of joy rather than expectation. And I hope it will do the same for our students and other ministers who suffer from the same internal battle of needing to be "good enough". So, please pray for Winter Retreat and that our students would get to know God as he really is!
Winter FOCUS
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Teaching her early!
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Our students have taken it upon themselves to keep meeting over the winter break. In Dallas and Austin, they've formed groups to keep each other pursuing God even when their school schedules and work schedules have shifted to relaxation mode. It reminds me of Hebrews 10:25, "And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another..." Our students have not neglected to keep meeting together and encouraging one another. I'm excited that our leaders have caught visions of continuing to ministers even when it's not part of their job description or title. Thank You!
I hope to be able to relay many more stories after Winter Retreat this weekend and pray that momentum is continued into next semester. Thank you so much for your continued support for me and God's work here at UTD!
