Renewing the Spirit of Your Mind

Our first speaker, Patrick Dodson, recorded some of the teaching sessions he did during the DTS, he has one online already and plans on posting the rest of them soon. If you are interested to know more of what we are learning, please download or listen to them, they are in the podcast section of his web site, patrickdodson.net - the podcast is called Renewing the spirit of your mind'.

He taught on the 'Character and Nature of God' and 'Renewing the Spirit of your mind'. First we looked at who God is to each of us and why we see him in certain ways. looking out how our family and authority figures have effected our image of God. We also looked more at the true character of God and specifically how he can be seen the the domains, Media, Healthcare, Education, Government, Arts, Business and Family & Community.

God should not only be in certain areas of our life. It can be so easy to have a job somewhere that feels like it has nothing to do with your Christianity, i mean you people know you are a Christian and you can treat people well, but actually your work - how can God be in that?

Patrick went through each domain of society and showed how God's character reflects in each one...for example the Arts, God is beautiful, mysterious, a creator and we can identify with him as we create art. It seemed so simple but it made so much sense. I feel like i need to go over my notes and take it all in so i can apply it in the areas of my life.

The week ended with us looking at our identities. How our lives and passions show us some of the identity God has given us. We mapped out some of the identity traits we have, under the catagories (l) How God see me, such as Daughter, friend. (ll) How i see myself, such as encourager (lll) How my family/community see me.

It was really interesting to consider these things and see what my life says about my identity! Sometimes we, or I search so hard for a true identity, and it was a relief to see that so many answers were staring me in the face! I believe our identity grows and develops with us but at the core there are something which never change. I have already done some soul searching about this since last week, and i believe God is teaching me more about who i am in Him.

The podcasts are great, so if you have an ipod and a long commute - or you know someone that does, send them to this page, or if you need some entertainment while you are cooking dinner then give it a listen!