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Hey everyone! This past week has flown by!!! It's been amazing to me up here when I hit the end of another week, realizing how fast time is evaporating. It helps me to remember to not take anything for granted while I'm here at Boyce. :-)

For a quick update on life, classes are going really well and homework is managable, not too overwhelming at present. However, I do have three papers due within the next couple of weeks so I am reading, studying, and typing away, trying to get them all completed.

God has been SO faithful in providing me with great friendships up here, not only just on campus, but now also at the church I have been visiting the last couple of weeks. The last time I updated on my church situation, I was attending a church about 30 minutes away from the campus. While the church was great and the people were very gracious, I felt that I should seek out a church closer to the campus so that I could be more easily involved. So for the last two Sundays I have visited a church called 9th and O Baptist Church. My first Sunday I was surrounded by friendly faces as people came up to greet and welcome me! Since then I have done several events with their college ministry and have fallen in love with the leaders as well as attendees of that ministry. I could blog on and on about how welcome they made me feel and how I can already see their examples of Christian living and ministering encouraging me in my own walk and ministry, however, for lack of time, I must leave it at this. :-/ Thank you for all your prayers that God would lead me to the perfect church. At this point and time, I believe 9th and O is where I am to be. :-)

As to what I am learning, this last week in our chapel services we were blessed to have a man named David Platt come from his church in Alabama to speak to us on the need for missions. He preached Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday and every single one of his sermons were amazing!!! The final sermon he preached was on the Authority of Christ in Missions. He began his message asking the question: "What if we were a people who responded in worship to the Word of God like we do to sing praises?" Why don't we raise our hands, stand to our feet, and shout "hallelujah" when the word is spoken, like we do when hymns are sung? In that sermon he preached from Romans 9:1-5, but stated that in order for us to understand those verses, we needed to have a firm grasp of Romans chapters 1-8. From there he preceded, without warning, to quote those first eight chapters, word perfect, without once looking for help.

As I looked around the auditorium while he continued to quote those chapters, people were standing in the pews with bibles in hand while following along, people were raising their hands, they were bowing their heads, they were shouting praises, and they were driven to tears. Oh that we would be a people who, upon hearing the word of God, not only sang praises to His name but bowed our faces to the ground out of humility, giving Him the glory that He deserves!!!

I was so impressed by the power of the spoken word of God. What a ministry it is to others when we put to memory the truths of God's word and then use that to share His grace with a lost and dying world!

I encourage you to listen to David Platt's sermon... it is listed on Southern's Website. Click here and when you are on the webpage, scroll down to find Dr. David Platt - "The Authority of Christ in the Great Commission" from September 4th, 2008.