Who is God and who am I?

We were confronted with these questions as the basis of our first weeks teaching, which happened to be taught by a man from the same town in Australia that I lived in two years ago. I was incredibly aggravated the entire week, each new idea he brought up seemed wrong to me. Maybe not wrong, but defiantly not the 'right' that I was sure was, right. After drilling him with question after question, and dwelling on his ideas about God and the scripture he had backing it, I have had some personal revelation about God. My mind has been racing about a side, or better put, a whole, of God that I've yet to venture to. I believe God is unfathomable, but we can see His character and nature through many ways. I think many people give God a partial introduction, I see people, including myself, leaning towards and holding on to only several characteristics of God. He is the ultimate judge, He is holy, fierce, righteous, He created everything and made the rules of this world. People take that and picture someone always watching and judging our every move, our every sin, and we feel that we ought not sin, and we should live right because of Gods wrath. They make Gods laws a religious game, where God is not the center, but not sinning is the center, and with that, comes a shade of judgment on the other side of the spectrum. Freedom Sinners, is how the teacher put it. Freedom Sinners concentrate on Gods forgiveness, Gods mercy, and love. They live their life with the attitude of, 'I can do whatever i want and God will forgive and forget it'. and the more they are judged for their actions, the more they want to exercise their 'rights'. Which leads the legalistic to concentrate even harder on the letter of the law. This isn't what our teacher was saying to the tee, but it is part of what I got out of it. He pushed that the right way to live isn't a 'balance' between these two distorted views of how and why to live, but that both are wrong, they both make sin and self, the center, one hides sin, while the other embraces it. The concentration is no longer on God, but on the actions, either making them everything, or nothing. I use to think that when i was close to God, or living right, I was not sinning, or balancing my life perfectly. But, when I really looked at it, I was still concentrated on the sin aspect of living right. I feel challenged to keep turning from sin, but now i have a new task in stead of just waiting to fall again, turn from sin, and to God! I’ve been introduced to the idea that the truest form of freedom is experienced under obeying Gods Laws. God as a whole, God who is not in conflict with himself, God who is all holy and all love. God is good, in all aspects. He's not waiting over us waiting to strike us down when we sin, but rather wanting more of our trust, more of our time, more of our hearts, and when we do fall, he wants us to allow him to pick us up and come back. God’s love is perfect and pure and he longs for us. He longs for me and longs for you. This message was a great one to have since this weeks teaching is on worship. I’ll post about that later. God Bless.

camping trip/glacier hiking

Hello everyone!

sorry it has been a while since my last post, my computer went into foreign language mode and i had a lot of trouble getting it back to English. haha. One of many goofy challenges here. The purpose of the first week here has been to get to know each other and more or less bond a bit. So we went camping! I've gone camping a lot back in the states but this whole trip was a bit diffrent due to the terrain and what not. We hiked up a 5,000 ft mountain in the cold wind and rain, it took about 4 hours and we were all beat when we finally arived at the cabin that was build from supplies brought in by helicopter! The weather got really gnarly and my group had to stay there for 3 days instead of the intended 2. It was a really good time with worship, fellowship, games and sleeping! Going to the bathroom out there was an experience in itself! You had to walk for a few minutes in the wind you could heavily lean into and stay standing; then drop pants over a little wooden box by a big ol bolder! haha After decending the mountain we headed directly to the glacier for some time on the ice! The glacier didnt look that big from camp, but when got all our gear (crampons/ice axes/helmets/belt harness) on and climbed up it a bit we were shocked with the absalute size and majestic feel of the never ending glacier! We were on the ice for several hours learning climbing techniques and moving really slowly due to our large group size and we were all more then ready to get off the ice and finnish up with the day... after an hour and a half hike back to camp w/ all our newly aquired gear. haha. The next day was our last day of camping and we had the option of going up to the glacier again, only half or so took the leader up on this offer and we had a GREAT time on the ice, getting to do much more and covering a greater distance on the ice! It was an amazing once in a lifetime experice for an Arizona boy!! During many of our long waits on the ice I prayed a lot and it was neat to be out in some of Gods coolest work! I was reminded how small I am, and how powerful He is. I had to trust myself, my gear, and my God out on the ice, because in the case of an accident on the glacier, it would be a long miserable trip down. On a good note, my relationship with God has already grown during my time at Nordtun. We have amazing leadership here. Are leaders are from all over the world and have admirable passions for Christ, as well as hard working and super fun personalities! It is a blessing to be here, God is the center, and everyone is in the same boat! The cultural diffrences are fun and this house is like a wirlwind of diffrent languages and customs. The next 3 weeks will be consintrated on class time and leactures, which I am highly antisapating. Week one will be tought by a guest speaker who many of my DTS leaders have told me is amazing! The topic will be the Nature of God. Week two will be on Worship and week three we are making a trip to Oslo to meet up with a DTS from Amsterdam for some more classes. The students here arn't super informed about all the details which is a bit of a bummer for me because I like to know it all. On another note, If you have not recieved a thank you note from me, I am very sorry for the tardyness. But everyone yet to get one will be getting a cool norwegiean post card, which I havent been able to find anywhere!!! yet. But we are making a trip into the bigger city of Bodo so I will get them then. Thank you everyone for helping me get here, I'm extactic about this trip and what is yet to come. Feel free to email me with questions or comments or requests or whatever at, miles152@gmail.com and please take a look at my pictures on my facebook at, www.facebook.com/alecoffner

I made it!!

After 3 flights 2 train rides and a car ride we made it to our final destination! right now is the evening of our first day, and i am over the jet lag because we came into their schedual very well from our travels. this place is very beautiful. this place is very beautiful. this place is very beautiful. All the DTS staff are very intresting and alive people who i cant wait to get to know better, i have high hopes for the next few months of classes and outdoor activities. I hiked a mountain today with 2 other guys and it was amazing. everything is wet and the weather is very eratic; the sun can be out one moment then it will be pouring rain the next moment. we tried to catch a sheep on the top of the moutain but it was super fast. maybe later ill win. This place screams God! from the leaders at our base, to the country side, to the spirts of everyone here. I'm in a room with two other guys, its a bit cramped but i think it will be a good experience, there are people from all over the world here. one of the german students just arrived today, he is Tellans room mate. he drove 2 weeks to get here. alrighty off to finnish unpacking. thank you everyone who helped me get here. bye for now.