Has it been 3 weeks, or 3 years?

I don't know that I have a place to begin, or end, as I am writing this. So, I will start with Snugglepoo (birth name, Erica Flippo, and just so no one steals my name, she is the only one with the right to call me Katiebear). SP and I met 3 years ago, here in Kansas City, on our YWAM DTS that partnered with IHOP (Youth With A Mission Discipleship Training School, and of course International House of Prayer, ha). We spent almost a full 6 months of our lives living in very close quarters. In the Amazon Jungle we would swing side by side in hammocks, and oh so many other wild stories. She is also the one that will be accompanying me to Sopchoppy, Florida for Jess' wedding. Anyway. She is living in Arkansas, but had to come here (her, sort of, hometown) to get fitted for the bridesmaid's dress. Well, she surprised me by coming to the EGS and asking for a place to sit. I was so excited! We hung out for a couple of hours after that. It was wonderful. SP had moved to New Zealand for a year and we always seemed to miss each other. I haven't seen or really heard from her much since last June. So, this was definitely a treat!

It's strange to think that I have only been here for just over 3 weeks. I feel about 10 years older. It's that bubble. I am in that bubble where time stands still, yet so much happens. Every lesson we get is from someones ten or twenty year journey on that one single subject. We've got something like 25 hours a week of teachings. I'm taking so much in, I can't even begin to summarize. And that's not counting my heart! Oh, wow! My heart...He is changing my heart every day. In the past couple of days, I have literally encountered something that I don't have words for. It's not that words escape me, I just don't know that there are words to express what is happening deep within me. I could type a bunch of the notes, which are WONDERFUL, but that's all I could do. The Omega Course is already phenomenal. Wow. For me to write some of those notes, would require me to enter back into student mode, and with such an intense topic, I just don't know that I can do that right now. All I know is that I am getting something so deep inside of me, like I never have before. And a lot of it is just personal stuff between me and Jesus. I am learning how to really say Yes to the Man Jesus Christ. And He is showing me how He has always said Yes to entering into Covenant with me. Communion. Fellowship. Partnership. Marriage.

The Lord laid it on my heart to be baptized again. It's actually something I had been thinking about for a while. I never really understood baptism stuff, and then we had a woman come in and talk to us about it. I won't go into the details, but I felt very strongly that I was supposed to be one that was baptized. Ihop does baptisms once a month, so I will probably do it next month. The lady said she wanted to talk to me about it, so that's good. I also have to go through some classes.

I will just end with 3 cool things from today.

I saw my friend Chris, that was also from the YWAM/IHOP DTS.

God totally said LOL to me today.

And I read this in the book "Deep Unto Deep" and I have felt it today. I am starting to understand a glimpse, though a very tiny glimpse, and it's really affecting me.

I was recalling something someone had just told me about a traditional Jewish wedding, just in the past couple of weeks. After the groom settled the engagement/wedding arrangements with the parents, he would call the bride out. He would pour a glass of wine and take a drink. If the bride accepted the terms, she would take a drink, and they would be 'betrothed.' The cup was the sign of the covenant. Well, I was meditating on that, and the Lord told me to pick up Deep Unto Deep and read. Amazingly enough, when I flipped the page, it was new paragraph describing in detail the very thing I was just meditating on. The groom coming to the parents, the glass of wine, the acceptance, and the betrothal.

This is what Dana Candler said describing Jesus in light of this Jewish engagement:
As He places the cup in front of us, He asks, "Will you receive all that I am?" It is no small question that He asks of us. To receive all of Him is an unfathomable venture. It is a yes not contingent on His fitting into our understanding or having a full comprehension of Him and His ways. We join ourselves to all that He is without understanding in our minds even a very tiny portion of who He is. And it is a dangerous consent that we give Him. By all earthly means, it is no safer than joining ourselves to an ocean or cleaving to a whirlwind. It is no more secure to our natural understandings than becoming on with fire. Even so, it is, in truth, the safest and most pleasurable of all unions. It is a fierce decision of love we make because of our fierce propensity to want to know exactly what He might do and where He might take us. Yet with all of our unfamiliarity with His ways, the 'yes' to all that He is is our wise choice on earth.

And this is what she says about the Bride:
To be His bride is to respond to His gaze of affection as one with all dignity and honor, for a bride knows who she is and does not question her position before His eyes. She knows that she stands before a God who is overcome with love. She is not afraid when the enemy comes and brings accusations and lies...she does not fear or question the love of her Beloved. Instead, she stands fearless in love...

Amazing. This is all personal, to every single person. Wow.