So this is the first time i preached in my church,
It's a bit of a big deal for me for two reasons
1. I have a small fear of public speaking that God is slowly breaking me of
2. I'm a woman and even if that seems silly in our day and age people still don't think it's my (women's) place to speak in church's.
It took me a lot of months to really settle with being able to preach
i just don't see myself as that person up the front, i struggle to stand in front of my youth group on a Friday night let alone a congregation of peers and older people i respect.
In years to come i'm probably going to look back on it and think wow what a horrible job but for now im excited that God used me in that way and if you'd like to check it out just click the link below and you'll be directed right to it.
I meet with them every few months and pray for youth ministry and my relationship with God. I recommend to anyone in leadership to be taking the time to meet with your prayer team and pray together.
Today when we met i knew i had to look at forgiveness, i felt like some people in my life had really rejected and mislead me and i was ready to hand that over to him and move on. I didnt want to leave any room for resentment in my walk or my leadership.
What i actually had to do was realize that God wanted me to forgive myself and Him before i started to forgive others.
I had to not only forgive him but ask for forgiveness for pushing him back a step in the hurt
I was looking at all the things around me and I had to take a huge step back and remember ;no matter what i'm doing he's doing it right along side me.
He's opened up my heart to Forgiveness sometimes needs to begin inside me before i can start forgiving others and most importantly he's reminded me that my forgiveness is so easy because he died on the cross for it.
Everything from the unworthiness i can feel to the outright rejection and the utter weakness means nothing;
Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Loneliness comes over us sometimes as a sudden tide. It is one of the terms of our humanity, and in a sense incurable.
Yet I have found peace in my loneliest times not only through acceptance of the situation, but through making it an offering to God who can transfigure it into something for the good of others.
This is just something I've been mulling over lately, a little bit of pondering;
We have been told that God is a loving, gracious, merciful, kind, compassionate, wonderful, and good sky fairy who runs a day care in the sky and has a bucket of suckers for everyone because we’re all good people. That is a lie… God looks down and says ‘I hate you, you are my enemy, and I will crush you,’ and we say 'that is deserved, right and just' and then God says ‘Because of Jesus I will love you and forgive you.’ This is a miracle.”
Jesus is our miracle, We live in His grace not in our goodness.
When you think about how forgiving god is remember he is only so because of Jesus and that grace is available to us at the cost of his blood on the cross.
That same blood that now heals us,
The cross that couldn't put to death a god but brought victory and saved us with grace.
Don't be fooled by fear, no sin is too great the victory is won.
My Beautiful and Courageous friend Sarah DeHaan made this beautiful blog post, Please take the time to check it out, she's not only stunning inside out but inspirational in her faith and life. She's just a light for God, Enjoy the link below..
Tea Cups and Tales.: A timely reminder.: I'm writing this blog today not only to whoever is reading, but mostly to myself. I need to you to know something today. The God that I...
I spent a good amount of time thinking about how hard life can be if your Leaders/Team Members don't think ahead about what's going to happen. I know I'm guilty of the saying "it'll be alright we've got Jesus, he's in control". (Although I think Jesus wouldn't like to be the "reason" people aren't prepared, I know i wouldn't.)
Now as a leader I know I've messed up and I'll continue to mess up but i can at least try and think ahead and work towards not being in that situation again, no matter what it is from anything to forgetting the decorations, time of an event, not doing a running sheet or turning up late without an apology to the team and let me tell you there will be many more things/times in life this could happen. So here's 5 things to think about for the future so hopefully you won't have to worry about who you're going to be having to apologise to.. again:
#1 – When we get in a hurry as leaders we tend to not pay attention to how our decisions might impact others. If we are going to lead like Jesus we MUST be way more concerned about others than we are ourselves!
#2 – If a leader will take a little extra time and make sure the details are covered it makes it a lot easier for those who are following him/her. A person who does not take a little time now will have to take a lot of time later repairing the damage from the mess.
#3 – Laziness as a leader will often result in unfortunate circumstances for those who follow.
#4 – When unfortunate circumstances take place, a good leader will always ask “what could I have done differently in that situation” instead of blaming someone else for the mess.
#5 – Two of the MOST POWERFUL WORDS for a leader to say are, “I’m sorry” when they are confronted with a careless mistake that they made rather than trying to rationalize the situation.
Singleness is something I've been struggling with over the last few months.
I'm at a point in my Christian walk where most if not all of my closest friends around me are in long term relationships and are moving or have moved to engagements and marriage.
Don't get me wrong, i adore them. They have found the right partner for them and have brought some amazing people into my life who i adore and one of my most loved moments this year is being asked to be a bridesmaid for one of my best friends November will be such a stellar month!
But I've been struggling to figure what that means for me.
Am i single for ever or just for now?
what do i do while i wait for my answer?
Music is something that speaks to me and perfectly enough God delivered my answer with this
A guy called John shared his testimony at a gathering last night and he said something that just struck me as graceful and i wanted to share: "I hope i have the most boring story in the world, so when people see things in my life they just know it's Jesus because it definitely couldn't of been me."
It's the simple and honest truths that make such an impact.
When i started thinking about trust it came down to three questions.
Why should i trust god?
What is trust?
Even if i should, how do i when i'm not sure i can?
Well for one God is not a man, that he should lie nor a son of a man that he should change his mind.
Does he speak and then not act? Does he bring to pass what he plans and purposes to do?
Unlike men, God never lies and never fails to carry out his promises.
Isaiah 14:24 tell us ”The lord almighty has sworn “surely as I have planned so it will be and as I have purposed so it will stand”
His Word show's us He doesn't fail and doesn't let us down.
The records of Gods promises are there in his word for all to see and right alongside are the record of their completion like in Esther, a book of the bible
Esther though she was a Jew she was taken as the wife of Ahasuerus, the king of the Medes and Persians. This king had a minister in his court named Haman who devised a plot to eliminate the Jews. Esther’s uncle, Mordecai, learned of the plot and told Esther to talk with the king about the wicked plan. Though Esther was the queen, their relationship was not like that of husbands and wives today. She needed to request an audience of the king just like anyone else would. To enter the king’s presence without an invitation could get Esther killed.
Mordecai said that Esther was brought to the position she had “for such a time as this.” (Esther 4:14)
She was the one who could alert the king of Haman’s plan. Esther responded that she would stand up for her people even if it meant death. She trusted God to guide her in revealing the evil plot against her people.
By trusting in God, Esther boldly revealed her heritage as a child of God’s people, the Jews and stopped wicked Haman’s plan.
It all comes down to the fact: God is worthy of our trust. We should trust him because His never let us down or failed us.
We have historic documents that prove events of his word and speak of Gods loyalty to his people.
We can learn to trust God. Every Christian can give you personal testimony to Gods trustworthiness as we see his work in our lives, in the lives of our friends, family and those around us fulfilling his promises to use us for his purpose and comfort us with his peace.
The more we experience god's grace, loyalty and goodness each day, the more we trust Him. If we want to know god then we have to read his word, through his word we will see that he is worthy of our trust and our trust in him will grow day by day.
But you know that doesn't really define what trust is..
Tons of times we have people use those silly trust exercises as an example of how trust works, one person fall's backward and the other person is there waiting to catch them right.
Well check this out..
Makes me laugh every time but he’s pretty brave in a sense.
You know he went at it a bit extreme but he had to throw his whole body into it. He had to trust that he would get caught.
Sometimes it didn't happen sometimes he just fell through because he didn't actually think it through.
Sometimes he was leaning more on them than they where holding him up but whatever happened the first step for him was to throw his whole body into it and hope he didn’t fall.
That's what we need to do to as Christians.
We have to Trust that Gods going to catch us when we fall.
But sometimes we don’t. Sometimes we just trust god with little bits or we think
we can just test the waters right?
Knowing of a god instead of trusting in God are two different things. You can have a belief there is a God and not have a relationship with him. We can talk to God and not trust him, we like to Hand over things without actually handing it over, generally its with a rope or chain attached so we can pull it back. In that action we show no trust in god.
Every time you walk away that chain will pull back along whatever you've handed over. You aren't really giving anything away but you’re keeping it there hidden behind you. It doesn’t go anywhere if we’re not willing to let go in the first place.If we're not willing to trust it's in God's hands and He is good.
We've all dealt with people in our lives that have let us down. Sometimes it may be only a friend other times it could of been a boyfriend/girlfriend and sadly sometimes it's our parents or family members.
We're all human and we make promises and we break promises and we don't live up to expectations, sometimes we expect so much from people and forget they’re just human and sometimes they will fail.
But God doesn't God never fails.
He will never break your trust and he will never let you fall farther than what you can deal with.
"God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. TRUST in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him and he will direct your paths" 1 Corinthians 10:13, Proverbs 3:5.
God will always catch us, he'll probably be holding the giant fire fighters net ready and waiting. He doesn't let us fall father than we can handle and he doesn't weigh us down with anything that would be too heavy for him to help us with.
God wants to help us, he’s waiting to direct our paths, to take full control if we’re willing to trust in him.
Are you still unsure on how to trust well the secret lies in putting this truth into practice, by making it such a powerful theme in your life that you view every event, every sad moment, every prayer with the unshakable conviction that God is totally, spotlessly trustworthy.
That's where we can mess up. We want to trust in anything rather than the Lord. We'll trust in our own abilities, in our friend's judgment of us, in our teachers and even trust in our leaders. But the Lord? Not so much.
It's easy to trust in things we can see. Sure, we believe in God, but to allow him to run our life? Not so much.
The bottom line is that our wants may not agree with God's wants for us. After all it's our life isn't it, Shouldn't we have the say over it, Shouldn't we be the one who calls the shots, God gave us free will, didn't he?
Well advertising and peer pressure tells us what's import now days: having the most friends, drinking and partying, having a girlfriend or boyfriend who will make everyone else jealous.
If we fall for the world's idea of what matters, we get trapped in a thing called "The Loop of Next Time." The new friend, the new relationship or even the next party or whatever didn't bring you the happiness you expected.
So you keep searching, thinking "Maybe next time." but it's a loop that's always the same, because you were created for something better, and deep down you know it.
When you finally reach the place where your head agrees with your heart, you're still hesitant. It's scary. Trusting in the Lord can require that you abandon everything you've ever believed about what brings happiness and makes your life whole.
It requires that you accept the truth that God knows what's best for you. But how do you make that leap from knowing to doing?
How do you trust in the God instead of the world or yourself.
The secret lives within you.
It's The Holy Spirit.
The Spirit of God that Jesus left with each and every believer as he ascended to heaven.
Here on earth the spirit guides us, he grows us and he is in relationship with us.
The Spirit is our helper on earth now, he is our Jesus roaming the earth now guiding and protecting his people.
Not only will he convict you of the rightness of trusting in the God, he'll help you do it. It's just too tough to do on your own.
Because the Holy Spirit knows you better than you know yourself, he'll give you exactly what you need to make this change. He's infinitely patient, He'll catch you if you stumble. He'll rejoice with you when you succeed.
As someone who has gone through a lot I can tell you that trusting in the God is a lifelong challenge. You never finally "arrive."
Each new crisis calls for re commitment, a new handing over of things and sometimes a new trust in God.
The good news is that the more often you see God's loving hand working in your life, the easier this trusting becomes.
When you trust in the Lord, you'll feel as if the weight of the world has been lifted off your shoulders.
The pressures off you now and on God, and he can handle it perfectly.
God will make something beautiful of your life, but he needs your trust in him to do it.
Are you ready?
The time to start is today, right now.
Ask The Holy Spirit to change your heart Boldly.
Ask him to help you trust in god more.
And Finally Trust that when you ask He has delivered.
What's holding you back from trusting in God? Are you relying on him with everything or only what you think he needs?
Let me know what you think!
Sometimes a point that stops non chirsitians or sometimes even christians is was the cross necessary?
If God loves us then why did he need to kill his son, well maybe the question should be
Is there a Greater Picture of Love than the Cross?
I think down the track, as our cultures changed we'vegot this weird compartmentalisation thing happening where we don't think god see's all that we are or if he could or somehow knew who we were going to be he wouldn't of gone to the cross. Know that God knew that we were going to be messy. Christ knew we where going to be messy, that we were going to be drawn to sin. That's what the cross is all about. The whole point of the cross is that we're going to fail, we're going to stumble, we're going to feel dirty and we're going to feel awkward. The whole point of the cross, of Christ is so that there is this mighty picture of love and pursuit of us, so the cross is necessary because of us but also just how far god is willing to go because of us and It's the resurrection of Christ that justifies us. The wrath of Chirst was poured out. There is no more wrath, their's none, it was all poured out onto the cross.
So Jesus see's you and you are perfect.spotless.blameless in him.
So just know that
You are exactly who God wants.
You are exactly who God sent his son to die for.
You are worth it.
"But God demonstrates his own love for us int his while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."-Romans 5:8
I'm in awe of my God who not only loves and cares for me but traded his son's life not only for mine but for every single human being. The cross is necessary, it's awe inspiring, it's filled with grace and it's God's picture of Love for us.
This song is something i adore. It stays with me and every know and then i find it again & it reminds me of how beautiful God's Love is even when it's messy and hard, his love endures everything for us.
He is jealous for me Loves like a hurricane I am a tree Bending beneath The weight of his wind and mercy When all of a sudden I am unaware of these Afflictions eclipsed by glory And I realize how beautiful you are And how great your afflictions for me
Oh how he loves us so Oh how he loves us How he loves us so
Yea He loves us Oh how
We are his portion And he is our prize Drawn to redemption by the grace in his eyes If grace is an ocean we're all sinking So heaven meats earth like a sloppy wet kiss And my heart burns violently inside of my chest I don't have time to maintain these regrets When I think about the way He loves us
Oh how he loves us so Oh how he loves us How he loves us so
Yea He loves us Oh how
I thought about you The day Stephen died And you met me between my breaking I know that I still love you God Despite the agony See people they want to tell me your cruel But if Stephen could sing He'd say its not true Cause your good
This photo is very special to me.
Recently i just had the extreme privlidge to run a four day youth camp and on this camp we had a women's time. Four female leaders including me spent some time with our girls talking about how we are women of God and his image of us is very different than the one we see day to day in our lives.
In the middle of our time we took a chance to sit down together and write down all the things that god says and promises us as women of God. This is what we came up with.
Everytime i see this picture i'm inspired by what it means and am reminded that God not only loves me but he promises me eternity in that love.
Blogs, they've kind of been an amazing thing to me for the last couple years. one of my closet friends started a blog after he decided to change his life ( check it out it's http://www.radicalchange2010.com/ ) and it's been really reflective and sometimes too convicting.
Then i started reading more blogs.. bit of a distraction but an amazing way of learning and getting to know that my struggles weren't alone, other people had the same problems they wanted to share about ways of changing.
This blog might end up being (and by might probably a lot of the time) a way for me to rant but if it can help one person in the way some blogs have changed my life then it's gonna be worth it. I hope you enjoy reading it, or at least get a laugh or two out of it.
