Sunday, 24 April 2011

coffee dates and conversations

so its strange being home..the blogs will probably be quite different noww..

I have been truely blessed with great friends..its difficult having two very different groups of friends..but both are awesome..

I am excited for what God is going to do in Bangor, I'm not sure what it will look like, i am sure it will be very different from o.t.w...but i know it will be incredible..when people give God room to move, he will move..

I am continually falling into the trap of being dissapointed with people and myself..its highly frustrating..i need to learn a little more grace i think.

God has just been pressing on my heart Matt28v20b...."i am with you always...even to the end of the agee.."

Thursday, 21 April 2011

Tuesday, 19 April 2011

202 views...

sooo....my blogs been looked at 202 times........this is worrying!ha..


its so awesome to be home :) lovely to see people and just talk..


been reading alot about reasonable service....like christianity is our reasonable service...Like umm..its logical!it makes sense for us to give our lives to God, to work for him and be obedient..we think that we deserve rewards and to be blessed but we don't!!we deserve hell.....we do not deserve Jesus, but we get him!!ah i just love this....and he is just MAD about us...my one word to describe Jesus...or God..is jealous...So Don always challenges us to describe God in one word but it can't be christianese..and his is intoxicating..mine is definaltly jealous...and i love itttt..


anyway..sometimes i just get distracted with Jesus...ha..but in the airport i was thinking about Romans 12v1..we looked at it a while ago in our Romans class with Pastor Larry..so the first verse in my bible reads "....in view of God's mercy...offer your bodies as a living sacrifice to God...this is your spiritual act of worship.." so i have an NIV translation and i am learning swiftly that i would like to have alot of translations to look at once..so thank goodness for the internet....i remember Pastor Larry not being too happy with the NIV so i looked up the King James version..."....by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service..." i just love that..like its logical for us to give our lives to him.


then i was reading in Luke 17v7-10.. “Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’?  Won’t he rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’?  Will he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’”


and i just think its so truee..that this is our duty..and we should just do it.without complaining and with a joyful attitude..without expecting a prize here, because we already have the prize..the prize already gave his life so he could have us!and then we will get crowns in heaven when our works are tested by fire...and out of gratitude...we will give the crowns back...we will lay them at our master's feet..cause it would be the honourable thing to do...


Acts20v24 "...however i consider my life worth nothing to me..if only i may finish the race..and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me...the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace..." and this task of sharing the good news of God's unbelievable grace, isn't always a task which requires us to head off to the deepest parts of the Amazon and risk our livess..its a task we should carry out in our daily lives..plant the seed, we cannot make it grow, so do not be discouraged by outcomes that don't always seem profitable...We may not need to sacrifice our lives or jobs..but maybe our popularity, image, things that we put above God..how can we testify to his grace if we are not whole heartedly devoted..and in love with him first and foremost...?

Friday, 15 April 2011

last day

psalm115v3 "our God is in heaven..he does whatever pleases him...."


to our human mind this seems like a violation of our rights..we get so mad..God is selfish he can't just do what he likes with me...


yes he can.


God limits himself...he is not entirely free..he cannot lie, cheat or steal..he cannot sin...so that he is holy and wholly good.


He is outside of time...Matt Chandler uses an illustration like imagine there's an hour long tv show..and i show you one millisecond of it...and i watch the whole thing...and then we argue about what the shows about..who will win?God see's everything..where we came from and where we're going..he not only see's it.he planned it.


so if God is wholly good, and outside of time..already in tomorrow and in 10 years....then i am glad that he does what pleases him.


Eph2v10
"For we are God’s workmanship..created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do...."


the greek for workmanship is polema..which is translated as poetic expressionn...we are God's poetic expression...

Thursday, 14 April 2011

Wednesday, 13 April 2011

too hot

so my tan swiftly turned to burn..devvooo..but its soo hot and i can't sleep

buut o2 have bluebook right so they saved every message i sent from like Jan08 till now..and then they had to stop doing it so they emailed me a folder with every text i've ever recieved or sent in my life..and just reading over some of them from 2009..some very funny..some making me sadd!but its just funny how much you change!

Tuesday, 12 April 2011

never be alone

i have the most ridiculous tan liness..furious..but its so lovely and warm here so i cannot complain..


last night we went for dinner with the pastor of the church that we're here with..they're so lovely..four little gorgeous kids...the youngest son is adopted and he knows, and they explain it to him like its how God adopted us into his family...just made me so happpyy..on the way home was just thinking how good God is and how happy i am..a Chris Tomlin song was on in the car, the amazing grace one..and the last verse is 
"The earth shall soon dissolve like snow
The sun forbear to shine
But God, Who called me here below
Will be forever mine.." and my heart was just soo happy..forever mine..


God's just been teaching me so much aboout being humble and not putting on a front with people about how i'm doing..and its soo good to hear that other people are feeling the same things..had a good conversation with Bip about plastic christianity..when we pretend that we have everything sorted the world see's us....but when we show our brokeness they see Jesus...in Luke14v15-24 the parable of the banquet the rich and well off will not come because they are too busy and too proud so then the master tells his servant to go out and invite "..."the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame..."


its been so great hanging out with awesome families in lovely homes...just made me pretty excited to have a family and a home..and just love Jesus more and be a housewifeee..


this morning was just thinking about how people make promises that they'll never leave us..but they can't keep these promisess..but Jesus can..and i keeep putting my hope in people but then God gently reminds me that my hope needs to be in him alone...psalm42...


we went to a cupcakery today..it was the cutest thing ever..and the cupcakes were sooo good!!