Choose Life – 10th of April

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Successful Or Faithful.

” ‘1 Thessalonians 5:24: “The one who calls you is faithful,
and he will do it.’

We mustn’t confuse success with faithfulness. There is nothing wrong with being successful, but it doesn’t mean you’ve been faithful. Or maybe we simply need to redefine or qualify what success is. Mother Teresa of Calcutta was once asked, ‘How do you measure the success of your work?‘ She looked puzzled for a moment and then replied, ‘I don’t remember that the Lord ever spoke of success. He spoke only of faithfulness in love. This is the only success that really counts.’
Today’s short verse says three things: God calls us. He’s faithful. He’ll do it. If we respond to his call, he will be faithful, and he’ll accomplish what he wants. That’s what Mother Theresa is getting at when she rejects success for “faithfulness in love.”
Are we faithful in what God has entrusted us with – in terms of our talents, our finances, our relationships, our ambitions? Are our ptiorites aligned with his? Whether we’re involved in business, politics, education, or the arts, are we blindly pursuing personal glory and success, or seeking to be Christs ambassador where he has placed us?
Oswald Chambers writes, ‘We are not called to be successful in accordance with ordinary standards, but in accordance with a ear of wheat falling into the ground and dying, becoming in that way what it never could be if it were to abide alone.’
The nature of faithfulness in love is that it is sacrificial. Chris laid down his life for us. In turn what will that look like for you this week?”

Much love

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Choose Life – 9th of April.

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Topsy or Turvy was the title of todays reading and I thought I would share it with you because it’s genius.

” 1 Corinthians 1:27,28
‘God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things – and the things that are not – to nullify the things that are.’

God’s ways are sometimes topsy-turvy. With him, things work differently. The first are the last and the last are the first. God in heaven becomes a baby on earth. Our life comes through his death. His cross provides our crown. Foolish shame wise. Weak shame strong. His ways are most definitely not our ways. But thank God his ways aren’t ours. In our sophistication, we’ve learned how to make a living but not how to live; we have higher incomes, but lower morals; we have more acquaintances but fewer friends; we have fancy houses but broken homes. The list goes on…
Tosy-turvy… his ways right, our ways wrong.
And when it comes to praying, you might think it reasonable to pray for comfort, peace, joy, wisdom, but this Franciscans prayer offers us the total opposite.

‘May God bless you with discomfort
At easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships
So that you may live deep within your heart.

May God bless you with anger
To shed for those who suffer pain, rejection, hunger and war,
So that you may reach our your hand to comfort them and
To turn their pain into joy.

And may God bless you with enough foolishness
To believe that you can make a difference in this world,
So that you can do what others claim cannot be done.
To bring justice and kindness to all our children and the poor.’

Lord I choose – maybe with some hesitation, but convinced it is your will – to embrace this benediction for my life today. Amen!”

– Choose Life by Simon Guillebaud

I almost shouted at my book as I was reading the prayer by this Franciscan but as I kept reading, it strangely made sense. What do you think?

Much love

Travelling Tuesday – Long Beach, CA

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This first blog post for Travelling Tuesday is just so predictable of me, I apologise.

California.

Such a typical place for a teenage girl to want to visit, right?
I agree. But I have talked about wanting to go to America for years and years and years and this is one of the places that I would most like to visit.

First of all, the name is beautiful. Imagine being able to say “I live in Long Beach”. It just sounds pretty. Then, we also have the obvious fact that it looks absolutely stunning. 

I mean.. come on.

I read from a travel website that “Located in the heart of Southern California, Long Beach blends the urban sophistication of a big city with the relaxed atmosphere of a beach resort. Discover diverse hotels, world-class attractions, cutting-edge museums, award-winning restaurants and a thriving, multi-faceted arts and culture scene. Bordered by the Pacific Ocean, with 5.5 miles of sandy beach front, plus miles of inland bays and waterways, Long Beach basks in the warm glow from our year-round California sun.”

Perfect.

Things To Do in Long Beach

– Queen Mary Ocean Liner
– The Aquarium of The Pacific
– The Pike (An amusement park, I think!)
– Visit Naples (Naples is a neighborhood of Long Beach, California, United States, built on three islands located in Alamitos Bay. The islands are divided by canals which open into the bay. Most of the streets on the island have Italianate names)
– The Walter Pyramid
– Soviet Submarine B-427
– Shopping (obviously)

Where to Stay in Long Beach

Hyatt The Pike:

Renaissance Long Beach Hotel:

Hotel Maya:

Writing this blog post did not help my desperation to visit this country. At All.

Much love

Blogging Schedule ideas?

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Remember when I had a schedule for blogging?
Yea, that kind of died.

But since it’s the holidays, I thought I would try to start with one again. Not everyday, but a few days a week. So what I am thinking is: 

 
Travelling Tuesday – Talking about different countries and their cultures.

 

World Wednesday – Talking about important topics in the world that I might have an opinion on. Like slavery or mental health or health care or religion or natural disasters. 

 
Five Line Friday – I like writing songs and I might want to share the random lyric ideas that enter my mind. 

Self love Sunday – where I write at least 5 things that I am thankful for from that week. I am pretty good at being positive outwardly but in my mind it’s totally different. 

 Those are all of the ideas I have so far (feel free to make suggestions.) But then rest of the days I either won’t blog or it will be spontaneous things that I just fancy writing about.

Overcoming The Little Frustrations in Life.

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Have you ever had a day where everything that could go wrong does go wrong? Often our biggest problems are those little problems which just keep happening. Ever had that? yep. 
When that happens, we develop the wrong attitude. 

Phillipians 2:14:
‘Do everything without grumbling or arguing.’

We live in a world that is warped and cracked. People are prepared to blame everything on others. We don’t take responsibilities of our actions and…. if we live like that we won’t shine.
In society, people are looking to blame anything on anyone. If Jesus isn’t the Lord of the little things in your life, then, he isn’t really Lord. If you let the little things build you and develop an attitude, then, Jesus isn’t Lord.

It is how you are behind closed doors. Are you the same person at home? Jesus wants to be the Lord of ALL of our lives.
Our first responsibility is to be disciples together to learn and be an example so that everywhere we are the same.

How do we deal and cope with these frustrations in a way that honors God? 
1) Did I cause it?

“A man reaps what he sows.” 
Often we bring on our own frustrations. God wants us to start being honest with ourselves.
For example, if your late for work because you ran out of petrol. You are reaping what you sow. Its your fault and your the one who is causing frustration to others.

2) What can we learn? 

Romans 8:28
“And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose for them.” 
Even when you have the day that you wish you never had, God can make  it good. Everything in your day is permitted by God.
Use the irritation to grown in character.

Think, what can I learn from it. 
Think, what would Jesus do?
Frustration, bad attitude and irritation is not from God.

If God wants to teach you peace, he puts you in chaos. 
If God wants to teach you how to love, he will put you around someone unlovely.

3) What can I thank God for in this situation? 

“In everything, give thanks.” 
Give thanks? That doesn’t sound right, right? but we should give thanks because God can turn things around.
You don’t have to be thankful for a bad situation but you can be thankful in it.

4) How can I find humor in the situation? 

Proverbs 17:22
“A cheerful heart is good medicine.”

The Bible says we are given life in abundance. We should have more joy and laughter because we have more things to be joyful about.
Laughter is the shock absorber of life.
That is why God gave us laughter. We need it. Laughter will lighten your load.

Nehemiah 8:10:
“The joy of the Lord is our strength.”

If you want the character of God, look at the fruit of the Holy Spirit. We have it.
If we are joyful, we give others hope. That’s what we’re called to do. 
If we have the Holy Spirit, we have strength. 
Ask God to fill you with His love.

We are frustrated because we are keeping a record of the flaws of others. When someone is going through a tough time, love doesn’t say “Oh well… they probably deserved it anyway.” no. Love never dies.

Planet Earth as You’ve Never Thought of it Before…

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After I finished my blog post yesterday, I told you I was going to church. So, at New Hope last night, the sermon was on planet earth. It was about our assignment on planet earth. That planet earth isn’t our home but it is our assignment from God. Heaven is our home. 

We need to actually remember that we have an assignment on earth because other wise we will value worldly things more and forget what we are actually here to do. 

Mathew 4:19
‘And he said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.”‘ 

Mark 1:17
‘And Jesus said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men.”‘

Why did Jesus say this? I hear you ask. Its because, He is a fisher of man. If we spend time with God then we will also become and this and share the Gospel with the nations. The thing is, everybody is looking for the truth but they don’t know where to find it. They are tired of all the lies. But, people aren’t interested in our religious beliefs. They are just interested about their life on this earth.
If we are to be a Christ centered Church then we will be a church that knows our assignment.
Heaven is going to be amazing right? we all know that 🙂 we will be mesmerized bu Gods work, we won’t see a non Christian. On this earth we can take people with us there, to heaven, to paradise. 

1. A Christ Centered Church connects everything it does to a soul. 
We are becoming to comfortable on the earth and forgetting why we are here… 

John 4:35
‘Do not say, ‘There are yet four months , and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest.’

What matters most of all is the souls that are being saved. Everything we do is for the sake of souls. God values Christians and non-Christians the same. We are not just here as a gathering of Christians, we are here also to be Gods co-workers. In Heaven, God will ask us, “How many  children did you bring home with you?” 
We won’t have another chance at this life again. Now is the time. 

2. A Christ Centered Church never forgets her assignment. 
You might think God can’t use you. You might think you too young, too old, not good enough, not wise enough. That doesn’t matter. God uses everyone . We have one life to give. 

John 20:21
‘So Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.’
We are sent people. God has a great plan and purpose for you. He wants us to make the most of every opportunity. To bring them home. 

Why are we here? that is the question… 
We are here to love others. We made the decision to obey God and follow him. 

3. A Christ Centered Church chooses to love the people in its community and its calling to reach them. 
No matter how bad people may seem or how unlovable they may seem, we must love anyway. Harder than it sounds.. but the greatest love is the love of choice.

 

For example, if you run simply because you love loving, you will run forever. When you love simply for loving people, you will love them forever. 

Mathew 20:34
‘Moved with compassion, Jesus touched their eyes; and immediately they regained their sight and followed Him.’

We are here to love. We are here to build people because its people God died for not for things such as our reputations. 
Jesus was moved by compassion. Miracles are usually prefaced by compassion. 

*look at 1 Corinthians 13.*

Love never ever gives up. The love of Christ transforms us. Love doesn’t force itself on itself. We must trust God always. The love of God transforms us to become like Jesus. 
‘Its not the magnitude of our actions but the love that we put into them that matters.’
If we love, even the small things give us joy.

4. A Christ Centered Church chooses that about everything else. 
2 Corinthians 5:14
‘For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded thins, that one died for all, therefore all died;’

If the love of God controls us then we won’t be here for us. We will understand that it is our assignment. We always have to know what our assignment is. We have to choose to love the people who God puts around us,. We have to choose to be controlled by Gods love. The Devil will try to tell us lies but we won’t listen to them! In Heaven we will never see a non Christian again, now is our chance to bring others with us, home, to paradise. 

 

Being Creative in Other Ways…

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Today at church we looked at creativity in more depth. When I think of creativity, I think of  art and music or poetry, stuff like that. Today though, we talked about creativity being how God introduced himself.

We introduce ourselves in different ways. For example, if you have children and your meeting the parents of your children’s friends you would introduce yourself as your children’s mother. Where as, if you were speaking at a conference you wouldn’t introduce yourself in that way. So, the way you introduce yourself is certainly important. The first line in the bible says; ‘In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.’
I have never looked at Genesis 1:1 in that way before, its really important though! Creativity was the very first. We must understand creativity because it is going to be one of the most important weapons in the end times.

Some how, what He was trying to get across to us is lost but we all have the creativity of God because we were made in the image of Him. He gave us his DNA. The world is full of creativity… through music, television, advertisement, dance. But truthfully, this worldly creativity screams out the devil.

The definition of creativity is gifted, inventive, visionary. Sadly, we now think that creativity is a world thing. The thing is, Jesus modeled a creative lifestyle. When we think of wisdom, we think of  people like Doctors or Lawyers we wouldn’t associate it with art but wisdom is Gods master piece. Jesus healed people and God talks to us its through creativity, right? through visions, dreams, prophecy. We need to learn how to hear him.

Fire is coming to the nation. We have to pray for our land and understand what our place is in the nation. Let’s try and restore the creative DNA.

Prayer.

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Today, church was just wonderful. Apart from the sermon on prayer the worship band today turned a chart song into a Christian song. It was great! 🙂 So today, we talked about prayer.

Luke 11:
One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”
He said to them, “When you pray, say:
“Our Father,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven
Give us each day our daily bread. Forgive us our sins,
for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.
And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.”

That’s the first time they asked him to teach them anything. So he taught them the Lords prayer.
We concentrated a bit on “Our Father…”, the first two words of the prayer. We share inheritance with our Father.

Prayer is, A personal Connection.
In the midst of prayer, is a throne. This is a place of having a Kingdom connection where God is in the throne.

‘Holy holy is the Lord God almighty.’
We stand in the presence of the King of Kings.

Prayer is, worship.
God has so many names, important names.
Tisdenu – Our righteousness
Shalom – Peace
Rophe – God who heals.
Jireh – provider.

Whether I spelled those right, I don’t know. But you get the idea.

They Kingdom come means thy Kingdom has come, is here and will come.
Acts 2:
“When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.  All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled the spirit enabled them.”

Every 25 minuets 3,000 people go to the Kingdom of God. The kingdom has come. Gods will is done on earth as it is in heaven.

No one is written off in prayer. No one. We need to learn to forgive. Fully and freely. We are asking for illumination and light so we can stand clearly. We need the fathers help.

Rejoicing. We Know the End of the Story:-)

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Yesterday, as usual, we went to New Hope. I kind of stopped half way so I’m not sure if this even makes sense. We’ll see 😉

There is so much going on in the world right now…  Not that I watch the news. I learn most of the world news from, strangely enough, my German teacher..
The world will be afraid of what is happening. The wars and natural disasters, for example but we know the end of the story. We know that this earth was only meant to be short. Or short compared to eternity. We know the end of the story, we shouldn’t be afraid.

Truthfully, I am kind of afraid. I’m afraid of the persecution and hatred but we know the end of the story. I want to be excited and rejoice. My friends and I say that we will live in a row of houses in heaven lol!!

We must rescue our friends and family.
Revelation: 21 verse 1-4
“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out if heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying ‘Now the dwelling of God I with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.'”

We must trust God. Even though we can’t see him, we must trust him.
God is in charge of everything. Just think, in heaven right now there is a being seated on the throne and he is in charge of everything.

The Bible says rejoice:-)

Lyrics I love, R.E Lessons and Decisions.

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So first of all I am going to get into the R.E Lessons and Decisions. As you know, this year I have taken Religious Education. Or if you want to be smart, Religious, Moral and Philosophical Studies. I have already learned a heck of a lot. The three sections we are doing this year are World Religion – Christianity, Crime and Punishment and Belief and Science. I am especially intrigued for the Crime and Punishment section that we will probably start after the October holidays. It is going to be hard. We have to fit most of the course in, in time for Prelims early next year. So we at least know some of each topic. Just now we are studying Christianity. Although, I do believe in God there is still a lot I have to learn. There is a lot to take in and I love R.E, so far 😉 

There is almost a full class of students in this Int.2/Higher class. Most are doing Higher, I think. Some though just come into R.E thinking its a little bit of a skive or they really just didn’t know what else to take. This year, it’s not. Most of us really do want to learn and I can say that I am the only Christian in that class and everyone has so many questions. One day, I walked into the class to find out we were having a class discussion about our own beliefs. Partly so the teacher could have a better idea of our views but also for us all to know our fellow class mates views. A few said they were brought up as Christians but now are not and others said they are more involved with the social side of church rather than the actual learning about God part. I like 5th year, everyone respects peoples views. You can definitely see a slight increase in maturity. Slight enough for the class to actually be enjoyable. 

In every class, people ask questions. I really admire my teacher or anyone really who can answer questions being fired at them. Really tricky questions too. Yesterday though, someone asked if all Christians believe that God created the earth. Now, I did give a little, quite chuckle at this but my face suddenly straightened up and realized how much teenagers these days don’t know. They don’t care either. I don’t think they realize. Someone once said, although I believe in God, I’d rather believe in God and find out he wasn’t true rather than not believing in him and finding out he is true. Great point. I really pray that the people who don’t know anything about faith and God will soon realize once they find out more and more in these classes. The excellent thing is that they can ask questions to a teacher who knows what he’s talking about. I think that is very helpful:) 

Lastly, I realized that mostly everybody knows what they are going to do when they leave school… I have no idea. I have has phases of wanting to be an Air Hostess. Now though I think that would be kind of boring because although I want to travel the world, going back and forth, to and from the same places wouldn’t be very interesting. Everybody has chosen subjects that fit into what they want to study at University. Where as, I just sort of took middle ground subjects. Psychology and R.E are both good to have. German and English.. it’s always good to throw a language in there and lastly Art. Art is my relaxing subject. The other subjects I chose will be more writing and reading whereas, in Art I can just sit down, draw and listen to music. So, that’s what I chose and I have no idea what I want to do. Everybody who knows me knows that I absolutely love, love, love animals. The thing is, I don’t want to be a vet. I want to care and look after them but you don’t get payed for that and I may need to earn money some how. I don’t know. All I know is I need to know before the end of 5th year. Wish me luck 😀 

Lastly, I wanted to share with you a song that I have been loving. It’s called ‘God’s Great Dance Floor’ By Chris Tomlin.

I’m coming back to the start
Where You found me
I’m coming back to Your heart
Now I surrender
Take me
This is all I can bring

I’m coming back to the start
I got this freedom
In here we feel Your heart
Your heartbeat for us
Take me
This is all I can bring

[Chorus:]
You’ll never stop loving us
No matter how far we run
You’ll never give up on us
All of heaven shouts: let the future begin
Let the future begin

Take me
This is all I can bring

[Chorus:]
You’ll never stop loving us
No matter how far we run
You’ll never give up on us
All of heaven shouts: let the future begin

I feel alive, I come alive
I am alive on God’s great dance floor
I feel alive, I come alive
I am alive on God’s great dance floor
I feel alive, I come alive
I am alive on God’s great dance floor
I feel alive, I come alive
I am alive on God’s great dance floor
I feel alive, I come alive
I am alive on God’s great dance floor
God’s great dance floor!

 

That can kind of be my Music Monday edition for the past Monday.. haha! Go and Youtube it 🙂 I love it! 
I’m going to read now and then sleep. Good night all 🙂