I'm free to be me...

Well, let's see if I can manage another post while we're still in July! I recently celebrated my 20th birthday. Must be a proper adult now! I still don't have much to say for myself, but am just about to set off on a two-week mission trip to Ireland with friends. This is God's latest idea for me, came out of the blue, and I guess is the new great adventure. Having never travelled that far alone (well, without my parents :) before, it's very nerve-racking. I know though that wherever I go, God will always be there. As it says in Psalm 139, "If I settle on the far side of the sea, even there Your hand will guide me." That psalm talks about how well God knows each one of us and how He has amazing plans for us (Jeremiah 29:11, Habbakuk 1:5). Even when we don't feel we have accomplished much in the years we've been here, we can be reassured greater things are yet to come.

"Friends are the family we choose for ourselves".

So I seem to be losing the knack for writing this... I'll have another go! Having friends is one of the best things you can have. If you have a really, really close friend, you can share pretty much everything in your lives together. Right now I have to say I'd just love a friend that close, a friendship where we knew each other so well. I have a close friend who we do share a lot with each other, but unfortunately she isn't a Christian so these are some aspects of my life I don't feel I get from her. I discovered recently that there are some things she isn't comfortable with sharing with me either as they are things I don't approve of, and so would turn to another friend. Things like that does often disappoint me when I'm not able to get the most out of friendships as I would like. Another worry about friendship that I get is what my family thinks. I often wouldn't feel comfortable bringing a particular friend home as I felt my parents wouldn't be proud- just a feeling that you want them to be pleased with you. Thanks to the song "Jesus Friend of Sinners" by Casting Crowns playing one day on the ZEN, although I didn't get the hint from God until about 12 hours later, I realised that it's not about showing them off. It's about welcoming them in. I've probably said this before, but bearing the responsibility for your friend's salvation is hard. Sometimes there isn't much we can do except pray. Yes talking about it could work, but there has to be a balance. If we went shoving hell down their throats all the time, we'd never keep our friends. We need to be there to support and comfort them when they need it. For some people (me sometimes!) it's not easy to start making friends. This is what the note from my study Bible says: "Loneliness is everywhere - many people feel cut off and alienated from others. Being in a crowd just makes people more aware of their isolation. We all need friends who will stick close, listen, care, and offer help when it is needed - in good times and bad. It is better to have one such friend than dozens of superficial acquaintances. Instead of wishing you could find a true friend, seek to become one. There are people who need your friendship. Ask God to reveal them to you and then take on the challenge of being a true friend." I know too that many people have been turned against by people they thought were friends. It happens a lot. I don't know the situation of any of these people, so really I'm not going to offer much opinion on that. Even if we don't have earthly friends, if we struggle to make friends, or our friends have turned out not to be friends at all, we have one great Friend who will never, ever leave us or let us down. He is Jesus, Friend of sinners! "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from Christ." (2 Cor 1:3)

It Is Not My Time

Another God moment I had to share!! I've probably gone on about the fact that the church we are at is always going on about hell and the need to be saved, which is really hard to listen to week after week. So week after week I am going on at God as to why my prayers for my friends have not been answered.

This time, He reminded me of some bits out of a book I've been reading lately, A Lineage of Grace. It tells the story of five women from the Bible, going into more depth. It does help to learn more about them and understand them better. Anyway, this is when I was reading the one about Mary. She doesn't understand why Jesus isn't showing Himself, nobody believes He's the Messiah, so she keeps on at Him to more or less hurry up! Every time He responds with "It is not My time".

This is what He said to me last night. The funny thing is that it actually seemed to be in contrast to what the preacher was saying about a sense of urgency, but what God was telling me was basically to wait and just trust Him. That's not an easy thing to do, but I guess it's the best thing to do!

Be utterly amazed...

I've been trying to think of something interesting to blog about for a while. I've had a few drafts but nothing doing until now.

So... I've had a really busy stressful week with everything coming at once! One thing I had agreed to do, again, was the junior group (age about 5-6) at the kids' club thing. If you look back, you'll see that I did that once before. So I wasn't really worrying too much, but I do want perfection, and I just didn't have the time! Anyway, on the night we got so many more kids than normal, and they were misbehaving... I was just thinking God, what have I got myself into!!

Well, it turned out that I was able to use that to illustrate a point in my talk. It was about Joseph being falsely accused, so I asked them how it would feel if I punished those who were being good, when they hadn't done anything. I only realised afterwards that I would not have been able to do this if they hadn't misbehaved!! Wow, God is so surprising!

Also, a couple of days before I had been reading Habakkuk. When he complains, God says to him "Look at the nations - and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told." I remembered that verse, and sure enough if He had told me the kids weren't going to behave but He was going to use that for His glory, I probably wouldn't have believed it.

I guess the message here is just keep on trusting Him when you've given up or don't think anything good is going to happen. You wouldn't believe if He told you, so just wait it out.

And I know it's late but a very happy New Year to everyone reading this!

Time Travel?

I've been catching up on Doctor Who lately, going through the last episodes of David Tennant. Very sorry to have seen him go. This is the second time I have seen a Christian parallel in it. Yet again, the Doctor sacrifices himself for his friends and has to regenerate. This shows something not unlike the love of Jesus, when He did the same. Lots of it end up being quite sad when each companion is either lost, moves on or in the last case, he is forced to wipe her memories of him. Each of them, especially Rose, at one point planned to stay with him forever. Parallel to Ruth and Naomi : "Where you go, I will go."

I haven't posted in a while because to be honest things haven't been anywhere near perfect. Two songs I want to share today: firstly, "Blessings" by Laura Story... "What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise?" And "Miracle of the Moment" by Steven Curtis Chapman. "I don't want you to miss the miracle of the moment...." Yes, some days I want to go back to last year. But last year, I would probably have wanted to do the same. So if I did go back in time (ooh, back to the sci-fi Doctor Who theme! meant to be :)), I would miss out on a lot of good stuff God has planned, but it may take a while to notice it.

More than the stars...

Last Saturday I heard a discouraging sermon on the woman's role in the church, actually saying "it's not the woman's job to witness", which kinda makes you feel like there's nothing to do. With that comes a thought that we may be worthless for God if we are female. I spent most of the evening asking Him these very things.

Well, I am happy to say that He has proved faithful once again!! "His compassions never fail, they are new every morning and GREAT is Your faithfulness!" That night when I went upstairs I could see the stars out of my window. When I turned on the light and they disappeared from view, I felt there was something about them I had to go and see. So, crazy as it may seem, I went outside to find beautiful little stars everywhere! I just stood there in awe of God's creation, wondering what it was He wanted to tell me.

Well, as I was watching the stars, I was reminded of the words from this song! "I love you more than the sun and the stars that I taught how to shine, you are mine and you shine for me too!"

I really do think God is amazing! One more thing for this week: I spoke to someone else yesterday about these things, and he advised me that the best place to witness is our place of work or study. Well, I've actually had opportunities for that already!!

Praise the Lord!!!

God's Timing Is Perfect.

True or false?

At this point I am seeing some of it to certainly be true. God gave us two babies in our growing family this year. Those had been prayed for for a long time. I wondered why I didn't start this college course last year - well there's proof, He knew we'd have babies in the family at this time!!

As wonderful as it is to know how good He is right now, there are still some things I feel I'm waiting for. I do feel I'm lacking in Christian friends since it's a season for leaving here, and am struggling to bring Christ to those friends who don't know Him. I know these things will be revealed in time, but waiting is hard.

"For greater things are yet to come, greater things are still to be done here!"

Had to add here about the little thing the other night that I think was God. What came into my head over and over was "What a jubilee of joy in the heavens then is herd, when a soul among the saved is counted in!" Eventually I wondered if maybe God was telling me that He was celebrating for someone right at that moment. I'm still not a hundred per cent sure on that one, but am feeling very excited for whoever it was if so!!!