Alright, so these next two weeks are gonna be pretty hectic for me, but let's start with this week:
We're running a kids holiday Bible club (HBC) at church this week, running for all the grade 1-7 kids.. The theme is 'Heroes', so we're looking at how God is our ultimate Hero, and then also other heroes like Joshua and David, Jesus, and how we also get to be heroes with the armour of God. We are training up heroes in the faith - the next generation that will be one who seeks God's face. What a privilege!
So on the practical side, I'm leading the music worship times, I'm one of the leaders in the grade 3-5 section where I will be doing some of the story telling, memory verse teaching and leading a small group. Yeah, I'll be pretty busy! So please be praying for me with all of this.
It's such an honour to be able to partner with God in all He's wanting to and going to do in the lives of the kids of our community here in Pinelands. To be able to build into a kid's life is one of the most powerful things, because they are so malleable - most people who will come to know and love Jesus meet Him before they're 14.
We also have a fairly young group of leaders, with many grade 8 and 9 leaders, so I'm one of the older ones, and as a result, I'm not only going to be an example to and discipling the kids, but also to the other leaders, which is also such a great opportunity! Tomorrow night, we're going to watch the 'Jesus Freaks' movie with the leaders, so be praying and get excited for what God is going to do!
Each day starts at 8am, so I'm going to have to wake up before the sun for the first time in a while! But I really am SO excited for all God is going to do in and through us! After all, this is all for Him, and in His strength, power and anointing! My prayer for this week is that it wouldn't be remembered as 'fun', but as a time when we encountered God and our lives where irrevocably changed!
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Friday, June 24, 2011
let Your glory come down...
These are the lyrics of a song by Jason Upton, that is my heart's cry for the church worldwide:
Father, listen to our earnest prayer
Jesus prayed it years ago
That the glory You had given Him
We would somehow come to know
So make us one according to Your plan
As in heaven it will be
Fill us with the truth and righteousness
You desire the world to see
Let Your glory and honor
Fall on our face
Holy Father
Rest in this place
The church is sick and need of God alone
And people we must seek His face
If we turn from all our unrighteousness
He’ll forgive our evil ways
So may the eyes of God be on us here
Lord, revive us by Your grace
Holy Spirit be forever near
Saturate us in this place
Let Your glory and honor
Fall on our face
Holy Father
Rest in this place
Let the fire fall
Let the wind blow
Let the glory come down
Jesus prayed it years ago
That the glory You had given Him
We would somehow come to know
So make us one according to Your plan
As in heaven it will be
Fill us with the truth and righteousness
You desire the world to see
Let Your glory and honor
Fall on our face
Holy Father
Rest in this place
The church is sick and need of God alone
And people we must seek His face
If we turn from all our unrighteousness
He’ll forgive our evil ways
So may the eyes of God be on us here
Lord, revive us by Your grace
Holy Spirit be forever near
Saturate us in this place
Let Your glory and honor
Fall on our face
Holy Father
Rest in this place
Let the fire fall
Let the wind blow
Let the glory come down
God please help us to have the right heart focus - that we wouldn't try to bring you stuff or do things for you out of legalism, obligation or duty, but that it would flow out of deep passionate love for You. Correct our hearts so that we are longing for You, not just what You can do - that we would seek Your face, not just Your hand. Thank You that You do act, but that that wouldn't be our focus; that knowing You intimately would be our goal, and from that, everything else would flow. When we see nothing but Your face, every thing else falls into it's proper place.
Let us be dissatisfied and desperate so that we will seek You without ceasing and never give up hope! Capture our heats again and amaze us with who You are! Help us to recognize our hunger and thirst, which can only be satisfied by You, so that we will come to You alone to be filled.
Bring revival in every heart - awaken us, teach us to sing again! Rain down Your fire, wind and rain of the Spirit. More LORD!
Thursday, June 23, 2011
late night ramblings...
So it's one of those nights where it's 1.12am, and I don't want to and/or can't go to sleep. My mind is in a weird place of wanting to think, but not really being able to. Strangely enough, it's these times when God often speaks in the weirdest and most wonderful ways. Maybe because my brain isn't functioning enough to over-think stuff (something I do a lot, unfortunately), or because it's quiet and I've slowed myself down enough to just be and not worry about anything.
The next thing on my agenda is sleep. So nothing stressful, no planning required. Sitting in my pj's, teeth brushed, heater on, sitting on my bed. The frogs are croaking outside and there's the gentle dripping on rain off the roof. Today was just one of those days where it rained a whole heck of a lot. It was cold-ish too. Denver re-defined my definition of 'cold', but for Cape Town, it was pretty cold. No central heating, so I stayed in bed with my heater on most the day.
The last couple of weeks have been hard-ish. Not particularly busy or demanding in the 'normal' way, but I've really had to choose a lot and make a lot of decisions. Now decision making hasn't been my strongest suit ever. I'm working on it though - deciding to get better at it (see, I'm making progress already!). Every day we make a million decisions. Many are subconscious or no-brainers really - like brushing your teeth or putting on shoes (well, for some...). Those decisions we make without a second thought really. In the average person's day, they make decisions about how to manage their time based off of how much they need to do etc. This is a whole lot easier when you're busy than deciding what to do with your time when you're not. Hear me out: when you're busy, stuff has to get done, so you can't mull it around in your head much - it just has to happen, and fast! When you're not busy, there is so much time to do all the stuff that doesn't really need to happen any time soon, that you end up not doing anything really. This is great for a time, but after a while, it gets a little frustrating! This is where indecisiveness is a B with a big itch!
So I haven't had a whole lot that I really NEED to get done, so I'm in the second category of prioritizing time when you have complete control over pretty much every second. Great! - yes and no. Freedom, yes, but with that comes great responsibility. 'Intentional' is the word that has been stamped across my life recently. I've really had to be intentional with my time. I get to decide to stay in bed all day and watch movies, or to read book after book, or go for a walk or a drive (yes, it is rather fun to finally be able to do that now!). The thing with this, is that I get to choose how much I get out of each day. Yeah, seems great, but good intentions don't get you very far unfortunately.
Where am I going with this? I have no idea really. It was just on my mind, so I typed it down. Probably as a reminder to me to get my act together again. I am responsible for my own growth. I need to feed myself. I'm not a baby anymore and don't need to be spoon-fed. Yeah that's easier, but I need to grow up. I need to go out and find my own food, prepare it, chew it and swallow it, or spit it out if it isn't good. In case you didn't get it, but I'm talking about spiritual food, not soup and macaroni. Yes, God changes our lives, but He wants to partner WITH us, not continuously nurse us. He meets us where we're at, but we're not meant to stay there.
This life on earth is in many ways a physical representation of life in the Spirit. Babies grow up; we're meant to spiritually too. We're meant to mature in our faith, to grow. We are responsible for our own health. God can heal us, but we do need to do our part too - it is a partnership after all. God will do what only God can do, but we need to do what only we can do. We need to choose it. Unfortunately -or fortunately- 'choosing it' isn't just a passive choice. It's active and requires a whole heck of a lot more than just going 'ok, I'm in'. We need to 'choose it' every moment of every day. We need to make the effort to get to know this remarkable God who made us and loves us so deeply.
This line in a song has been haunting me recently:
So that's a nibble of what's going on in my head. May God continue to call you deeper, and may you respond to His call to seek Him with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. You will find Him - He has hidden Himself for us to find! What a marvelous God! Please remove the scales from our eyes so that we can see more and more of who You are. Keep our longing desire for you burning so that we do not give up. Thank You that You give us the desire and the power to do what pleases You! Let my life bring glory and honour to You in everything.
The next thing on my agenda is sleep. So nothing stressful, no planning required. Sitting in my pj's, teeth brushed, heater on, sitting on my bed. The frogs are croaking outside and there's the gentle dripping on rain off the roof. Today was just one of those days where it rained a whole heck of a lot. It was cold-ish too. Denver re-defined my definition of 'cold', but for Cape Town, it was pretty cold. No central heating, so I stayed in bed with my heater on most the day.
The last couple of weeks have been hard-ish. Not particularly busy or demanding in the 'normal' way, but I've really had to choose a lot and make a lot of decisions. Now decision making hasn't been my strongest suit ever. I'm working on it though - deciding to get better at it (see, I'm making progress already!). Every day we make a million decisions. Many are subconscious or no-brainers really - like brushing your teeth or putting on shoes (well, for some...). Those decisions we make without a second thought really. In the average person's day, they make decisions about how to manage their time based off of how much they need to do etc. This is a whole lot easier when you're busy than deciding what to do with your time when you're not. Hear me out: when you're busy, stuff has to get done, so you can't mull it around in your head much - it just has to happen, and fast! When you're not busy, there is so much time to do all the stuff that doesn't really need to happen any time soon, that you end up not doing anything really. This is great for a time, but after a while, it gets a little frustrating! This is where indecisiveness is a B with a big itch!
So I haven't had a whole lot that I really NEED to get done, so I'm in the second category of prioritizing time when you have complete control over pretty much every second. Great! - yes and no. Freedom, yes, but with that comes great responsibility. 'Intentional' is the word that has been stamped across my life recently. I've really had to be intentional with my time. I get to decide to stay in bed all day and watch movies, or to read book after book, or go for a walk or a drive (yes, it is rather fun to finally be able to do that now!). The thing with this, is that I get to choose how much I get out of each day. Yeah, seems great, but good intentions don't get you very far unfortunately.
Where am I going with this? I have no idea really. It was just on my mind, so I typed it down. Probably as a reminder to me to get my act together again. I am responsible for my own growth. I need to feed myself. I'm not a baby anymore and don't need to be spoon-fed. Yeah that's easier, but I need to grow up. I need to go out and find my own food, prepare it, chew it and swallow it, or spit it out if it isn't good. In case you didn't get it, but I'm talking about spiritual food, not soup and macaroni. Yes, God changes our lives, but He wants to partner WITH us, not continuously nurse us. He meets us where we're at, but we're not meant to stay there.
This life on earth is in many ways a physical representation of life in the Spirit. Babies grow up; we're meant to spiritually too. We're meant to mature in our faith, to grow. We are responsible for our own health. God can heal us, but we do need to do our part too - it is a partnership after all. God will do what only God can do, but we need to do what only we can do. We need to choose it. Unfortunately -or fortunately- 'choosing it' isn't just a passive choice. It's active and requires a whole heck of a lot more than just going 'ok, I'm in'. We need to 'choose it' every moment of every day. We need to make the effort to get to know this remarkable God who made us and loves us so deeply.
This line in a song has been haunting me recently:
We have only heard the faintest whispers of how great You areHow beautiful is that? And how incredible! Anything you think you know about God - no matter how grand, huge or unfathomable they are - God is always so much bigger. That's the thing with an infinite God! We will never fully understand Him until the day we see Him face to Face - and oh how I long for that day!
So that's a nibble of what's going on in my head. May God continue to call you deeper, and may you respond to His call to seek Him with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. You will find Him - He has hidden Himself for us to find! What a marvelous God! Please remove the scales from our eyes so that we can see more and more of who You are. Keep our longing desire for you burning so that we do not give up. Thank You that You give us the desire and the power to do what pleases You! Let my life bring glory and honour to You in everything.
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