For a while I have been hoping to visit Hawaii. "Hawaii?" I hear you ask. Yes Hawaii.
YWAM (youth with a mission) are a christian organisation that run discipleship training schools (amongst other things) that run from bases all over the world. They train the next generation to follow Jesus and live lives submitted to Christ - resulting in students coming back to their homes or on to other things and seeing God's Kingdom be released where they are.
There is a YWAM base in Kona, Hawaii and I have links with those that run it, and having a heart for YWAM I felt led to look into visiting the base.
So as the leaders of the base - Jeff and Bethany Reid - agreed that I could come visit, I am (God willing) going!
I need about £800 to make this trip possible, and am hoping to go immediately after Christmas through to New Year, or potentially end of February through to March. I also need to pray into suitable times to go
as I have an exam in January it would not be right for me to take a lot of time off school.
Please Pray with me that the Lord would provide funds for this trip, and for insight and understanding on whether to go and what times to go.
Thankyou.
Monday 15 November 2010
Monday 11 October 2010
Bon Weekend
I spent this weekend in Coventry, and it was such a joy to visit! The Lord really used people and different things to bring strength and encouragement to my heart.
One of the big things was realising the work He has been doing in my heart since I have been home. It's hard to see it when you are in the same place!
I've been awakened to the fact that I totally have a people pleasing syndrome... and it has taken such a long time for me to admit this... especially before God;
But the Lord has been really gently but fiercely opening up my heart, and in doing this He is showing me things that need to be overcome and really reminding me His power and willingness to leading me into more victory and freedom. yeahhh.
I'm so thankful for this!......... and being in Coventry I really saw how He has already released some of my desire to please people - to be affirmed by others just isn't my first anymore.
Oh such liberation I find in the journey to become a lover living for an audience of one.
I am found and planted by the streams of the river of God - He is my affirmation and delight - He is the only one I want to please.. and I am waiting more and more to see that become a true reality in the way I interact with life .
It's just so good to know that He is faithful in making me more like Him. i'm so amazed by Jesus and the sheer brilliance of His nature.
I want so much more!
One of the big things was realising the work He has been doing in my heart since I have been home. It's hard to see it when you are in the same place!
I've been awakened to the fact that I totally have a people pleasing syndrome... and it has taken such a long time for me to admit this... especially before God;
But the Lord has been really gently but fiercely opening up my heart, and in doing this He is showing me things that need to be overcome and really reminding me His power and willingness to leading me into more victory and freedom. yeahhh.
I'm so thankful for this!......... and being in Coventry I really saw how He has already released some of my desire to please people - to be affirmed by others just isn't my first anymore.
Oh such liberation I find in the journey to become a lover living for an audience of one.
I am found and planted by the streams of the river of God - He is my affirmation and delight - He is the only one I want to please.. and I am waiting more and more to see that become a true reality in the way I interact with life .
It's just so good to know that He is faithful in making me more like Him. i'm so amazed by Jesus and the sheer brilliance of His nature.
I want so much more!
Wednesday 6 October 2010
Oh the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus
Oh the deep deep love of Jesus
Vast, unmeasured, boundless, free,
Rolling as a mighty ocean
In its fullness over me.
Underneath me, all around me,
Is the current of thy love;
leading onward, leading homeward
To my glorious rest above.
Oh the deep deep love of Jesus!
Spread His love from shore to shore
How he loves us, Ever loves us
Changes never, never more
Watching fiercely over His loved ones
Died to call them all His own.
How for them He is interceding,
Watching over them from the throne
OH the deep deep LOVE of Jesus!!
Love of every love the Best.
Tis an ocean vast of blessing
Tis a haven sweet of rest.
Oh the deep deep Love of Jesus,
Tis a heaven of heavens to me;
And it lifts me up to glory
For it lifts me up to thee.
The Love of Jesus is everything.
I cannot express it!
Wonderful Love.
Vast, unmeasured, boundless, free,
Rolling as a mighty ocean
In its fullness over me.
Underneath me, all around me,
Is the current of thy love;
leading onward, leading homeward
To my glorious rest above.
Oh the deep deep love of Jesus!
Spread His love from shore to shore
How he loves us, Ever loves us
Changes never, never more
Watching fiercely over His loved ones
Died to call them all His own.
How for them He is interceding,
Watching over them from the throne
OH the deep deep LOVE of Jesus!!
Love of every love the Best.
Tis an ocean vast of blessing
Tis a haven sweet of rest.
Oh the deep deep Love of Jesus,
Tis a heaven of heavens to me;
And it lifts me up to glory
For it lifts me up to thee.
The Love of Jesus is everything.
I cannot express it!
Wonderful Love.
Saturday 25 September 2010
Realisation
Jesus is continuing to significantly reveal to me just how strongly authentic He desires my worship to be.
That surrendering to the Lord and giving Him my life is Actually Letting Go.
It means daily talking with my Father honestly about how I need Him...not trying to make it myself. Striving to have it together in front of Jesus.
There is no facade needed, in fact... a lukewarm appearance the Lord despises.
He wants my heart, my pure abandon...
my raw reality, one that is broken and in need of repair daily. One that is often found to be weak and proud at the same time.
One that needs discipline and gentle care, oh how can I be under any illusion that I could satisfy these things my own way!
Oh Jesus awaken my heart to my true need of You.
That surrendering to the Lord and giving Him my life is Actually Letting Go.
It means daily talking with my Father honestly about how I need Him...not trying to make it myself. Striving to have it together in front of Jesus.
There is no facade needed, in fact... a lukewarm appearance the Lord despises.
He wants my heart, my pure abandon...
my raw reality, one that is broken and in need of repair daily. One that is often found to be weak and proud at the same time.
One that needs discipline and gentle care, oh how can I be under any illusion that I could satisfy these things my own way!
Oh Jesus awaken my heart to my true need of You.
Oh, the peace of pure abandon;
Oh, the joy of sweet surrender
This is true life
Life is found in the letting go
In the laying down. Your joy, Your peace is found.
Joy is found in the tearing of the heart .
As a side. Please pray for my health. I've been out of school for the past week with a super gross cold. I have other health stuff going on too. So please pray for a deliverance from sickness, but also a motivation even as I am sick to complete the work school is sending out... I don't want to be lazy, but also do need to rest, so join with me in asking that the Lord would instil a balanced heart and mind in me.
Thanks to the Lord:
He is doing great work in our church. Slow but steadily The Holy Spirit is really bringing fire to our hearts.
Pray for more. Pray that my Dad would be encouraged as He leads.. that the Spirit would burn fiercely in His heart to deliver leadership founded in the word of God and looking to Jesus.
Thankyou Friends
Thursday 26 August 2010
Momentous times with the Lord
I have a selected, for your reading, one of the many things that the Lord has reminded me of this week at Momentum.
Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for they shall inherit the Kingdom of heaven.
(Matthew 5)
I have been overwhelmed by how helpless the state of our humanness is. One of the seminars I went to [actually the only seminar I went to ..] was on the Sermon on the Mount. The wonderful man who taught it was called Toby something and he explained that 'poor in spirit' means that we are people who understand our Poverty of spirit. That we Know and live in a position of understanding that we ourselves have nothing to offer. And that it is only when we Find Ourselves in Jesus that we are made rich.
And yet still it is not a richness of my own [Phillipians 3] ... it is that I share with Christ in His own wealth and righteousness as He binds Himself to me in this eternal Love covenant. this is amazing. and so transforms my sight of who I am and how I can approach God.
This truth Ruins my hope in affirming myself by religious behaviour.
The concept of grace is directly opposite to the attitude of earning and instead of pharisaically guilt tripping me It liberates me to find joy and a fountain of spiritual wealth in my friend jesus as I walk deeper in the grace He has Literally embellished me in.
It motivates discipline out of Love.
Jesus, i'm so thankful.
Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for they shall inherit the Kingdom of heaven.
(Matthew 5)
I have been overwhelmed by how helpless the state of our humanness is. One of the seminars I went to [actually the only seminar I went to ..] was on the Sermon on the Mount. The wonderful man who taught it was called Toby something and he explained that 'poor in spirit' means that we are people who understand our Poverty of spirit. That we Know and live in a position of understanding that we ourselves have nothing to offer. And that it is only when we Find Ourselves in Jesus that we are made rich.
And yet still it is not a richness of my own [Phillipians 3] ... it is that I share with Christ in His own wealth and righteousness as He binds Himself to me in this eternal Love covenant. this is amazing. and so transforms my sight of who I am and how I can approach God.
This truth Ruins my hope in affirming myself by religious behaviour.
The concept of grace is directly opposite to the attitude of earning and instead of pharisaically guilt tripping me It liberates me to find joy and a fountain of spiritual wealth in my friend jesus as I walk deeper in the grace He has Literally embellished me in.
It motivates discipline out of Love.
Jesus, i'm so thankful.
Wednesday 18 August 2010
Yield then, to my Love
Finally I find myself back in Wales. After many weeks of recording, camping, families and the gospel, I am home for a week to rest.
It is completely what I need, although I don't know how to handle it. How do I holiday? Yesterday I finished a book I had been reading for forever, and watched Australia for the first time. I enjoyed it. Today I have played piano and eaten a lot of food. Is this resting?
Being home has many challenges, I am discovering them daily. For one, our culture is consumed by materialism. It's so easy to go out and spend all the money I have on things I don't need... and so tempting to spend all day on Facebook. Two years without internet - what a joy to be able to be connected to people on the inter-world again! Such a temptation when I have loads of free time to spend a lot of it in the mirror. So easy to spend all day in bed and refrain from doing anything productive. These are just some of the things that war against the good habits I have formerly been disciplining myself to live in. Things where I see my own desires for my behaviour needing to become more like Jesus' desires for my behaviour, and needing to watch them be changed as I continuously prefer His way above my humanity.
Deeper than that lies my own desire as a human to spend this time being mediocre in my relationship with the Lord.
It's so easy to make following Jesus hard! To add a burden, to make choosing Him a mission for myself so that I have an excuse NOT to choose Him.
I am striving to esteem Him first in my heart, in my mind, daily. Even though physically & emotionally I am exhausted Jesus continues to remind me of the Lightness of His burden... of the freedom and liberation of yoking myself to Him.
That joining with Him produces delight and joy and liberation in my every step. If I am experiencing a heavy, muggy and unclear relationship with the Lord it MUST be that I am making His gift of Himself more difficult than it is. Difficult when it is not.
What a simple, liberating, beautiful Marvel: The King Loves Me.
It is completely what I need, although I don't know how to handle it. How do I holiday? Yesterday I finished a book I had been reading for forever, and watched Australia for the first time. I enjoyed it. Today I have played piano and eaten a lot of food. Is this resting?
Being home has many challenges, I am discovering them daily. For one, our culture is consumed by materialism. It's so easy to go out and spend all the money I have on things I don't need... and so tempting to spend all day on Facebook. Two years without internet - what a joy to be able to be connected to people on the inter-world again! Such a temptation when I have loads of free time to spend a lot of it in the mirror. So easy to spend all day in bed and refrain from doing anything productive. These are just some of the things that war against the good habits I have formerly been disciplining myself to live in. Things where I see my own desires for my behaviour needing to become more like Jesus' desires for my behaviour, and needing to watch them be changed as I continuously prefer His way above my humanity.
Deeper than that lies my own desire as a human to spend this time being mediocre in my relationship with the Lord.
It's so easy to make following Jesus hard! To add a burden, to make choosing Him a mission for myself so that I have an excuse NOT to choose Him.
I am striving to esteem Him first in my heart, in my mind, daily. Even though physically & emotionally I am exhausted Jesus continues to remind me of the Lightness of His burden... of the freedom and liberation of yoking myself to Him.
That joining with Him produces delight and joy and liberation in my every step. If I am experiencing a heavy, muggy and unclear relationship with the Lord it MUST be that I am making His gift of Himself more difficult than it is. Difficult when it is not.
What a simple, liberating, beautiful Marvel: The King Loves Me.
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