You are currently browsing the daily archive for December 12, 2011.
Believing God for the impossible begins with seeing the invisible – understanding what He wants to accomplish through YOU.
The Big Question:
So who are you?
What makes you tick?
What are your strengths and your weaknesses?
What advantages are there to understanding your personality type?
And how does knowing those things equip you to live better and serve better?
Who you are is made up of lots of factors… Personality. Your past. Your experiences. Your future to a degree.
There are things that you will do that are genetic or that we learn from our parents. Stubbornness is a McKay genetic trait we say in our family. My kids also sleep really well – til 8 or 9am if I didn’t wake them… like their cousins on my mums side of the family. I have my fathers toes. My kids eat dried weetbix, like I did. Who is the inventor and creator of DNA? God. I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Even my toes.
Your past and the things you have experienced are used to shape who you are. Both good and bad are used by God to shape character and give you life experiences that you can use.
i believe God uses the good, the bad and the ugly to shape us and to give us the platform to connect with others. His promise is that ALL THINGS will work out for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. Every experience, good, bad and ugly, shapes us. But i believe that despite the pain we can choose to let those things shape us for good. We choose mercy over bitterness. We choose peace over pain. We choose love over hate. For a great analogy on this, read about Jasmine the dog…
Likewise there are unique passions and giftings and good things that happen in our lives to shape who we are. Those passions and dreams fuel vision. When i was a child i loved writing stories. i used to go up to our rumpus room and type out novels on my mums old typewriter. Yes, typewriter. Today i feel like live that dream of writing through our church magazine and this blog, and that writing is a way of communicating the good news of who God is and His Kingdom.
“Praise be to God who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.” 2 Corinthians 4:1
For myself I look back at the many times we moved due to my dad’s job and how that affected me and made me who I am today. I make friends fast – because as I kid I had to. I was also slightly unremoved and unaffected by peer pressure and peoples opinions of me, because in a year or so we’d move. That experience I had growing up became part of the tapestry of my life.
I want to add a disclaimer to that: sometimes in life really bad things happen – that you have no control over. We make mistakes also and we make wrong decisions. Our attitude to that is what allows that event or those events to have power in our lives. God is a forgiving God and He turns ALL things around for good according to His purpose. His purpose is to use us to show that He is mighty and forgiving and full of compassion. But if you hold onto your guilt or allow something to shatter you without finding peace and hope and strength and healing with Jesus then you are not allowing God to be God and you are adding things to your tapestry that perhaps shouldn’t be there… hear my heart here… God is mightier than any circumstance. He is the healer of every hurt. We are overcomers. Don’t hold onto sin and hurt. Forgive and grow. Be forgiven and grow.
“Whatever you’re facing in life, or whatever is coming in your future, God has already given you the faith for it. It may not look like it, and you may not feel like you have what it takes to overcome, but faith in God isn’t based on our circumstances or how we feel.
The enemy would like for you to believe that you don’t have a chance in life, that you’re too weak, too poor, too whatever. But God has a different view of you. God sees you through the eyes of love. He sees not what you can be, but what He has invested in you, not what you or others may see.
Seeing yourself the way God sees you leads to a life of overwhelming victory.
It takes faith. You can’t just hear that God loves you and sees you as His child, you have to believe it. It takes faith to move forward and overcome the challenges of life. And faith does you no good if you don’t know how to release it. You have to release your faith in order for it to work.” Joyce Meyer
today, have faith. have faith that God has called you and is at work in you and through you, that He has a plan and a purpose for your life and that He knows you inside out and upside down, and loves you. Really loves you.
i got txt bombed on sunday night. it so made me cry. it had been an incredibly hard week with the death of my FIL and my son having chicken pox (and my daughter recovering from chicken pox). i’m totally a words of affirmation girl, and so all the texts filled my heart.
totally loving the flowers that are filling my home with the smell of love. each time i get a sniff of the fragrance i know we are loved and thought of in this time. it has given me a new appreciation of sending flowers.
love these kids and my parents in law. my FIL went home to jesus on tuesday last week. we had the funeral on saturday morning. my son has the chicken pox, really bad. like really bad. my daughter had just had a week back at school from her episode and still has pox marks on her. they were so brave and sweet. they both got up with me, and their 3 young cousins, to say something about grandad. it was a lovely honouring funeral.
ahhh the quiet cup of coffee on a “stuck at home mothering on against the chicken pox” kind of day. i am sure God invented coffee to restore our soul. its a tangible pick up. i feel i can cope again.
totally love this christmas story as told by kiwi kids at st pauls church in auckland. this year our church is doing a nativity play and my daughter is mary and my son is a wise man. its a great adventure in acting. ka pai to our children’s church pastor for jumping in boots and all!
loving the 2 series i’m running on my blog now: I AM CALLED and I AM CREATED – these topics are close to my heart, almost like in my DNA.
its awesome. great album. personal favs on the album: fill me up, i surrender, glorious, nothing but the blood.
from the Jesus Culture Website: (where u can listen to samples and previews) "Jesus Culture Awakening: Live From Chicago" reveals the significance that took place at Jesus Culture’s first arena gathering. A generation was marked by the power and presence of God during this 3-day event as believers joined together to passionately worship Jesus. As a ministry, Jesus Culture wanted to capture the sound of a generation giving themselves wholeheartedly to Jesus.
This 2-disc Jesus Culture album features Jesus Culture Music artists Jake Hamilton, Kristene DiMarco, and Bryan & Katie Torwalt. With 16 powerful worship tracks, including originals like "Awaken Me" and "Father of Lights" and re-visited favourites such as "We Are Hungry", "Dance" and "The Anthem", this live album gives you a chance to be a part of what took place at this monumental event.
"I believe God is awakening a generation whose hearts are burning to see Jesus exalted in the nations. For three days in Chicago we gathered to lift up the name of Jesus. I was encouraged to see not only the hunger for God so evident in a generation but their passion to not only worship God wholeheartedly for three days but to give their lives fully in worship. I believe hope is alive and well in the nations because there is a generation whose passion and focus is to love Jesus with all of their heart and make Him known in earth." -Banning Liebscher
and as always. i love Jesus with all i am and all my heart and all my soul and all my days. For His glory and the building of His kingdom and the rescue of the lost.
so what are you totally loving this week?
… check out what other peeps are loving whatever day of the week it is over at Paisley Jade
Jesus loved the unloved and unlovely. It is so usual, so normal and so routine for Him. He picks up with dull uninteresting people, living grey little lives and makes them special. In fact the whole Bible is full of it. God choosing the unlikely people, the youngest sons, the barren women, not many mighty, give the nameless a name, putting His arms around them and acknowledging them. This is JESUS! REINHARD BONNKE
Loved by God by Max Lucado
“The LORD loves you.” Deuteronomy 7:8 NLT
God loves you simply because he has chosen to do so. He loves you when you don’t feel lovely. He loves you when no one else loves you. Others may abandon you, divorce you, and ignore you, but God will love you. Always. No matter what.
This is his sentiment: “I’ll call the nobodies and make them somebodies; I’ll call the unloved and make them beloved” (Rom. 9:25 MSG).
This is his promise: “I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love. With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself” (Jer. 31:3 NLT).
Do you know what else that means? You have a deep aquifer of love from which to draw. When you find it hard to love, then you need a drink, drink deeply, drink daily.
Being able to remain calm in adversity is a sign of great spiritual strength. No matter what is going on in your life right now… “Hold your peace!” – Joyce Meyer
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