Sunday, November 1, 2009
7:50 PM
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
"...For out of the overflow of his heart, his mouth speaks..." Luke 6:45
Don't you sometimes find it so hard to adequately express all that God has put within you? Sometimes I feel like I might actually burst open with joy because of all He has done, and just because of knowing Him...and there is literally no outward expression that can quite express it well enough. I know what's in my heart, but the overflow just won't come out through the measly words in my vocabulary. haha.
Sometimes a smile, laugh, dance, jump just isn't enough. Sometimes you could run a marathon screaming at the top of your lungs and it still wouldn't seem like enough =)
"...the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit..." Romans 8:26
I know this verse is about praying, and not knowing what to pray for, and the Spirit aiding us in our prayers...and I know it's usually used in reference to going through painful times and not knowing how to put it in words to God...but why shouldn't the Spirit be able to express the joyful cries of our hearts to Him to?? If prayer is just communication between us and God, then it doesn't need to always be prayer of requests or sadness.
I LOVE that image, of those times when my heart is literally bubbling over and too full to be contained, and the Holy Spirit managing to put it into words for me where I can't, and express it all to God for me =) Helps me not to feel so inadequate in explaining how I feel about Him!
And seriously, imagine the joy it must bring to God when he sees us at that point. How amazing!
God is so unbelievably good =)
xx
Don't you sometimes find it so hard to adequately express all that God has put within you? Sometimes I feel like I might actually burst open with joy because of all He has done, and just because of knowing Him...and there is literally no outward expression that can quite express it well enough. I know what's in my heart, but the overflow just won't come out through the measly words in my vocabulary. haha.
Sometimes a smile, laugh, dance, jump just isn't enough. Sometimes you could run a marathon screaming at the top of your lungs and it still wouldn't seem like enough =)
"...the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit..." Romans 8:26
I know this verse is about praying, and not knowing what to pray for, and the Spirit aiding us in our prayers...and I know it's usually used in reference to going through painful times and not knowing how to put it in words to God...but why shouldn't the Spirit be able to express the joyful cries of our hearts to Him to?? If prayer is just communication between us and God, then it doesn't need to always be prayer of requests or sadness.
I LOVE that image, of those times when my heart is literally bubbling over and too full to be contained, and the Holy Spirit managing to put it into words for me where I can't, and express it all to God for me =) Helps me not to feel so inadequate in explaining how I feel about Him!
And seriously, imagine the joy it must bring to God when he sees us at that point. How amazing!
God is so unbelievably good =)
xx
8:23 AM
Monday, September 7, 2009
♥ Not About Us
How amazingly amazingly amazingly good is God? Honestly! How on earth do we manage to let that settle to the back of our minds as we wade through our ridiculous earthly life? How do we lose sight of that??
It is so easy to lose sight of what this life is all about. Guess what, it's not all about me! And it's not all about you either. It's entirely, 100% about God and His glory! And He wants His glory to be shown through us! How awesome is that?! We are made to radiate God's glory to the world, and worship Him for that same glory! And as we do this, we are instructed by Jesus to "go and make disciples of all nations..." (Matt 28), to help grow His kingdom so that He can get even more glory!
The thing is, to do this effectively takes courage. And it's this part that we seem to struggle with so much. There are so many different things which we take into consideration when we shouldn't -- things that seem important, but are really just exaggerated rubbish. None of it is important when we fix our eyes on Jesus!
There are so many things - pride, doubt and fear are probably the most common - which can paralyse us from our purpose in life! And then, when we are paralysed, Satan whispers in our ear that this life is about us -- that we should build a life for ourselves, set ourselves up, make ourselves look good. That this is our purpose. And it is then that we lose sight of God, see the storm around us, and get discouraged, wondering why our lives are not all we had hoped, and why we are not who we feel we should be.
Except that it's not about us! We need to keep our eyes fixed on Christ, our hope and our salvation, our rock and our comfort, our life and our peace, our father and our King, and see the bigger perspective -- His perspective! It is then that we truly become effective, and truly leap to greater heights FOR HIS GLORY not for our own!
God wants to do the most amazing things through us, and use us mightily in bringing glory to Him. When He distributes His power on Earth through us it is the most incredible adventure ever. But for this to happen we must take our eyes off ourselves.
God is so incredibly good!
It is so easy to lose sight of what this life is all about. Guess what, it's not all about me! And it's not all about you either. It's entirely, 100% about God and His glory! And He wants His glory to be shown through us! How awesome is that?! We are made to radiate God's glory to the world, and worship Him for that same glory! And as we do this, we are instructed by Jesus to "go and make disciples of all nations..." (Matt 28), to help grow His kingdom so that He can get even more glory!
The thing is, to do this effectively takes courage. And it's this part that we seem to struggle with so much. There are so many different things which we take into consideration when we shouldn't -- things that seem important, but are really just exaggerated rubbish. None of it is important when we fix our eyes on Jesus!
There are so many things - pride, doubt and fear are probably the most common - which can paralyse us from our purpose in life! And then, when we are paralysed, Satan whispers in our ear that this life is about us -- that we should build a life for ourselves, set ourselves up, make ourselves look good. That this is our purpose. And it is then that we lose sight of God, see the storm around us, and get discouraged, wondering why our lives are not all we had hoped, and why we are not who we feel we should be.
Except that it's not about us! We need to keep our eyes fixed on Christ, our hope and our salvation, our rock and our comfort, our life and our peace, our father and our King, and see the bigger perspective -- His perspective! It is then that we truly become effective, and truly leap to greater heights FOR HIS GLORY not for our own!
God wants to do the most amazing things through us, and use us mightily in bringing glory to Him. When He distributes His power on Earth through us it is the most incredible adventure ever. But for this to happen we must take our eyes off ourselves.
God is so incredibly good!
xx
[comment at loving_life_maddi@hotmail.com]
11:10 PM
Sunday, August 23, 2009
♥ Being Vulnerable in Ministry...
“be honest and real…don’t bleed on them but show your scars.”- Brian Rottshcafre
Stolen from my cousin Geoff's blog. Such an amazing quote no?! Check out Geoff's blog for more cool stuff - http://reflectionsofasnook.blogspot.com/
10:16 PM
Saturday, August 22, 2009
♥ Nils Jorgensen
Hey -- i know i've hardly blogged lately! Sorry! Life is crazy! But simply had to post some photography from Nils Jorgensen. Check out his site here... http://nilsjorgensen.com/
Amazing photos!
10:18 AM
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
♥ Shaken but not stirred by stadium-rock spirituality
This Article by Catherine Deveny appeared in The Age today, and I found it really interesting (and entertaining!) It gives a really valuable insight into how non-christians perceive churches sometimes, and I agree with her on a lot of these points!!
Really good read! =P
find it here: http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/shaken-but-not-stirred-by-stadiumrock-spirituality-20090728-e02k.html
or keep reading...
Shaken but not stirred by stadium-rock spirituality
Catherine Deveny
July 29, 2009
THE promise of awesome worship. That’s what got me rocking up to a Planetshakers meeting. And I wasn’t disappointed. They said ‘‘awesome’’ 20 times.
Planetshakers is a megachurch, which is like a spiritual mega-meal deal. Pizza, Coke, chocolate bavarian. If we could masticate it for you and pump it into your stomach, we would. Because we love you. And so does Jesus.
Standing outside Planetshakers surrounded by chirpy, bogan-cool teenagers fizzing with excitement, one of the two gay atheist friends I was with described the crowd as "very Australian Idol".
It was the first time I’d been excited about going to church. I spent every Sunday of my first 18 years sitting on wooden pews listening to a bloke talking about his imaginary friend in the sky who did magic tricks. Women were virgins, saints or whores. Men were the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Outside Planetshakers it felt as if we were about to see a rock concert. And we were. As the band fired up and went off like a frog in a sock, I thought: "I don’t care what they’re selling but I’m buying it."
Christian pop, ’80s power anthems, Metallica meets Cheap Trick. A mosh pit for Jesus was jumping with teenagers in rapture and a balcony of Planetkids went off for Christ. Music blared from the stadium sound system while the screen seduced us with slick videos edited so fast the phrase ‘‘subliminal image" kept popping into my head. Lyrics flashed up: "Come like a flood and saturate me now." I wondered what Freud would have made of the disproportionate use of such words as ‘‘come’’, ‘‘touch’’ and ‘‘feel’’, and the phrases "move within me" and "being filled". My favourite was "King of Glory, enter in".
Sexual psychoanalysis aside, the Planetshakers are clearly awesome, with lyrics such as: "How can I explain the way u make me feel ’cos Jesus your love for me is so unreal." Several references were made to not being ashamed of Jesus (despite no one having suggested they were).
The room was buzzing with anticipation. I felt like a kid expecting Santa to arrive. It felt as if Jesus was going to turn up any minute.
Then out came the pastors. Middle-aged blokes peppering talk about Jesus with constant references to the footy, reality shows and McDonald’s. Almost swearing with ‘‘flipping angry" and "What the heck?" and plenty of ‘‘awesomes’’ thrown in to convince everyone they were down with the youth.
A pastor banged on about sacrifice and said it wasn’t important how much we sacrificed just as long as we gave as much as we could. No matter how small it was. I didn’t know what he was on about until the giving cards came round. And a little bucket for coins. No lid with a slot. A big open bucket, so you could be shamed by your paltry donation.
Then there were the plugs for the Mighty Men’s night and Beautiful Women Seminar. Male volunteers were encouraged to get involved with the ladies’ seminar with the promise of ‘‘being able to tell 3000 women what to do’’. Beautiful women. Mighty men. Note: not mighty women and beautiful men.
Then the headline pastor came on, all charisma and awesomeness. He spoke of worship, sheepgate, building in salvation, sheepgate, sacrifice and a bloke called Eliashib. And more sheepgate.
As people yelled, "Yeah!", "Amen!" and ‘‘Awesome!" I wanted to yell, "I don’t get it". I love the way religion convinces people by making things deliberately incomprehensible and you feel too shy to say ‘‘I don’t understand’’ lest you reveal your stupidity.
After ‘‘sheepgate’’ the pastor asked us to close our eyes and bow our heads. He urged people who had left Jesus, had never had him in their heart, or were confused, to raise their hands so they could be prayed for.
He sounded like a real estate agent. "One over there, thank you, sir. Anyone else? I’ll wait a few moments. Yes, one down the back." Dummy bidders anyone? Then bewildered-looking new disciples were led out by the old hands.
The crowd left believing they had been moved by God and touched by Jesus. They hadn’t. They had been seduced by slick video packages and had their emotional desire for love, community and certainty met by manipulation. It wasn’t the Holy Spirit; it was just people.
Aren’t we awesome enough?
Catherine Deveny
July 29, 2009
THE promise of awesome worship. That’s what got me rocking up to a Planetshakers meeting. And I wasn’t disappointed. They said ‘‘awesome’’ 20 times.
Planetshakers is a megachurch, which is like a spiritual mega-meal deal. Pizza, Coke, chocolate bavarian. If we could masticate it for you and pump it into your stomach, we would. Because we love you. And so does Jesus.
Standing outside Planetshakers surrounded by chirpy, bogan-cool teenagers fizzing with excitement, one of the two gay atheist friends I was with described the crowd as "very Australian Idol".
It was the first time I’d been excited about going to church. I spent every Sunday of my first 18 years sitting on wooden pews listening to a bloke talking about his imaginary friend in the sky who did magic tricks. Women were virgins, saints or whores. Men were the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Outside Planetshakers it felt as if we were about to see a rock concert. And we were. As the band fired up and went off like a frog in a sock, I thought: "I don’t care what they’re selling but I’m buying it."
Christian pop, ’80s power anthems, Metallica meets Cheap Trick. A mosh pit for Jesus was jumping with teenagers in rapture and a balcony of Planetkids went off for Christ. Music blared from the stadium sound system while the screen seduced us with slick videos edited so fast the phrase ‘‘subliminal image" kept popping into my head. Lyrics flashed up: "Come like a flood and saturate me now." I wondered what Freud would have made of the disproportionate use of such words as ‘‘come’’, ‘‘touch’’ and ‘‘feel’’, and the phrases "move within me" and "being filled". My favourite was "King of Glory, enter in".
Sexual psychoanalysis aside, the Planetshakers are clearly awesome, with lyrics such as: "How can I explain the way u make me feel ’cos Jesus your love for me is so unreal." Several references were made to not being ashamed of Jesus (despite no one having suggested they were).
The room was buzzing with anticipation. I felt like a kid expecting Santa to arrive. It felt as if Jesus was going to turn up any minute.
Then out came the pastors. Middle-aged blokes peppering talk about Jesus with constant references to the footy, reality shows and McDonald’s. Almost swearing with ‘‘flipping angry" and "What the heck?" and plenty of ‘‘awesomes’’ thrown in to convince everyone they were down with the youth.
A pastor banged on about sacrifice and said it wasn’t important how much we sacrificed just as long as we gave as much as we could. No matter how small it was. I didn’t know what he was on about until the giving cards came round. And a little bucket for coins. No lid with a slot. A big open bucket, so you could be shamed by your paltry donation.
Then there were the plugs for the Mighty Men’s night and Beautiful Women Seminar. Male volunteers were encouraged to get involved with the ladies’ seminar with the promise of ‘‘being able to tell 3000 women what to do’’. Beautiful women. Mighty men. Note: not mighty women and beautiful men.
Then the headline pastor came on, all charisma and awesomeness. He spoke of worship, sheepgate, building in salvation, sheepgate, sacrifice and a bloke called Eliashib. And more sheepgate.
As people yelled, "Yeah!", "Amen!" and ‘‘Awesome!" I wanted to yell, "I don’t get it". I love the way religion convinces people by making things deliberately incomprehensible and you feel too shy to say ‘‘I don’t understand’’ lest you reveal your stupidity.
After ‘‘sheepgate’’ the pastor asked us to close our eyes and bow our heads. He urged people who had left Jesus, had never had him in their heart, or were confused, to raise their hands so they could be prayed for.
He sounded like a real estate agent. "One over there, thank you, sir. Anyone else? I’ll wait a few moments. Yes, one down the back." Dummy bidders anyone? Then bewildered-looking new disciples were led out by the old hands.
The crowd left believing they had been moved by God and touched by Jesus. They hadn’t. They had been seduced by slick video packages and had their emotional desire for love, community and certainty met by manipulation. It wasn’t the Holy Spirit; it was just people.
Aren’t we awesome enough?
8:39 PM
Monday, July 20, 2009
So today I was at a youth forum, where a bunch of young people from schools across the town and in the surrounding areas got together to discuss our thoughts, and possible solutions to problems we could see in certain areas, particularly underage binge drinking, access to public transport, access to recreational facilities, the new youth allowance laws, and the involvement of youth in lawmaking.
We compiled our thoughts and solutions, and then presented them to a panel of professionals who would have the capacity to put some of our ideas into motion. They were termed the 'panel of experts'...
As they went along and introduced themselves, most of them were quite comfortable in being termed 'experts'..until one of them made a very interesting statement...He said...
"You know what expert means? Ex - to be outdated and irrelevent, Spurt - a short-lived rush of energy under pressure. PLEASE don't call me an expert."
I found that really fascinating...
And it made me think, how many 'experts' on God and christianity do we have running around in churches today?
xx
[comment at loving_life_maddi@hotmail.com]
7:50 PM
Sunday, July 19, 2009
"The greatest single cause of atheism today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, and walk out the door and deny it by their lifestyle. That is what and unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable."
- Brennan Manning
Certainly food for thought...
I don't know that I agree with it 100%, but it does make you think!
xx
[comment at loving_life_maddi@hotmail.com]
- Brennan Manning
Certainly food for thought...
I don't know that I agree with it 100%, but it does make you think!
xx
[comment at loving_life_maddi@hotmail.com]
8:20 PM
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
♥ There is Power in Words
So i know that last time I blogged I talked about the power in God's word, but I was just thinking today about how much power there is in our own words.
We throw words around so so carelessly!! Speech is an amazing gift from God. It is a way to reflect what we think and feel, and to share the way we see the world with others. It is a way we can share our revelations of God with each other, and learn and grow together.
Words have this incredible power, and we can use it for good or evil.
With our words, we can speak hatred and negativity into our own lives and the lives of others. If we are constantly tearing down other people, we can cause them to live under what we have said about them. We can place chains and restrictions on people, and cut deep hurts into their hearts. We can do this to ourselves as well - limiting ourselves or tearing ourselves down by talking negatively about ourselves, till we believe ourselves.
We throw statements away so flippantly, but something we forget about after thirty seconds can leave somebody else crying in their bed weeks later. We can say things which lurk in people's minds for years later.
We need to be so careful with our speech.
On the other hand, we can use our words to do amazing things! With our words we can break chains and restrictions off people. We can speak life, freedom, joy, healing and peace into people's lives. If we speak godly things into people's lives, we can see amazing things happen! It's the same in our own life. If we speak God perspective over our lives, we will change the way we see ourselves into a healthy, godly view.
Again, we can say things which we forget, but which somebody clings onto for hope weeks later. We can say things which stick with people forever, and mean the world to them.
Our speech is so so so powerful!
Are you using your words for God?
He is so good
We throw words around so so carelessly!! Speech is an amazing gift from God. It is a way to reflect what we think and feel, and to share the way we see the world with others. It is a way we can share our revelations of God with each other, and learn and grow together.
Words have this incredible power, and we can use it for good or evil.
With our words, we can speak hatred and negativity into our own lives and the lives of others. If we are constantly tearing down other people, we can cause them to live under what we have said about them. We can place chains and restrictions on people, and cut deep hurts into their hearts. We can do this to ourselves as well - limiting ourselves or tearing ourselves down by talking negatively about ourselves, till we believe ourselves.
We throw statements away so flippantly, but something we forget about after thirty seconds can leave somebody else crying in their bed weeks later. We can say things which lurk in people's minds for years later.
We need to be so careful with our speech.
On the other hand, we can use our words to do amazing things! With our words we can break chains and restrictions off people. We can speak life, freedom, joy, healing and peace into people's lives. If we speak godly things into people's lives, we can see amazing things happen! It's the same in our own life. If we speak God perspective over our lives, we will change the way we see ourselves into a healthy, godly view.
Again, we can say things which we forget, but which somebody clings onto for hope weeks later. We can say things which stick with people forever, and mean the world to them.
Our speech is so so so powerful!
Are you using your words for God?
He is so good
11:47 PM
Saturday, July 11, 2009
"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly..."
Colossians 3:16
I know I posted only a little while ago about how amazing God's word is, but I found this scripture, and it just reminded me all over again how unbelievable and powerful His word is!!
With just His words, God spoke the world into being! His word is so, so, so powerful! His written word is no different.
The idea of it dwelling in us, richly, is just beautiful! As we meditate on scripture and soak it all in, it grows and bears fruit in our lives! It burns within us!
Isaiah 55:11 says, "so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it."
I just think that is so incredible!! God's word accomplishes things! And just as He spoke the world into being, so His words are true today. This means that all the amazing things he's spoken into our lives are so trustworthy!! He's spoken life, joy, blessing, peace, and so much more into our lives! He promises to be with us, to guide us, to be our strength, and so so so so so so much more!
His words aren't just words, like we hear from others every day. This world feeds us so many lies, but what He has spoken over us is totally TRUE!
God's word is so incredible =)
xx
Would just like to mention that this new layout doesn't have a place for comments!! I hate it, but can't fix it. So if you want to comment please email!!
=P
Thanks for reading!
12:12 AM
