new home for bro

LORD

Need to find my brother a new home but it has to be one that Mum will feel comfortable staying in as a second home. I know it's a tall order, but you have never disappointed me when it comes to homes. I thank you so much for that.

It needs to be a place close to ours so I can commute by bus or a quick train trip. So riverwood, penshurst, hurstville, mortdale, narwee would be great areas. Penshurst, riverwood or hurstville would be my top three.

It has to be a security block, safe on the outside so I nice street with lighting, lighting around the building or at least around the front entrance. A lock up garage, internal laundry, near a park would be great or something which would be entertaining for the kids to visit.

The actual unit has to be roomy, super clean, and cosy. Kitchen and bathroom spotless and a safe balcony. Preferably on the 1st or 2nd floor.

Out of all these you know better than me what she definitely needs to feel comfortable here. I know this is a tall order but I have asked for the impossible before and received it. You said in your word that we have not because we ask not and when we ask, we ask with the wrong motives.

You know my motives LORD. To give Mum a home here in Australia where she feels she belongs. In the hope that one day she will move over here and be surrounded by family who love her.

Thank you for being our provider. To make it even harder, she is coming here in Oct so would be great to find this place in the next couple of months.

Thank you LORD that all things are possible in your name. That whatever we ask for we shall receive if we believe. I believe that you know what's best for us LORD and I ask that you guide our choices and help us to find this place.

Thank you so much for your love. in your mighty name Lord Jesus, name above all names. amene

hard labour

we had our 2nd antenatal class this week. It ran through how long on average labour would be, different positions, etc. Gone are the days which are still shown on tv programmes of a mum lying in a bed with doctors down the end giving her instructions. Now they prefer upright positions to help with gravity...so either standing up, crouching or sitting up. All very undignified...12 hours or more of undignified grunting and pain.

When the LORD said he was going to make child-bearing hard, he wasn't kidding!

So my man and I were discussing how he would have to coach and take care of me during the majority of that 12 hours. He's a morning person...anything after 11pm he starts to struggle.

Imagine if I don't go into labour until late evening, he has to stay awake till the next morning helping me.

When I say morning person....I mean we could be talking about the end of the world and myles wouldn't be able to keep his eyes open. He's completely incapable of functioning at that time.

I can just picture it now...i'm screaming in pain, myles is sitting on the bed massaging me and next minute I can feel the pressure of his head on my back as he drops off to sleep and starts snoring.

He said he doesn't need my mum's help, but I think he will be begging for it at 2am and I'm nowhere near pushing baby out :-)

How cool would it be to forgive instantly

As soon as someone does something to you - to forgive them instantly.  Without a moment's hesitation.

In my reading of the Bible I see so many times when the Lord forgives people instantly, totally, and without conditions.  And then He gets straight on with loving them.  Blessing them even!

The Lord shows us the way in being forgiving.  His classic example is him on the cross.  Beaten and tortured.  Mocked.  He forgives and gets straight into loving everybody.

I want to be able to instantly forgive people.  And then turn around and bless them.  Is that an awesome way to show them God's love in me or what!

In the few occasions I have done this it has probably blessed me more than the person I have forgiven.

It's my birthday...and I'll cry if I want to

Yes today is my birthday....and I could cry....if I wanted to.  There is so much in the world to despair in peoples lives.

Weaknesses.  Accusations. People not talking to each other.  Misunderstandings.  Judgements.  Loneliness.  Missed dreams.

Yet I don't cry.  I don't feel like it. 

Cause the Lord makes me happy.  I sing to him everyday. 

my church is inside my heart

Recently I have heard of a few people gossiping about church.  What it doesn't do.  What people at church don't do.

Well frankly it pisses me off.

My church is in my heart.  This thought opened my eyes to what church is for me.

It is not affected by what church people do or say.  Or what people say or do about church people.

No one is perfect.  I am not perfect.  So I don't expect others to be.

Church for me is about:
- worshipping the Lord
- serving other christians
- fellowshipping with other christians

That's why I enjoy setting up and packing up after church.  I don't care if I am the only person doing it.  If everyone else is just standing around chatting...trying to connect.

cycle of life

I'm feeling sad today...probably the hormones, and the realisation that for a person of faith i am full of doubts.

It's weird how the LORD made this cycle of life. We are born into this world as vulnerable little babies totally reliant on others to love us.

We trust and believe in them because we don't know any better.

Then we spend the rest of our lives learning better...doubting or confirming what we use to trust and believe. It would be much easier to spend the rest of our lives as naive children knowing no better.

But this is not the LORD's way. Like my beloved said he doesn't want droids.

At the end of our lives we trust and believe because we do know better.

I am not at the end of my life yet so I still doubt and I still question - there's no magic wand to get me from innocent child to experienced mature child. It will take the rest of my life experiencing 1st hand love, pain, loss, mistakes, joy, doubt, happiness, mercy, hope, and faith.

That's my LORD's way.

where are the facts?

Where are the clear guides to believing in God? The unemotional no-faith-required checklists?

I am a geek. I love facts!!

But Jesus wants faith. And true love. Not devoted droids.

Dang it...I guess Jesus has out thought me again!

slow dance

Have you ever listened to the rain slapping on the ground?

Ever followed a butterfly's erratic flight?

Or gazed at the sun into the fading night?

Do you run through each day on the fly?

When you ask how are you? Do you hear the reply?

When the day is done do you lie in your bed with the next hundred chores running through your head?

You'd better slow down
Don't dance so fast.
Time is short.
The music won't last.

Ever told a child, we'll do it tomorrow? And in your haste, not see his sorrow?

Ever lost touch, let a good friendship die cause you never had time to call and say,"Hi"

Life is not a race. Do take it slower.

i'm so stupid...

the biggest side effect of my being preggy is my dizziness....not the fainting kind but the 'i'm so stupid I can't even open a can without spilling everything everywhere' dizziness. Now I am someone who can organise and multi-task, have loads of common-sense and things come naturally to me. But now...

I'm so stupid...

• I booked my mum's airfare online with Air New Zealand which I do regularly. Only to turn up at the airport and find I had booked her on another airline, Qantas. Luckily both flights were around the same time to wellington, nz. But I booked her as 'MR' and not 'MRS'. Thankfully they still let her on.
• I went to my ultrasound appointment and forgot my medicare card so my man had to go back home, which is 30mins from hospital...if that wasn't stupid enough there's more. The receptionist asked me where I was born, I told her New Zealand. It took me a couple of minutes to remember I was actually born in Samoa. I overheard the receptionist talking on the phone to my antenatal clinic, 'oh, she said she was born in New Zealand'. I quickly ran over and told her I forgot i was born in Samoa, because I've lived most of my life in NZ. How can you forget where you were born??? I have never done that before. I love the fact I was born in Samoa, being an island girl is so much a part of my identity that it's just bizarre I forgot.
• I've gone out for the day and left the heater on yet I distinctly remember turning it off. My brother came home and found it.
• On a different day, I've gone out and left the front door open. Luckily my cousins popped around and discovered it.

There are two more, but they are waaaaay too shameful to share - 'too much information' for anyone to enjoy. Truly unfunky!

Dizzy things I do daily...spill whatever drink is in my hand, drop food, miss my mouth when i'm eating, open packets of anything and have them fly everywhere.

These things are not normal for me. I am usually very coordinated...I can kick a ball accurately, play volleyball and table tennis well with my right and left hand, juggle with my left hand. But now I can't even carry a glass of water in my right hand (yes, i'm right-handed).

Pregnancy has turned my hormones upside down. It was funny after the first couple of times............

faith

I seem to be discussing with different people different issues of faith.

There will always be differences but what makes us believe what we do? I have a view of the world which is ever changing but there are things that remain the same:

• I have a personal relationship with the LORD which to me means his holy spirit lives in me and guides me in my every day life.
• This personal relationship is built on revelation (through the LORD's spirit), through prayer, through the bible and the resources which he has given to me.
• I believe in the trinity - God, my Creator and Father (heavenly), Jesus my Saviour and Lord, and the Holy Spirit who is God's Spirit living in me.
• I believe in God's master plan to save his children and return to us the gift of eternal life which Satan stole from humanity with our help. Jesus died and took my punishment for my sins and through his resurrection fulfilled the LORD's master plan. But the final chapter has yet to be played out - when he returns and destroys Satan and all the evil he represents once and for all.
• No one knows when Jesus will return though a few signs are named in the bible, but basically he will return like a thief in the night and our job is to be ready at anytime and all times.

Non-christians will read that and think what a load of crap :-)

Yet 11 jewish men and many 1st century christians sacrificed their lives in a little middle eastern country so that 20 centuries later I would hear the truth on a tiny Pacific Island and believe. World views have come and gone. Empires have tried to destroy christians yet we still exist today and millions still believe.

It took one man's life, and 11 believers to realise that their jewish faith had been fulfilled in their lifetime. Their Saviour had come and they were willing to abandon their world view to believe that he was the son of God.

Today I believe the same. I hope whatever the differences between denominations that each of us who believe know the truth like those 11 disciples, like Paul. Even if we differ in practice and teaching but this remains the same for all of us. Jesus is LORD, son of God, the Christ risen, our Saviour.

It's our belief in who Jesus is that unites us.

body parts

even amongst christians there are a lot of faith questions that we disagree on...different denominations that emphasise different parts of the bible, different teachings and even have their own guides which are not biblical. How can this be God's plan for his church????

I am a simple christian woman...even that statement implies different things to different people. The word 'christian' means different things depending on which christian you are talking to. Why???

My only answer is this - because the LORD made each of us unique. Then he modelled his master plan of the church on the human body. The human body made up of many different parts playing many different roles united as one. A complex ever changing entity.

(I don't know why he didn't model us on something simple where everyone is the same. But if i remember to ask him when I see him then i will.)

Each of us has a place in that body...but we spend a lifetime trying to figure out what and where our place is. If enough of us get-together and form a hand or a finger...we look around at anyone else who is different and judge collectively that 'one of these things don't belong together' (or however that sesame street jingle went....)

So if you are part of a foot, say a toe and you are surrounded by people who are fingers which form a hand...you think you might fit in but something is still not quite right...you don't look like them exactly but you have a nail, you bend....but still you don't fit in...so you feel like a reject. Everyone that makes up the fingers know you are a reject. If they are nice they try to make you fit in...if not they treat you like an outcast.

Why don't we Christians understand the LORD's 'body' model?? Why do we try to get everyone to be the same? That's not of the LORD that's of this world. The LORD expects us to be unique, different to some and similar to others. But as one whole body we function best UNITED as one, every part playing its individual role to bring harmony to the whole.

The LORD created each of us for a purpose. He knows what and where our place is.

So if you're a toe stuck amongst fingers - get out! Talk to your creator and find the quickest road down to the other end of the body so the church can move forward!!!