God Sees, God hears, God Knows, He is The 'I am' The beginning and end......He's my everything

The past few weeks have been quite hectic. However, In the midst of it all Ive began reading 'God on Mute' by Pete Greig. The book has encouraged me to look at prayer, in a whole new way. Coinciding nicely with that ive also just started a module at Belfast Bible college on 'The Lords Prayer' . You may have noticed my fustration in the posting below, but I am determined to take my questions on prayer further....As I read about Prayer I am beginning to be reminded about why I love God, He draws me even when I don't want to be drawn. I praise God for being so interested in my life.
I want to leave you with this short section from 'The Magician's Nephew' C.S Lewis Chronicles of Narnia(and brought to my attention by Pete Greig)t
Digory's mother is dying and he dares to ask Aslan, The lion for help. When Digory first asks the Lion for help the Lion appears to ignore him. Then Digory plucks up the courage to ask again.

"But please, please, won't you, can't you give me something that will cure my mother?"Up till then he had been looking at the Lion's great feet and the huge claws on them, now in despair he looked up at its face. What he saw surprised him more than anything in his whole life. For the tawny face was bent down near his own and Great shinning tears stood in the lion's eyes'

His prayer's remained on answered but he knew that the great Lion cared (pete greig)

Rooted deep within my being I know that God cares, I know that He is hurting too, I know that He suffered the ultimate Pain, and He knows what it means to suffer........For some reason in the midst of unanswered prayer I believe in God, I am strengthened in my desire to pray more...and finally I pray that we as a community of Christians will be strengthened in our Belief
'I believe, but please Lord help my unbelief'

Hurricane Ivan

This is a short post. Ive been on a three day long hen weekend, im tired and I need to go to bed! Im simply posting a thought ive been having recently and hoping that I will expand on it.

When God answers our prayers we praise Him and give thanks for His faithfulness, but what about when we don't seem to see answers to our prayers. Theres the day's that go brilliantly and on the tip of our tongue all day long is'praise the Lord' - but what about the days that dont go so well? to what extent is God in controll of what I do each day and to what extent am I in controll? I will probably not be able to provide the answers for you on blogger.com but we all need to think about these questions.

I read an interesting wee article on the hurricane that was heading for Jamacia. Did God decide to save Jamacia? Where the prayers of Jamacia answered when the prayers of other countries have not been? I think of the children's song 'God controls the wind and stars and rain and snow' (ive got the words wrong, but its along those lines!

this is the link http://www.golocaljamaica.com/readarticle.php?ArticleID=3458

Coming of the Holy Spirit 'Pentecost'

I often forget about Pentecost...... Then I read Acts this morning and was blown away

I spent last week at Castlewellan Holiday Week. It is a week for families who want to spend time with other christians and who also like to wear welly boots and parade around in mud...sounds attractive I know...

I spent the week working with 15 year olds and was totally amazed by their desire to connect with God and grow deeper in their relationship. God is good, He is doing an absolutely amazing work among these young people.

We spent the week teaching the youth how to connect with God through worship, 'destination worship' I found that as I made myself worship, in order to set an example to the kids, God shocked me once again and with revelations of His Spirit in my own life.

We got up early (from our 5* Hotel..a la tent) and spent time time sitting by the lake taking in God's awesome creation. As I looked out on the lake I was reminded that God has given us His Holy Spirit to give us the strength to face any situation. Like a might Eagle soaring across the lake ..that is the power that is within us. I also realised the importance of daily renewal of God's Spirit...

On one occasion during the week the speaker(Andy Frost) asked a boy to take off his shoes so that he could demonstrate the story where Jesus washes the disciple's feet.

Andy covered the boy's feet in dirt, when asked how it felt, the boy answered "weird"

Andy washed the boys feet, when asked how it felt, the boy answered "weird"

Andy asked the boy, how he thought the diciples would have felt when they had their feet washed, the boy answered "weird"........at the time I thought deflated story...does this child know no other word than weird..

I have thought about that word since and that one word has spoke to me a lot.... being a christian is weird! God wants to fill us with His spirit, He wants to enable us to do incredible things beyond our own imagine...He wants us to accept His Spirit freely, receiving God's spirit is a little bit weird...but it is what strengthens us, what helps us connect with Him, it is what enables us to live in a world of Sin.

I have learnt that I need to take time out to let God's spirit fill the void in my life. Now and again is not enough, God wants to fill us up daily, and if we let Him, Just imagine what can be achieved.

Community continued...

A reflexion of the Newtownards Rd community on the 11th July.

The bonfire certainly brought a lot of people together...its just a pitty it wasnt a celebration of love for our neighbours across the interface

Community

Community is what being a christian means to me....

People argue over laws, denominations, dates and symbolism...but my journey has shown me that the thing that really matters is community. God has made us to be relationship people and the greatest commandment He gave was to 'love one another'

Ive always felt that community could be seen more among non-christians than christians. There seemed to be more fun, more togetherness more understanding between one another.

This doesnt make sense tho, surely a God centred group of people should reflect community more. ...The answer is yes they should (they don't always but they should) because as Christians they/we have something special - Forgiveness and Selflessness. We are naturally selfish people, infact I will openly admit i am extremely selfish, but surely we have been forgiven so much by God that we must aim towards selflessness ..towards forgiving and putting others needs first.

Forgive me if I am rambling, but so many examples recently have shown me that we don't put others before ourselves and how therefore can we expect to have community.

We often hear about the Amish community, they share their possessions and look after each other..basically they show love to one another.

I recently read Romans 12

We must be devoted to one another in brotherly love...Honour one another above yourselves........Share with God's people who are in need. Practice hospitality, live at peace with one another and do not take revenge.

This is a topic im pretty passionate about and so I hope to expand on it in other blogs (if I can get my ass into gear that is!) but for now I have broken community into 3 layers

1 Immediate Community

An example of this would be my house mates. Two amazing girls full of inner beauty (and outter!) who encourage me and who I try to encourage back. We can be truthful with each other and yet as christians we are made stronger by being in each other's presence. We can have a real laugh but also get past the general chit chat and go deep in our conversations. We all need this immediate community.

2 Wider Community

The people we meet every day..do we feel their pain? I walked past a girl last week and her face was covered in burns, it brought tears to my eyes. This sounds awful, but I was actually glad, because for once I felt someones pain. The scars were such an outward sign of what she had been through. We shouldnt need the scars, however, we need to be able to feel the pain of others as if it was our own pain, we need to care! we need to want to make a difference, to help. This is what community is!

In the song 'Indiscriminate Act of Kindness' (Voy Fance) A man takes a stranger into his home and gives her his bed while he sleeps on the sofa. The next day he says 'I just did what was right'

Do we 'do what is right' - it wont make us famous, it might not evenstand out, but as christians we are called to love and look after each other.

3 World Community

Surely community is about unity, surely it is about every child having an opportunity to live. Surely it is wrong for one person to have so much and another to have nothing.

An what about war...well thats something I shall have to think about

I will leave it there, sorry this has been a little heavy, this blog has been more challenging for me than I would care to say

Memories

"Sittin' in the mornin' sun, I'll be sittin' in the evening come. Watchin' the ships roll in, then I watch' em roll away again"

I can remember vividly the first time I heard that Otis Redding song. I was walking down the beach in Florida and someone one was sitting by the waters edge singing. Its one of my favoutrite songs and everytime I hear it it brings back momories of that holiday. Also important to me are many of my childhood memories. my next door neighbour teching me to ride my bicycle, my granda picking me up and setting me on his giant lap, my first day at nursrey school, my first kiss, the time I became a christian, the time I re-dedicated my life to God. I remember leaving home to go to University and I remember arriving in JFK Airport by myself, the summer I did Camp America. I remember that as the plane landed the song 'drops of jupiter' was playing in my ipod

Memories can be so precious and bring so much pleasure. A song, smell or sound can take us back to a place we loved.

Why is it however that looking at my past causes me so often to say "what if" and "if only" I tear my self apart thinking about where I would be if id made different decisions or done things differently. I wrestle with the fact that all my decisions were not guided by the will of God. Thinking of the title of John Pipers book -'Don't waste your life' I panic that I might have wasted time in my life. I know at the age of 24 this sounds silly, but im so determined to make the most of every minute.

Then im reminded of one of the most important things someone ever said to me; 'don't cry over spilt milk, get up and run after the cow. Yesterday is gone, lets move forward, lets take risks, lets seize opportunitites. Lets live for today and dream about tomorrow.

Risks must be taken because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing. The person who risks nothing gains nothing - C S Lewis

Let's try to look back at past memories with a smile, with a tear, lets love it, be thankful for it but lets not regret it.

Lets go on a journey, a journey towards Heaven. Let every minute and hour count.

Lets press on towards the goal for which we have been called heavenward.