Friends

Check this song out:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfkYoMnQ_vY


The lyrics really spoke to me:
"More of you, less of me!"


This is my heart cry! 
The more we seek His face, the more we become like Jesus. This is the point, shown in John 13:34-35 to adventure together and show people Jesus. 


"So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other.Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples."


Our relationship with Christ demonstrates how we need to treat one another. It needs to be done out of love. To encourage and build one another up, not to be self-seeking. 
Being brothers and sisters in Christ is about bringing encouraging words from God, appreciating, supporting and serving one another. More of God and less of us! 


God asks us to do these things, to be an encourager like He is. We can do this with people who know Him and people who don't.

 "May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had, so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God." (Romans 15:5-7)

It's so important.

C.

Heart/Head

Hey,

I enjoy 1 minute awesome teaching from wise people of God, whilst passing in corridors. I grabbed hold of one of those moments, and began reflecting on it today when I went away. 

It went like this...

- "How was your trip?"

* "Fab, it makes me sad leaving."

- "Your heart's going there isn't it?"

* "Yeah, is that a bad thing?"

- "No, but sometimes you need to lead your heart not just follow it."

* "What do you mean?"

Then Proverbs 3:5-6 was quoted to me.

"Trust in the Lord with all you heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek His will in all you do, and He will show you which path to take."

There are three things packed into that verse that were revealed to me:

1)TRUST

2)Don't try and do it alone!

3)God will keep you on track.

• Trust. We have to trust God, trust that He knows best, that He can help and that He will help us in whatever we're facing. But in this case, God was teaching me about timing. If I was following my heart, I would probably be in a different place or even a different country tomorrow! But sometimes we have to lead our hearts through trusting God's timing, and acknowledging that He knows best! (All comes down to trust!)
• When we trust God, we will realise we don't have to do it alone, or feel like we have to make things happen, or even worry about the future. Things that you think about in the future may be rooted in what you're learning now, however, these all need to be surrendered to God's timing, no matter how big or small they are, or how near or distant they seem. He can figure out the next step, and let us in on it when it's the right time, we can just enjoy the lessons of today with Him.

God has amazing plans for our lives. He will 'make our path's straight.' We need to step in and live out these plans, instead of spending too much time worrying about them! Any worry is from a place of fear and insecurity and we know that "perfect love casts out fear" (1John 4:18) Our God is ever-lasting! 

Lets learn to lead our hearts, by building a connection between our head and our hearts, with God. 

Phillipians 4:6

"Do not worry about anything, instead pray about everything."

Building this connection comes from investing time into the quiet place with God, becoming more in tune with His moves and His words, and learning lessons with Him.

The Bible says, pray about everything...everything! That's a lot of topics to choose from. God can drop things into your heart to pray for, and perhaps one topic could be your future. But remember everything... means everything. So, with any little worry that's hidden away, expose it and chat about it to God. 

Let the exciting adventures begin and press in! 

I'm sure there will be more posts on heart/head. It's a connection worth exploring.

C.

Survival Guide

Hey!


This post is inspired from an epic texting session me and my AP had the other day! Hope you enjoy!


Basically, God really sparked something in me a few days ago. He revealed to me that I need to throw out the survival guide.


Huh?
Yeah, that was my response too. 


Let's rewind, and start with the text. You know when you're speaking/texting/writing or whatever, and the words just flow and you end up with an EPIC revelation that by no means you could have come up with yourself? Well, this was that kind of situation, God showed up while I was texting.


He said this to my AP, but I believe that this is relevant for all of us!


"YOU have a calling on your life.
 YOU need to realise that you're significant.
 YOU need to stop comparing your walk with me to other's walks, because no two journeys are the same.
 YOU need to realise and believe that I have put something in you that the world needs."


Now to the crux of the text message that sparked this new revelation about survival guides (It will make sense at some point, and yes... it was a long text!)


"OPEN UP. LOOK UP. SPILL OUT."


That's the key. We need to be open to God, we need to look to Him and we will spill Jesus out. So, how did I get from that to the survival guide?

Well, God said, "You're not just surviving, you're thriving."

    This has really stuck with me. God's been showing me that in certain areas I've taken back control, referred to my own edition of survival guide and tried to fix or work out a situation myself. God's saying we need to depend on Him. We need to lean on Him. 


So that when things get tough, we can realise that God is saying in the midst of it,
 'Open up to Me more.'

When we feel down or 'struggling' God says,
'Lift your eyes to Me.'

When we feel pressured to let people know about God, God says,
 'Remember I spill out of you anyway.'


God created us to thrive and to sing of His name. When we lean on him whole-heartedly we will soak up so much of Him and learn so much, that it would be impossible to not thrive. God is for us. He cheers us on. He has everything we need to not just survive, but to thrive. 


Colossians 3:2


Living the New Life

 ¹ Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand. ² Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. ³ For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God.(New Living Translation)

I think The Message's translation is cool, check this one out too! 

He Is Your Life
 ^1-2 So if you're serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. Don't shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ—that's where the action is. See things from his perspective.
(The Message)


   It's so easy for us to get 'absorbed' in the activities of our lives, what our challenges are for today and what we need to get ticked off that 'to-do list'. God's convicted me of this recently, there is a bigger picture. He is more than willing to share it with us if we could only lift our eyes to Him, instead of pandering to the circumstances of now.
   When we get so involved and focussed on the 'now' it's easy to feel run down when things crop up or become too much. It's easy to feel like we are just surviving. But God has so much more for us, when we come to this realisation, that is when we thrive. Knowing that God is for us... wow.

And guess what? When we thrive with God, people will notice, and God will open up opportunities to sow into people's lives and tell them The Good News.

C.

Wipe away

Hey!
So God spoke to me this evening, as I was washing my face! I went to scoop some water into my hand and splashed my face, only after the first splash did I remember that I had forgotten to take off my mascara!
It began to stream down my face, like little rivers of black water... ooops. As I looked at my face in the mirror, God said to me: "Take it all off, just wipe it away." 


I was just thinking about this short sentence, what did God mean? I know He meant more than the obvious, so I asked Him. What God was really saying to me, wasn't about the application of make-up necessarily; (although girls, we do need to remember that God made us truly beautiful inside and out, and we should use make up to enhance rather than to hide, more on this in another blog!) but to be aware of the things that I try to 'cover -up' from God. 


God was telling me to take down all the façades, wiping away the illusions I try to create. To just be real and to just be myself with Him. We don't need to 'conceal' any parts of ourselves. God asks us to be completely raw and honest with Him, showing Him and letting Him into all aspects of our lives, even those shadows we can try to hide. He sees it all anyway, so how much better would it be if we let His light illuminate the corners of our lives, so we can begin to see ourselves, our situations and ultimately our lives, the way He does.


So I decided to put this into practice by basically just sitting on my bed telling Him exactly how I felt. Everyone connects with God in different ways, but I wrote it all down. (Writing may not be your way, don't worry! Do whatever it is that helps you connect with God!) I wrote down every last little thing that was fluttering around in my mind, even the faintest flutter of things in the background. You know what, it was great! It was so refreshing to just whack it all down onto paper and then say, okay God what do you say about this stuff? Show me what can/should I do? But basically just laying everything at His feet. Everything. 


I challenge you to try it! Come to God with all that you are, and all that you have, and all that you're carrying and allow Him to give you rest, for He says: "My yoke is easy, and my burden is light."(Matthew 11:30) 

C. 

Keep coming back.

Hey there!


Recently I've been listening to Jon Thurlow's tracks over and over again, I've found so much truth and life in these lyrics! Check the song out below, (Just click the little bit below!) and see what God speaks to you about!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NVv2x90XwE


So my blog today is about what God spoke to me through the lyrics of the song above.


"Keep coming back to me."


Amazing.
It's repeated over and over again. I imagine that is what Jesus is saying to us constantly. It's so simple. That's all we have to do. He has EVERYTHING  we could ever need; He already knows what we need, even before we do. Crikey.


So I asked Him why I personally find this difficult to do sometimes? (Encourage you to do the same!) And He said:


-You think you're bothering me.
-You think you should sort out at least some of the situations in front of you, and then let Me do the rest.


Wow. I didn't even know that I thought some of those things! So I had to chat with God more about what they meant...
-God said to me so clearly, "You could never bother me. I always love it when you come back to me. I love it when you chat with me. Always come back to me. Always come home." He says the same to you, we're His children! He loves spending time with us! He loves it! 
-God showed me that in my way of coming to Him, saying 'I've done this bit, could you do this bit' mentality, that I wasn't surrendering my situations completely. I was still hanging on for a smidgen of control. That's not what God's asking us to do. God asks us to lay our lives down completely, the good, the bad and the bits you want to sort out yourself. God sees it all. He's got like the premium TV set, with all the channels of our lives! Surrendering means to lay it all down. And when we don't, we can count on God to remind us to hand it over, because ultimately: GOD KNOWS BEST! Things are going to crop up, but the more we learn to surrender, the more easily we will recognise when we're holding onto something, that we need to lay at Jesus' feet. It's a process, and God can help us with it.

I definitely recommend running into God's arms, and asking Him to show you areas of your life that you're still holding on to. Our pastor today shared this: "Don't nurse your hurts, because it only makes them grow." We need to allow God to show us our hearts as He sees them, and be ready to allow Him to do some work with them.


I'll leave you with this quote:


"You can not mess up His promise, because it's His, you didn't make it."


All He asks is for us to 'Keep coming back to me,' because He has everything we need.


C.

Be Aware.

Recently I've been reading Proverbs with God and the phrase: 'Fear the Lord,' came up a fair few times in my reading. After the first few times, I stopped and questioned it; I wasn't really sure what it meant to fear the Lord? So this post is basically my exploration of this with God. 


The crux of my understanding so far being: Not to be scared of Him. But to be aware of Him.
(I'm sure it's an ongoing one, as He shows me new ways to do this!)

"Fear of the Lord is the foundation of true knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline."
Proverbs 1:7 


Fearing Him doesn't mean being scared of God, He wants us to be in a relationship with Him, how could we do that being afraid? Fearing God, I think means to be aware of Him, to acknowledge Him in every aspect of our lives, to honour and obey Him.


Fearing God means to acknowledge how awesome He is! That His will should permeate our understanding and views of the world, our heart attitudes and our actions. Everything we do or say should align to His purpose.

So how can we do these things? How about choosing Him... first, everyday?Waking up in the morning and declaring that God and His will is what we choose to seek first today.
God's really put these 3 words on my heart, that I just keep repeating to myself (and repeatedly to a few others!) Seek His face. That's all we have to do, and it's SO much fun!


If we constantly seek His face, and spend time with Him, we will become even more aware of Him and even become more like Him. God's ready to chat to us and share things with us whenever: on the bus, at school, in our rooms in silent, when we're walking the dog... whenever and wherever.


God seeks our hearts:
"Listen! I am standing at your door. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in and we will eat together."
Revelation 3:20

The key is in the "fearing."
Being aware of God. Acknowledging God. Listening to Him.


Consider this: if you 'leave the door of your heart constantly open to God, you won't need to worry about hearing his knock.'




C.
P.s. Just Seek His face. (Okay, 4 words now! :P)

Doodles.

Proverbs 1

A Father’s Exhortation: Acquire Wisdom

 ⁸ My child, listen when your father corrects you.
      Don’t neglect your mother’s instruction.
 ⁹ What you learn from them will crown you with grace
      and be a chain of honour around your neck.

Proverbs 2

The Benefits of Wisdom

 ¹ My child,^[a] listen to what I say,
      and treasure my commands.
 ² Tune your ears to wisdom,
      and concentrate on understanding.
 ³ Cry out for insight,
      and ask for understanding.
 ⁴ Search for them as you would for silver;
      seek them like hidden treasures.
 ⁵ Then you will understand what it means to fear the Lord,
      and you will gain knowledge of God.

Proverbs 3

Trusting in the Lord

 ¹ My child,^[a] never forget the things I have taught you.
      Store my commands in your heart.
 ² If you do this, you will live many years,
      and your life will be satisfying.
 ³ Never let loyalty and kindness leave you!
      Tie them around your neck as a reminder.
      Write them deep within your heart.

Hey! (So I've learnt how to put pictures on here...woop! This will be a short but hopefully encouraging blog!)

So one day this week God told me to read Proverbs, so I embarked upon this not exactly sure what to expect... I definitely wasn't expecting what God said next! He told me that... I didn't need to sit down and read this in complete silence!

He told me to read proverbs, and as I went, allow Him to show me pictures/scenes in my mind, and then capture them by asking the Holy Spirit to help me express that visually. I had done this before, (but awhile ago!)  so I was SO happy to be learning about God and His word in this way. 

It made me smile that God was reminding me to use the gifts He's put inside of me, as worship to Him. He removed the box that I had put up, trying to contain strategies about how you should read the Bible and spend time with God. Sometimes, we can do this without even noticing! We can fall into certain patterns or ways of doing things, just because others do it that way, or because it's been a success before. However I believe that God does like to shake it up sometimes! He knows what's going to work for us at different times and in different seasons. 

 He showed me again that He enjoys sharing His creativity with me, and as silly as it sounds...once again reminded me of how well He knows me. He knows us. He knows how we think, how we learn, how we feel, what we enjoy, what excites us, and so on... so why shouldn't we do those things as worship to Him! Open up those doors with God and: 'allow Him to show himself to you in a new way.' We can often say that sentence, but I'm not sure we always live it out, I know I sometimes don't.

So, that's my challenge to you today. God's challenging us to seek Him, so let's have fun finding Him and learning about Him in a completely different way to how we are now. He wants to capture our hearts, and release us into something new in Him... 

C. 

Pass it on...

Hey,


So this post is hopefully going to be an encouragement to you, because God blew my mind with it!
God gave me this new revelation, about revelation yesterday! Basically, He showed me something that I didn't completely understand yesterday, but I knew it was a good lesson! (Everything from God is good!) I knew that God was going to explain it more, but I wasn't sure when and what it meant for me completely...


So, I went about my day as usual, until later that evening I had an amazing but spontaneous conversation with an awesome woman of God, in which God did something completely new! I wasn't having to think of what to say when it came to be my turn to speak and give advice; the Holy Spirit was stirring and just providing me words, there was no effort on my part, it wasn't head knowledge that I had just collated from other experiences, I believe it was heart knowledge spilling out. It wasn't until after the phone call, when I spent a few moments just reflecting on the conversation, that I realised what God had done. God had taken the heart knowledge he planted earlier in that same day and then got me to speak it out to this girl because she needed it too! 


God provoked me to question the way I perceived the concept of revelation. As I though about it, in the past whenever God's showed me something or taught me something, its been a habit for me to ponder on it for awhile before sharing it with others. I'd usually just think about for awhile or so, praying and reading the bible trying to figure out what it means more... when actually in my pondering I could be missing opportunities for God to use me to bring his breakthrough for someone else! Of course I'm not saying that sometimes this it isn't necessary to pray into something first before sharing it, but it's made me realise that perhaps we should seek God's purpose for sharing certain knowledge with us first, and ask Him if anyone else needs to hear this too and if so, who needs to know it.


So basically, my new revelation, is the fact that new revelation isn't any less than revelation you've had a while ago. It doesn't mean we have to hang on to new revelation for awhile before we can share it! Revelation is revelation. We should pass on whatever knowledge we have to whoever needs it... regardless of whether we have had it for long or only understand some of it! Because if its from God and it needs to be said, then the Holy Spirit can work things out with us! 


Ultimately, I ended up learning more about the revelation He gave me in the first place from sharing it with 
someone else, God's the best multi-tasker right?!


C.

P.s I'm not sure why my font has changed. 

Goodbye old drafts, hello new novel.

Hey,


I was out chatting with an amazing woman of God today, and I was struck by a comment she made. It was so subtle, that it almost fluttered by in the buzz of the conversation. However God brought me back to it this evening. She was basically saying, how amazing it is that we can come to God broken and hurt, and then as soon as we meet Him...He makes things new. We're different. We don't have to be who we were in the past, it's gone. We're made new, and we don't have to contain all that there was for us in the past, because there is so many new things for us to discover and learn with God. 


God spoke to me through this in a picture. There were some raggedy papers of old drafts of a story that never quite made it, just lying on the side. Then the picture zoomed in onto a glossy, shiny new novel (placed upon a wooden table, very shiny also!) That fresh book smell apparent and without any unbent pages.


God was saying, that He makes things new. When we meet Him, an amazing new novel with new chapters to explore is there ready and waiting for us to step into. We no longer need to cling onto our old ways, or who we used to be, because that no longer exists. Those old drafts have been taken, and replaced by this new exciting adventure, in which "we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them." Romans 8:28


The plots of our lives will be thrilling, and completely in the hands of our Heavenly Father, who is the best writer there could EVER be, so we KNOW it's going to be a good read?! Just as we read books normally, the words are already printed; it's all been planned and intricately woven together by the author. Well, its pretty similar for us too, but we serve the Author of Time! We can completely trust in Him and His plans for us, because like The Bible says: He works things together for our good! 


It is going to be exciting, but the key is in the word trust. 


To
Really
Understand
Simple
Truths


That's the essence of trust, to really understand, means to practically live out the truths that God sings over us all the time. For example: 'He loves you...' Therefore we can live as loved people! 


We have to trust in His plan, and although sometimes it means we have no clue what's going to happen next; it's that suspense that's a page turner.


God's got it covered. (really understand that truth!)


C.

YOU CAN.

YOU CAN.

A lesson learned from a VERY wise woman the other day, relating closely to the comparing yourself blog.

Too often, in the natural we say, 'I can't,' and put ourselves down. But God says 'You can!' because it's not about you. Knowing this, and understanding it, brings such freedom. The fact that's it's not about who you are, or what you're going to say, because it's not about you, it's about Him.

A-mazing!

This wonderful lady spoke this to me, after no prompting from myself. She heard from God spoke it out and pressures and constraints that I had been putting on myself were broken. She gave me this amazing image and explanation, she said: 'Just be who you are in Him. Not struggling or striving, but your bubble wrapped in God, and it's popping time...imagine what's going to come out of you.'

I was SO struck by those words, its not about what I can do, its about being wrapped up in God, and allowing Him (if you like) pop the bubbles of the bubble-wrap exploring new things together, whether they be lessons or giftings. But what matters most, is that it's a two way image. You have the protectiveness of being enclosed in bubble wrap, being submerged in God, but at the same time this progression of learning new exciting things! So cool!

Check this video out! The bridge is EPIC, basically sums this post up!

C.

1st EVER talk.

If you would like to, check out this link where me and my friend talk at our church, for the FIRST TIME EVER. Hearing yourself is SO weird, so I've only listened once, but we do sound SUPER nervous...probably because... we were. So enjoy, if you can endure our nervousness, click the link below and click the 26th June one. Job done.

C.

http://www.mosaicchurch.co.uk/pages/17-downloads/content

Comparing ourselves & Prophecy

Hey,

It's been awhile, sorry! This summer has been crazy hectic, lots going on! All good things though. Well, amongst seeing friends, going to Sweden, seeing musicals, I've been to two Christian summer camps! Both were absolutely awesome, the best they've ever been!

But because Focus has just happened, I'll start with this one as its still fresh in my mind! The two biggest lessons I've learnt while being at Focus was about comparing ourselves to other people and prophecy.

Starting with the first: comparing ourselves. (It's just so easy to do!)
Focus is a summer camp for 9-12 year old's, so I was there as a leader, and this was my first year leading small groups with another lady! Being a leader was so much fun, and I feel that's probably why I've learnt so much new stuff at the camps this year, different responsibilities and what-not. Anyway, we weren't even half way through the camp, and I found myself thinking a lot of negative thoughts about myself and my performance as a leader. After chatting to God and with a friend, I realised it's because I was constantly comparing myself to others around me! It's easy to do, and especially when you're at a camp with people you haven't seen for ages, and then suddenly you see them all at once and they've all grown in God so much, and they're just so amazing!!! It's no wonder we start comparing ourselves and our progress. But God revealed to me that I was actually trying to compare my journey, and that's impossible because everyone is different, therefore everyone's journey is different. But God blew my mind when he said to me:

'You don't have to be good at everything, you have to remember that everyone's got different gifting's, its just about bringing what YOU'VE got.'

That blew me away. It's so true, we're ALL different, we're ALL unique, therefore we ALL have different things to bring to groups! It sounds so simple. It reminds me of the passage in 1 Corinthians 12, where it's talking about the body parts, and how each part is significant and important in the full working of the body. Check it out! So, yeah... we don't need to compare ourselves to others, we only need to be like Jesus, and be who we are IN HIM. Once you get your head around this, it's SO FREE. You can wake up, and feel so free, that today all you have to do is be yourself, bring what you have and enjoy learning FROM other's experiences rather than wanting to be like them. Because, ultimately when we learn from others journey with God that in turn shapes our understanding and experiences, meaning that if everyone is learning from someone, our journey's are even more unique and different! (I know that's not possible to be even more unique, but just go with it?) Awesome right. I'm sure I'll always have more to say on this topic, but for now I'll move on...


Prophecy.

Okay, before last week, just looking at that word would have made me confused! But this week, due to some lovely friends bringing a prophetic culture back with them from Bethel, I have really began exploring this with God. Basically, all it means is: hearing from God and speaking it out. That can be just you on your own, or you standing infront of hundreds of people! And better yet, it's SO much fun! God says all sorts of what may seem 'weird' stuff, but then it's actually relevant to that person, crazy times. Prophesying is great, a group of us at Focus spent hours, (more often than not very late into the night) prophesying over each other and recording it. At first, i found it quite nerve-wracking and scary, worrying that you might say the wrong thing, but actually all it takes is taking a moment, to tune in and LISTEN to what God has to say. Sometimes then asking questions about what He's shown you in necessary, to communicate outloud to others effectively, but other times, He may just want you to say one word, that then unlocks a thread of prophetic words from others!
It's awesome, try it.

Right that's it from me for now!
There will definitely be more to come soon!
Bye!
C.

[Poem] - In Clearing

Not in the clear,
But clearing in.
Not clearing out,
not in, but within.

They're not placed or poised,
but scattered in disguise as matter.

'This then this' and wonders
draping from the high ceiling of the sky,
like trails of embroidery thread.
Seamless and slight, yet numerous in sight.

Following the maze of the floor made by bricks
of organic matter.
But should I lift this brick, and place
                                     one
                                          upon
                                               another
to reach that glowing tether?
no wait
for the Master knows the threads apart,
and that glowing tether...
may not be luminous at heart.

© This site may not be reproduced without permission from site author.

Bus Journeys 1

Hey :)

So for the first time in awhile, I decided to have a cheeky trip into town, meaning I had to embark upon a half an hour bus journey. Usually, I'll stick my ear phones in and silently sing along to my favourite tunes, or grab a book that I'm reading for English, and have a catch up. However, this weekend I decided to listen to a podcast, by Bill Johnson, it was great! Oddly, on this occasion though, I felt like God was telling me not to carry on listening to it... but to put some worship music on instead! So I put some Jesus Culture on, what happened next was quite weird...

It was just playing and I felt like God was saying, not to let my thoughts wander, not to day dream out the window or whatever else I usually daze off doing on bus journeys, but to really focus on the lyrics. So I did, as I was concentrating on the lyrics, and allowing God to speak to me through them, I felt like this kind of pressure keeping me in my seat. At first I wasn't really sure what was going on, and worried that if it continued for a long time, I wouldn't be able to get up and I'd miss my stop! But the longer it went on the more at peace I felt, it was like God was actually forcing me to stop. I mean, there was no where I could go, I was on a bus! There was nothing I could do to distract myself. I had his words speaking to me in my ears, I was truly resting in Him. It was amazing. I'm not the sort of person to stop, I'm always doing SOMETHING, even my brain is always ticking over pondering on things constantly. But God really was teaching me how to rest in Him, and I've never felt such peace.

Now I know, when I need rest and peace (everyday!) all I have to do is... stop, focus on Him, and truly be wrapped up in his arms.

It's the best!
C.

To do list

Hey!

So, I LOVE post-it-notes, if I had figured out how to upload photos onto here, I would have, to show just how many post it notes I have! Whenever I start worrying, or even just when my head starts getting clogged with the massive list of 'to-do's' I write them down.

Recently, God spoke to me, and literally said: 'I'm not a to do list.' Which I replied with, 'Yeah I know, sure, obviously.' But then God was persistent in saying 'I'm not a to do list,' and I continued to reply denying I thought any different. But then God pointed out, that sometimes I actually treat him like a to do list! If God's not a to-do list, then church isn't a to-do list, knowing him isn't a to-do list and being a Christian isn't a to-do list. (I think I've found that its very easy to slip into this mindset, (even at church!) that you've just got to do this, this and this, when actually we forget the whole point of our service to others is about love.)  Being a Christian is a to-be list, and there's only two things on this list:

1) Be like Jesus
2) Be us in Jesus

And the only way to be like Jesus, is to be with him.

Blessings, take comfort in knowing your Almighty God is with you always!
C.

Are you being used?

In the nicest possible way. God is a user. However, not in the bad way that you're automaically thinking in the light of that very short, impacting statement. Yes, God can and has and does and will do things himself, but... He likes to use us. He likes to include us and get us involved.

Our challenge now, is to remember how God has used us before. To ask him what he wants to use us in now. And to listen to what he wants us to get involved with next. We must keep our hearts soft towards God, and his ultimate plan, to tell the world about Jesus.

You may be thinking, me? I'm only one person, but we must realise that:

"I may just be a drop in the bucket, but the bucket isn't full until I'm in it." Iverna Tompkins

"History never looks like history when you're living through it." John Gardner

Shall we let God use us as this history gets produced? Well, Im going to.

C.

Dreams

Not the sleeping kind. The hopeful aspirations and ambitions! Being Gods children means that if our dreams are possible by our own doing, they are no where near big enough! Dreaming big dreams with God is exciting, because anything and everything is possible!

During our weekly chats, Me and the lovely Liz, started dreaming, with God at the centre of our ambitions! Our dreams were big, not just going to Africa, not just volunteering, not just travelling, even though the above are all mega dreams! But ours got bigger and bigger the more God revealed to us the skills he's blessed us with, the more we listenned to the desires to serve, these gifts that Gods put inside of us! We passed ideas, like building schools and building orphanages, then we moved on to the idea of teaching at these places! We even decided who would teach what! Our dreams got bigger and bigger until we finally came to this: let's set Africa on fire. Not literally! But for Jesus! Our dream was to minister, evangelise, travel, teach, care and build. Building schools and orphanages, whilst ALWAYS pointing to Jesus! Always ministering far and wide. Now, is this possible by the means, of just us, two teenage girls who were just having an epic three hour phone call, when this dream came along? No.

That's why it's big enough. Big enough for now. Gods always got something bigger tucked up his sleave, who's to say that it wont be just Africa we set on fire! Only God knows the desires of our hearts truly, so Me and Liz shall always pray into our dreams, and if we trust our God, then who's to say this won't happen? There's always a possibilty with God, life with him is an adventure, one that we have to let control go of.

God knows best.

C. and Liz, send encouraging messages to you to dream your dreams with God! Let's set the world on fire!

Intro, part 2

Hey, this is now getting to be an epic intro!

Just thought I should explain somethings better.
So first, I love the power of names, I think there's some greatness in it! So when it came to naming the blog and things I chose the URL of 'Heavens Signatures.' A) Because it sounds cool right! But actually, mainly because its a powerful quote from Sean Smith, an amazing speaker from Jesus Culture, check them out! He said at the UK conference last year, "We as Christians, are heavens signatures on earth." There's so much truth behind this, signatures have to be made, produced and crafted, all similar words that the Bible uses to describe how God created you and me. With the spirit that raised Jesus from the dead living inside of us, heaven claims that as a signature here on earth. And as a signature we represent our maker, our producer, and our crafter, if the latter is even a word, (if not, let's pretend!)

Beloved. To be-loved. That's what it means essentially. So everytime I log on, and everytime you read, remember, you are loved by an almighty God, unconditionnally! And from now on, we need to stop over-complicating it and stop forgetting it, GOD LOVES YOU UNCONDITIONALLY!

Don't you forget that! Blessings!

C.

Self-Esteem

Hey! It's me again. Obviously. :)

I love quotes. So no doubt, quite often I will copy an paste a good'un for you!
Like so:


“For attractive lips, speak words of kindness.

For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people.

For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry.

For beautiful hair, let a child run their fingers through it once a day.

For poise, walk with the knowledge that you never walk alone.

People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone.

Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you will find one at the end of each of your arms.

As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands; one for helping yourself, and the other for helping others.”  – Sam Levenson

I love this quote, mainly because the opening lines of each sentence display thoughts that we often ponder. Appearances. Alot of people struggle with this, especially us teens, it can be a battle right? But when reading this you're thrown into a bigger picture concerning hunger, unkindness, loneliness.I love that this quote shows a glimpse of what life can be when you live by the grace of God, and when you allow God to take away your low-self esteem and replace it with his truth and Spirit. You're never alone. You never have to face these difficult situations on your own. But this quote also brings another important factor to the table, let's share with people through the Grace of God! Let's be empowered by what God says about us, rather than what the world says, and lets spread this awesome message!

Are YOU living like this?

I'm going to leave you with this quote.

"I can't afford to have any thoughts about me in my head, that God doesn't have in his." -Bill Johnson


C.

Revision

Hey, so this is my first proper proper post!

I like Fridays. I finish school early and then pretty much just veg about. But recently, I have wanted to be more motivated and use my time wisely... Today, I've realised sometimes I need God to motivate me.

You know, sometimes there's just some things you know need doing, but you just can't muster the energy? Well, I'm like this with revision. Revise, revise, revise. It's a bore.

But I figured something new out today. Revision. Re-vision. Going over work, trying to cram it in and remember all the bold words in that hefty textbook. But then, it sounds silly, but God broke the word down, re-vision. He said, "look at it. To revise all you have to do is re-vision. Take your vision, your focus off that confusing diagram of mitosis, and look to me. Re-vision to me first."

So I thought, hey, now that's cool. All I have to do is start my epic 'revision', by first focussing on God, spending time with him, chatting with him, but then allowing him to take part in my revision. Sounds odd right? But too often we try and go it alone, and at the end of the day, who's going to understand mitosis best, you? Or god, the being, that actually created it?

When near exams, God brings me back to these quotes:

"Do your best, and God can make up the rest."
"God's always known how you'll do, he's got it all figured out."

C.
Blessings! Prayers to all those with exams, that Jesus will comfort you and bring stacks of peace!

Intro,

Hey guys! Okay, so I'm not really sure if anyone is going to read this, but I don't mind! A long time ago God put it on my heart to start voicing Him, start sharing my experiences with Him and to stop being so flipping scared of judgement, so from then I have approached this in lots of different ways, and this is my newest approach! Heheee, so basically, hi. I'm just going to be real, be myself and talk about my journey with God! Exciting stuff, but not easy!

I'm already enjoying this blogging thing, as you are currently discovering, I like to chat, heheee, so excuse the random rambles, I do tend to get easily off topic, but I will try my hardest not to!

So yeah, hopefully this blog will interest you, or even better: to encourage you. I just want to get my voice out there to declare how good I think God is, and just to say, if you want to... check him out! I do respect that people have different views though, so don't get me wrong! :) :)

But basically, I want to encourage you guys, and share what God's doing in my life. :)

Enjoy!
C.

ps. My background is going to change alot, there's soooooo many cool ones to choose from. <3