Tue 22 January 2008 - A Surprise Blessing.
I was sitting here yesterday, going about my usual business of looking after the children, etc etc; when I get a phone call on my mobile (cell) phone. That in itself is surprising, as not many people call me on my mobile. This particular caller happend to be one of my brothers; again a surprising turn of events as he doesn't usually call all that often.
Well, my brother called to tell me that he had booked a hotel room in town for two and was no longer going to be able to use it. He asked if I would be interested in it as he was unable to get a refund and did not want to waste the room.
My husband and I have been going through some trials lately, (what marriage of 10 years doesn't have those?) so I thought this might be a really nice opportunity for us. So I rang my husband to see what he thought of the idea and he said, "Yeah, sure!"
After ringing my brother back and telling him we'd take it if came and looked after our children, my husband and I headed into the city (i.e. Brisbane) for a romantic evening for two! After checking into the hotel, we walked up to the mall and found a lovely place to have dinner. It's been a long time since the two of us have been out to dinner on our own, so it was a really nice treat.
After dinner we decided to go and see a movie; again something we hadn't done in a long while. Then after the movie we took a liesurely stroll back to the hotel to check out the stunning views of our room.
The hotel is situated right alongside the Brisbane River. Out of one window, we had a view of the Storey Bridge, a beautiful sight at night with all the lights; and out of the other window we could see the cliffs of Kangaroo Point which are also lit up at night and look absolutely stunning. I only wish I had of thought to take a photo so I could share with you the gorgeous views. Oh well. (If you're ever in Brisbane and want to know where we stayed, check out www.stamford.com.au )
We had an awesome night sleep, uninterrupted from the cries of children; and woke up to a complimentary breakfast with all sorts of delicious goodies. It was so nice to be able to get up when we were ready, rather than have to rise to meet the needs of busy children.
God certainly gave us an almighty blessing, and it was so unexpected. My husband and I really enjoyed the time together and to just be alone.
Now we're back at home and things are back to normal; well, as normal as they can be. But I just wanted to take this time to share about our God of surprises, and the great love He has for us.
May you be blessed mightily as you continue to live for Him.
Grace and peace, Lee :)
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Mon 14 January 2008 - Amazing God, Part Two
Here begins part two....
Getting back to what I originally wanted to post this morning.
I got home from church last night, and after checking my emails was reminded about hsb and all of a sudden my eyes were open to what my next post would be about.
But first, let me give you a little bit of history about myself.
Two and a bit years ago, I joined the worship team at out church. At the end of 2006 I started learning some of the basics of worship leading and in 2007 I started worship leading on a regular basis, so you might say I'm still a rookie worship leader. This post is about what God appears to be starting in our church this year.
Two Sunday's ago, (ie: the 6th January, the first Sunday of the year) it was my turn to lead for the morning service. As I lay in bed on New Year's Night, trying to get to sleep and failing miserably, my mind started looking forward to Sunday and what songs I might bring to the congregation to help them enter into worship. My mind turned to a song called "Men of Faith". This song has special meaning to me, but that's another post entirely; maybe for another day.
Anyway, as I started singing through this song, the 3rd verse really spoke to me. The words are as follows:
Rise up church with broken wings,
Fill this place with songs again,
Of your God who reigns on high, (ed. note: This line could be wrong)
By His grace again we'll fly.
Our church has come through a time of testing, refining and growing as we've dealt with the pastor of over 16 years leave and an interim pastor coming in and all sorts of other things. Our church size has dropped from (probably) over a hundred before we came, to a relatively small number comparitively. Hurts have been brought to the surface and (praise God) healed and people have started seeing deliverance from things that have held them in bondage for some time. While on the outside, things may have been seen to be in decline, on the inside and where it counts most: spiritually, we have been healed and started growing again.
With the words from this song and other references to broken wings and flying/rising on eagles wings: A line from a secular song, "So take these broken wings, and learn to fly again, learn to live so free."; the song, "Eagle's Wings" by Reuben Morgan and a line from "The Power of Your Love" which we had sung the week before and sings about rising up like an eagle and soaring with God by the power of His love; I really felt the Lord saying that He wanted me to bring a message of encouragement to our church. I felt that He wanted me to encourage the church, that yes, we have gone through times of trial; but God is about to cause us to rise up on eagle's wings and soar to new heights by the leading of the Holy Spirit and the power of His love.
Fast forward a few days to Saturday. Saturday wasn't a great day. My husband and I have been married for 10 and a half years and are going through a growing stage at the moment. I was recently telling a friend at church that it seems that we spent the first 2-3 years getting to know each other, the next 5 or so years believing (pretending?) we knew each other, the next two years finding out we don't really know each other and now trying to really get to know each other. (Please tell me, has anyone else experienced anything like that? I'd like to hear from you.)
So, Saturday ended up being one of those days that was really not pleasant to be in the middle of, but really quite necessary for growth in our relationship. I was feeling so messed up that I rang our music team director and told him that I didn't know if I was going to be able to lead the worship service on Sunday. He offered to swap with me, but I declined. God had already made it clear to me that He had chosen me to be rostered on for this, the first Sunday of the year; and that He wanted me to bring the encouragement to the church that He had given me. I think I panicked. I should have known that God would bring me through the day and give me the strength to do what He asked me to do; but instead I listened to how I was feeling and asked the music director to have a back-up plan in case I couldn't do it.
Silly me. God did get me through the day, and the next day as well; the worship went fairly well and the encouragement seemed to be recieved with much enthusiasm. However, because of the emotional upheaval of the previous day, I was feeling quite vulnerable. I didn't get any real feedback from how the service went and started feeling despondant about the whole thing.
That night at church, I found it really difficult to enter into worship; which was even more evident as nearly all the songs were favourites of mine. During the sermon, I kept thinking that I should just give up on worship leading. After all, I know worship is meant to be more about lifestyle than just music on Sunday morning, and yet I just don't seem to be able to worship God throughout the week. I know that doing what God has called me to do; raise the children, teach them, being a good wife etc, all of these things when done to the glory of God can be and are worship. But they feel so far away from worship, it's not funny. So, if I can't worship God in my life, how can I lead others into worshipping God on Sunday?
But our God is an amazing God. He not only knows our thoughts and the intents of our heart, He also knows just what we need and how/when to give it. After the pastor finished his sermon, he brought some announcements to the congregation that had been neglected earlier and finished up by saying that He wanted to thank and honour the worship leaders for the job they had been doing over the past few weeks. He said the things and words we had brought to worship, and the songs we had sung, had all brought confirmation to him of the things God had been speaking to him about. Then he looked directly at me and said, "Keep going. Keep doing what you are doing!" He could not have known the thoughts going through my head, but God did. I'm thankful that we have a pastor who is open to hearing from God and obeying the still, small voice of the Holy Spirit.
This week, God has continued His provision for our lack. Yesterday morning we were expecting a team from YWAM to come and take the service, including the music/worship. But God had other plans. The YWAM team didn't end up coming, so we had to quickly grab some songs together. The theme was about going where God has called us to go and obeying God. Everybody Get Walking; To The Ends of the Earth; Send Me, I will Go and Here I Am were the songs God put on our hearts to worhsip Him.
Then last night we had some prayer time and a commissioning for some people from the Solomon Islands who have been in Australia for a few months and are going to India and Thailand this week for the next 10 weeks. During the prayer time, the main theme that kept coming out was about shining our lights, not hiding them under a bushel. The word was mostly for the SI's, but I think it was also meant for our church and one of the Solies confirmed that.
After a song called Arise, Shine that the music team sang after we prayed for the SI's, my son said to me, "Mummy, when you were singing that song and I was lying on the floor, guess what I saw?" I said, "What?" He said, "I saw a sun and Jesus sitting on it and two angels around Him."
A shining light! I believe God is calling us to be a shining light to those around us, whereever we are, whatever we are doing. I'm excited about what lies ahead, not only for our church, but for Christians everywhere.
I also had a revelation about serving God last night. We are servants of the King. A servant, of himself, has no power or authority. But when he goes in the name of the one he serves, he carries all the authority that his master has. For example, if I was a servant of the Queen of England, I could probably walk into a store and ask for service and as long as the owner of the store knew I was acting on behalf of the Queen, I could probably get anything I wanted and be first priority. But it wouldn't be my name or power that would be at work; but rather that of the Queen's. It is the same for us as servants of our King, Jesus Christ. It is not anything in us that is powerful, but rather the Name of Jesus and His authority that we walk in that gives us confidence to do all that He has asked of us.
Well, that's about all from me for now. I pray that your day will be blessed as you seek Him with all your heart. Grace and Peace, Lee :)
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Mon 14 January 2008 - Amazing God!
Greetings.
Well, I've just spent the last 10-20 minutes hanging clothes out in the rain! "In the rain?" I hear you ask increduously. "Who hangs clothes out in the rain?" Let me tell you...a mother of 5 children who has over a weeks worth of washing to do and no clothes dryer, that's who.
Let me explain why I was out hanging washing out in the rain (aside from necessity). Last night when we got back from church, I logged onto the net to send a message to a friend of mine. While checking my emails, I saw the messages from hsb alerting me to the fact that some lovely ladies had commented on my first post, and I was reminded about this fabulous opportunity to share my trials and victories with others.
When I first joined hsb I was wondering what kind of things I might write about and last night I had a revelation of what my next post would be about. So this morning I logged on to start writing about our amazing God! As I sat here wondering where to start and how I could bless others, God gently spoke into my heart, "I want you to bless your husband first."
You see, I think my husband is a bit upset with me this morning. Or as he put it..."life has just caught up with me", which in my mind translates into something I have done or not done that is contributing to him feeling upset, neglected, whatever is going through his mind that I've picked up on. Whether my analysis of the situation is true or not is a moot point. The fact is however, that part of the problem was probably due to the fact that he had difficulty locating a shirt to wear to work this morning because of the backlog of washing. (Mostly, but not entirely, due to rain, I might add)
So, as I sat here wondering where to start, God reminded me that I need to first bless my husband, which at this time meant getting the dry clothes off the line and hanging out the washing which he so dutifully got out of the washing machine and left in the basket for me to deal with at an appropriate time.
So begrudgingly I put down my pooter and got up to get the washing off the line. That done I proceeded with the next stage, which was hanging out the wet wasing. At which point, it promptly started spitting.
Now, in the past I have been out hanging the washing and it has started spitting and I've just thought, "Well Lord, Your will be done, I'm trusting You to get these clothes dry," and shortly after, it stops spitting. But not today. Instead, it started getting heavier. So there I am, hanging out clothes in the rain, wondering who is watching me and thinking, "That woman must be crazy!"
Three of my daughters had come out to play in the rain, afterall, Mum's out there so it must be ok; and one of them said, "Mum, why are you hanging out the clothes, it's raining!" My reply was something like, "Well, they need to get hung out, so we'll just trust God to stop the rain and send enough wind or sunshine to dry them. God willing, we'll have dry clothes by this afternoon." Well, by the time I had finished hanging out the clothes, the rain had stopped and all the grey clouds had blown away leaving blue sky and big white fluffy clouds like you might see on any other hot summer's day. God willing, we will have dry clothes by this afternoon.
Here ends part one of "Amazing God". Stay tuned for part Two.
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Sat 12 January 2008 - Hello
Well, hello.
This is my first ever blog. I was invited by my good friend Alex whose blog is Moments of Grace. I've been thinking lately that it would be good to use the internet as a way of encouraging my friends and wondering about it. Maybe this is God's answer to prayer.
Hopefully I will meet many new friends here and be able to bless and be blessed by many people.
Grace and Peace to all who visit here.
Your sister in Christ, Lee :)
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