Beautiful Day

Thursday, July 29, 2004

Spreading the fire

Lucinda Dooley was hot on fire today as she brought out her message today at Hillsong women.
Throughout her preaching I kept seeing a furnace, the flames within the furnace was so hot... almost too hot for the furnace to contain.
Those hot fires are not meant to be restrained in the furnace, they're meant to go out. Every single sparkle, flame has the capacity of lighting up a huge fire outside. If they all stay within the furnace, it will just remain a very very hot furnace, but if the fire goes out, a whole world will be changed.

As seen by Susan @ 2:45 PM

Giving (Part 3)

A healthy, good athlete needs to excercise, train on a regular basis. Consistently. Also his training needs to be planned and structured. If he has a goal of achieving a certain level of fitness and strength, he can't just excercise however he likes depending on what happens each day, spontaneously, but he has to plan and stick to it.
Too many times we give like an aimless athlete, spontaneously, without a plan. We start out our excercise saying, "Hmmm, it's a nice day today, maybe I'll just do a bit of running..." Then after the running we said, "I wish I had done some stretching first," or "Gym sounds good today, but I've ran out of my energy." Then after a certain period of time we wonder why we aren't achieving the goals that we'd like to meet. Certainly we're improving our health condition, but we're not getting the maximum result.
A clever athlete knows that in order for him to reach his maximum result, he needs to go to a coach and let the coach strategize a good plan for him, and he has to be faithful and obedient to the plan.
Well, we do have a plan already strategized for us in giving, to help us reach the maximum goal with the minimum effort. And the plan is ... tithe.

As seen by Susan @ 2:18 PM

Wednesday, July 28, 2004

On giving (part 2) (Part 1 is here.)

Giving needs to be consistent.
Just like excercise, if we want to see result, we need to keep it up regularly. It's not too hard to start, but usually after a couple of times, the muscles start to get sore, we feel the tiredness, we want to get back to the old routine of sleeping in, and we just tend to stop it there, until next time we get inspired again. Then during this break, the muscles get back to the old state, the sore's gone, we felt the stretch, then we "recovered", but the our health hasn't got a chance to improve.
The kind of excercise that will benefit our health is starting out with a realistic amount, and then keep it up. It takes quite an effort to break through with the old habit and strength level. We don't actually have to increase any amount until our muscle's totally getting used to the excercise that it's not a stretch any more, that it's just a new habit. Then with the increased capability of our health we can increase the amount little by little, every time with just a little more stretch, but stick to it until it becomes a new habit.

A lot of us give financially. But just like the irregular excercisers, we have to be inspired. We give, then we stop. Give again, then stop again... We want to see breakthrough with our finances, but we never give(excercise) long enough to pick up the flow. Emotional givers are just like emotional excercisers, the faith muscle never got a chance to get built up and strengthened. Our ability never get increased.

It's hard to form a new habit. But once it becomes a habit, once you taste the joy and reward of it, then it simply becomes a hobby, and it shouldn't be hard any more.

As seen by Susan @ 1:44 PM

Monday, July 26, 2004

Employee

Suppose you're an employee working for a multi-million dollar business. You've agreed on a set amount of annual income and your job is to do business for the big global company. Now you're a very gifted, clever businessman. And with your talent you can bring millions of dollars of benefit into the company. You become a manager. You have the right to choose what to buy or not to buy, what price to sell or not to sell, which company you'll do business with or which company not to do business with,etc. You become a big target for other people to bribe. With millions of dollars going through your hand everyday, it's very easy and tempting to keep some of the profit to yourself, although you've already got a decent salary. Some people might even beg you to take their bribe so you'd do business with them.
It's hard not to do so. It seems everyone else is doing it in different levels. But then one day the big boss might find out, then I'm not quite sure how happy he will be and if you can still keep your job.
It's the same way with the Kingdom matters. We're all in the kingdom business in different levels. Some are doing "multi-million dollar" business, and some are doing "one to one direct selling" business. We're a channel of God's blessings and His glory. Some people are really gifted in certain ways, and they can witness a mass amount of God's glory manifested through their ministry. Then it becomes a big temptation to keep some of the glory(money)to ourselves. When people pour out their love and adoration to a certain minister rather than God Himself, sometimes for the minister it can really be a kind of "bribe", and it's hard to not to take it.
God, the big boss, knows every detail and every secret. He's not short of talents and gifts, He's not short of salary and blessings, but He wants to find someone that He can trust, someone that will not steal the glory and treasure that belongs to Himself!

As seen by Susan @ 10:32 AM

Saturday, July 24, 2004

Just let me say

After so many years of being a Hillsong music fan, this song sang by Darlene Zschech's sister Deb Ezzy years ago is still my favourite song.

Just let me say

Just let me say how much I love You
Let me speak of Your mercy and grace
Just let me live in the shadow of Your beauty
Let me see You face to face
And the earth will shake as Your Word goes forth
And the heavens can tremble and fall
But let me say how much I love You
O my Saviour, my Lord and friend

Just let me hear Your finest whispers
As You gently call my name
And let me see Your power and Your glory
Let me feel Your Spirit's flame
Let me find You in the desert
'Til this sand is holy ground
And I am found completely surrendered
To You, my Lord and friend

So let me say how much I love You
With all my heart I long for You
For I am caught in this passion of knowing
This endless love I've found in You
And the depth of grace, the forgiveness found
To be called a child of God
Just makes me say how much I love You
O my Saviour, my Lord and friend
Just makes me say how much I love You
O my Saviour, my Lord and friend

As seen by Susan @ 3:52 PM

Encouragement (Part 3) (part1 part2)

Encouragement is like a transfer of energy.
It's like a battery charger. After a while, the battery is running down in it's energy, and whatever that's dependant on the battery seems running a bit flat. And then the battery charger comes in, and refill the battery to the full, so the other vehicle can run in it's full power again.
We all feel running low and flat sometimes, the "vehicle" is intact, but just the energy level is running down from time to time. If there's an encourager in our lives, the words he(she) speaks can have the effect like the battery charger, fuel it right up to the top, so we can have the full energy again.

As seen by Susan @ 1:55 PM

Friday, July 23, 2004

Prophesies -- Second look

At church of the Times of Refreshing at Parramatta, you're very likely to get prophesied.
Especially for the first time visitors, it's always very exciting to be prophesied by different people and have them all recorded onto the tape. Usually the words are from different angles, with directions, words of knowledge,etc. They're usually in great details and quite correct. Most of the times it's exciting because it comes with a promise and a glimpse of the future destiny that God desires to lead you into.
Well, I've had quite a few tapes of personal prophesies by now. I've always been craving for more prophesies, whoever it comes from. I like to know what God has to say to me.
But then this thought came to me as I was pondering why I haven't been having prophesies for a while. It's really like having a child. It's a great idea to think about having more children. The dreams of what these children can be when they grow up, what harvest they can bring.... But what about the 9 months pregnancy and the pain of childbirth, followed by endless nappy changes, feeding, crying, cleaning ups? and of course the sacrifice the mother has to make in career wise,etc?
I've had three children now. They're great blessings. And they are a handful. Am I gonna have another one or another few? I don't know. I don't think I can cope for the moment. But I'm not saying never either.
Maybe that's the same with prophesies? It's great to have a promise, but what about the pain of getting there? Do I really want another promise? Am I ready to cope with all the challenges and pressure that comes with that promise? Am I sure this is what I want to go through again?
God said, "Be fruitful, and multiply..."
After three kids, I have to say, "Yes but, just hold on a second..."
Now do I really want another prophesy? Another promise??
Hmmm....

As seen by Susan @ 2:19 PM

Thursday, July 22, 2004

Christian Carnival

Mr. Standfast is hosting Christian Carnival this week. He's doing such a good job. In fact, I really think he should take on a job as an editor for a newspaper or magazine. Go and have a look, there're lots of good reads and good blogs worth finding out.

As seen by Susan @ 11:32 AM

Australian Idol

In the beginning I wasn't into Australian idol thing at all, but after watching one show the other night I simply couldn't resist watching it again and again. It's just soooo funny.
One thing I have to say is, every time I watch it, I simply CAN NOT stop thinking about Jack. I so believe she should be in it and have a go. I seriously think she might make it!

As seen by Susan @ 1:39 AM

Tuesday, July 20, 2004

Lock

Locks represent ownership. Just about every valuable thing we own we put a lock to it, like house, car, drawers,etc. Locks also suggest a sense of protection and security.
With every lock it comes with a key.
You know me well enough by now,(hehe) I'm talking about locks in spiritual sense.
Lock means free will, will power. And key suggests decisions.
There are two situations that things can go wrong:
1. The lock doesn't lock properly.
This means that our will power is not strong enough. Strangers are free to come in and out. Robbers and thieves are not kept out. The key's working alright, but the lock's not working properly. For example, we decide to give up smoking, but we just don't have enough will power to resist the temptation.
Possible causes that the lock doesn't work:
a. It's rusty, or dirty -- needs a thorough clean up -- There's the presence of sin.
b. Something foreign's in it. Something's stuck in it -- Deliverance is needed.

2. Something's wrong with the key
The will power is strong enough to carry out the decisions, but something's wrong with our decisions. The lock becomes a dead lock, we're locked out of our own possesions, or we become prisoners, can't get out.
a. Wrong key -- wrong decisions
b. Dented or broken keys -- decisions not being carried out strictly.
c. The key's missing, it got lost!
Sometimes we get hurt, then we draw a little conclusion, and that becomes our decision. Say we had a bad relationship before, and uncontiously we made a decision(key), that we'd never let any other men get close to us again. Then as time went by, we forgot all about that decision we made, but the lock's definately been locked, dead tight. Then after a while we wonder why we're still single, why can't we get married again.... We forgot where we put our keys.
In this situation, all we need to do is to go back, and find our keys. Find out all the decisions we made, and turn(repent)it, change the direction, and the locks will be opened again.

Sometimes the locks and the keys are so wrong, they simply need to be replaced. This suggests born again, and be renewed by the Holy Spirit.

As seen by Susan @ 1:10 AM

Monday, July 19, 2004

Wound

When I was a child I wounded my leg once. I had a bad bruise around my knee. I was scared of the treatment so I just wrapped it up hoping it would just heal itself. A couple weeks later it was sort of healed a bit, there was some new skin grown on top of the bruise but I was still hurting pretty badly. So my mum took me to the doctor. The doctor had a look and said that it wasn't healed properly, the new skin was infected, and in order for the wound to heal, she had to scrap the new skin off and treat it afresh. Ouch, that really hurt bad. I could still remember vividly watching her scrapping the skin off, leaving the wound open again,and put new treatment on. It hurt even more than the first wound.
Well, sometimes that happens when dealing with spiritual and emotional wounds. Things like divorce, abuse,etc can hurt us like a big open wound. It hurt us so bad we're afraid of seeking help and the right treatment. We just want to quickly wrap it up and pretend that it's not there, and we comfort us that time will heal. But the fact is after a while we find ourselves living with a poisoned wound. It's partly healed, but the infection that's coming out of the untreated wound is bringing poison to the whole body, torturing, bothering, leaving no peace in mind. As time goes on, it can become harder to face treatment, as we need to let the doctors scrap the false self-protection off, and that hurts even worse! Sadly, so many people just let the situation goes on, and let the misery continue and they live their lives full of hatred, bitterness, anger, frustration,rejection etc. until the end of their lives.
If there's a wound, we need to face it and treat it properly. It takes courage to undergo a healing procedure, but if we do, most likely we'll be able to be healed properly and live our lives without the poisonous effects of the wounds.

As seen by Susan @ 12:38 PM

Sunday, July 18, 2004

Rachel and Leah (part 2)

Rebecca favoured Jacob and she sowed a seed of manipulation, deception, prejudice and injustice into her future generations. Joseph, being such a good boy himself, unfortunately had to reap every bit of what she had sowed.
Jacob loved Rachel. And they both loved Joseph more than anyone else. But even though Joseph survived the generational curse that's upon his life from birth, even though he even saved his nation by his own good faith and works, even though Jacob and Rachel had done all they could to pass down the generational blessings to him, he could not twist God's arm again to get the blessing as the bloodline of Abraham all the way to Jesus.
What the Lord's been teaching me through these is, "Seek my face, not my hands. If you seek my face, then my blessings will be upon your children."
So many parents are using their manipulative powers to gain benefit for their children, most of them uncontiously. Their children can be just like Joseph, as good as they can be. But if all we're seeking is God's hands, we might get what we want for now, but we're missing out the real big blessings big time.
Sometimes it's hard to live like Leah. It's hard to not to have the love and praise of man. Everyone wants to follow Rachel: "I'll have what she's having". But if you have a mindset of eternal benefit, your point of view might change.
The Lord's been telling me, "If you seek my face, then I will not forget my hands. And the blessings upon your children and your children's children will be appointed."

As seen by Susan @ 3:42 PM

Interesting sites

Which book of the Bible are you?

I'm a Proverb.

If you are into Olympics or Australian Idol, here's two sites that have lots of discussions. Olympics http://www.livingroom.org.au/olympics/
Australian Idol http://www.australian.idolblog.com

As seen by Susan @ 1:29 PM

Tuesday, July 13, 2004

Free to be yourself

Joyce Meyer spoke on the Sunday services at Hillsong church. She was talking about how to be free to be yourself.
This has brought a lot of thoughts and freedom in me.
I remember I have a few close friends here. We used to get together every week to have lunch or go out for something. But after a while I felt so guilty and ashamed of myself that I stopped being with them. Here's why. One of them has a father that's the finest cook in Guangzhou. Those of you who love Chinese food knows that Guangzhou is famous for it's food. Her father is not only a good cook, but also a cook trainer. And she's definately her father's daughter, she started cooking from 8 years old and she can cook up a big feast with no sweat. Whenever I go to her house, she'll always put up a whole table of delicious food that's five star hotel standard, even if it's only for lunch. Well, another friend who is her closest friend, used to be a waitress in five star hotels in China. Her husband, who was an Australian Malaysian stayed in her hotel once and was so impressed with her service that he ended up marrying her! She was superior with her room service. Now whenever I go to her house, it is always spotless clean and tidy. Well, they have been closest friends for a long time, and they both can cook(for feast) and they both manage the house and garden extremely well.
Now I never cooked and I never cleaned house at my parents place. I only started pretty much after I got married. My mother grew up with 12 servants in her house so she didn't have much idea on cooking and cleaning either.
Now you can understand why I stopped going out with my friends? All those time I was trying to be one of them that I forgot God created me differently! I felt miserable and exaulsted trying to keep up with their standard and I was sick of having to come up with excuses all the time. They never said anything bad to me. But uncontiously they've set a standard that was never meant for me to meet.
Now do you understand what I'm trying to say? You might be in a different social circle, church, work place,etc and there're people around you with their different giftings. You could be just like me, have been busy trying to function in their giftings and forgot about your own!
It's just like, an ear trying to be an eye. He can improve, learn, but it can never see as good as an eye. And if all his years he's been trying to be an eye and forgot that he's an ear, he'd never be happy and fulfilled. Sometimes he can even get so angry at God because he couldn't smell as good as Mr. Nose. But in fact, no matter how hard he prayed and tried, God can care less about his ability to smell. How many people have wished they could be Darlene Zschech or they could have a church like Hillsong?
God created gifts in each and everyone of us, but He never meant for us to compare and compete with each other. We're meant to use our gifts to serve one another and be benefited from each other.
So, if all you can do is to hear, be happy! You don't have to feel guilty and miserable because you can't smell or talk or whatever. Just hear and that's plenty. But if you don't do the job that you're created to do, then the whole body will suffer.

As seen by Susan @ 10:08 AM

Sunday, July 11, 2004

Eating

Our natural bodies need to be fed constantly. If we're not eating properly, we know we'll end up having health problems and to the extreme situation we'd die.
But how do we eat? That can be a little different from people to people.
If it's a baby, when she gets hungry, she'd just cry. She'd scream, yell, until mommy comes with the milk. Mommy will gently cuddle her, nurse her, pat her to make her feel loved and comfortable.
When the baby gets older, into a little child, she gets a bit better. But sometimes she still gets fussy and picky. She still needs her mommy to cook, prepare all the food, bring them to her, and sometimes even "force" her to eat.
Then she grows older again, getting into the habit of eating regularly on time, eating until full, finish her dinner before leaving the table.
Then she becomes an adult. She needs to find food for herself now. She needs to be disciplined for herself to eat regularly on time without being reminded or forced or encouraged.
The same is with our spiritual health. How often do you eat(take the word)? How regular do you eat? Do you eat like a baby, just cry out when you get hungry and waiting for someone to come and comfort you and feed you? Or do you eat only when someone prepares the message and bring it to your table(church) and still sometimes have to "smack" you to make you finish the dinner? Do you eat regularly, but still has to be taught by someone else? Or do you just know that you've got to eat every day and you'll find food to eat even if it means you've got to work for it? If someone invites you over for a meal, that would be nice, but you wouldn't depend on it, and what's more, you'd even invite people over to your place to share your meal with them.
Are you happy with your spiritual health condition? If not, maybe you should check your eating pattern.

Eating (part 2)

As mature adults we know that in order to put food on the table we need to work. Sometimes it's a lot of hassle to go to work. We need to get up early in the mornings, shower, put make up on, make lunches,arrange childcare for kids, drive through the traffic... and while at work, we need to give our full attention to work....
Now in order to eat properly as mature adults in the spirit, do we go to any trouble at all to "work" for it? Do we set a time aside for "work" and give our full attention? It needs a lot of discipline to be able to keep the work and not being fired.
Joyce Meyer said at Hillsong Conference 2004, that the monthly financial need to run her ministry is 7 million dollars. "How on earth can I manipulate people and to influence people to give me that much money every month?" She said the key to her success is 3 times a day she sets herself aside to spend time with God.

As seen by Susan @ 11:42 PM

Saturday, July 10, 2004

Stand in awe

In a conference like Hillsong, you can experience waves and waves of God's glory and His presense. It's easy to get to an emotional high and just feel overwhelmed by the beauty of His presense.
The thing is, if you're just too busy enjoying the feelings, when the waves are gone, when the feelings faded, you're left with nothing but memory. But if you can remain cool in the heat of the emotions, you'll receive something solid that will last much longer.
Too much presense, one will blow up. Too much word, one will dry up. Some bread, some drink, you'll feel full and satisfied.
Sometimes when the drink comes first, we tend to just keep drinking and drinking, leaving no room for solids. But if all your having is water, sure it will quench your thirst, but pretty soon you'll still be feeling hungry rather than satisfied.
I remember some preacher said once, when the presense of God comes, don't fall, STAND! Take the bread as well!
For me personally, I find God will always speak to me in His presense, especially during worship time. If I have a ear to listen, then He will speak. But a lot of the times I'm just too busy looking around, too busy feeling good, too busy trying to sing right(Thanks to those singing lessons I took and the knowledge I got for the techniques..lol) that I miss giving God my full attention and then miss out on what He has to say to me. Interestingly, a lot of the times the messages that the preachers brought about later on are from a different angle of the messages God speaks to me during the worship time.

As seen by Susan @ 3:03 PM

Rachel and Leah

They both loved Jacob. Rachel got Jacob's praise and love, but Leah got the blessings of the children. Rachel had what a normal girl would dream of. Leah seemed to live a life of misery, but she stored up treasures for the generations to come. Jesus was born out of Leah's descendant, not Rachel's.
Rachel seeked the hands of God. But Leah seeked the face of God. Rachel was popular. Leah's life seemed nothing but pain, yet she turned God's favor into her children. Rachel died of tragedy, the very thing she loved most brought death to her. Leah lived a normal life, and yet she birthed glory and everlasting,evergrowing treasure in eternity. Rachel reaped all her harvest while she lived. Leah died, and her harvest started to begin...
Not many people would prefer to live like Leah, and yet it was Leah that got God's heart.
Rachel had the love and praise of man. The reward? she's got it all, not much more to come.
Leah was rejected and ignored by man. Her very presense seemed to be just annoying and full of nonsense. But God appointed to her the very blessing that mattered. What other blessings can compare to have Jesus as a descendant? What harvest would that be?
Two sisters, one happy, one sad on earth, one sad, one happy in heaven.

Continue reading Part 2

As seen by Susan @ 2:18 PM

Friday, July 09, 2004

Inheritance

Jentezen Franklin at Hillsong Conference 2004 was talking about spiritual inheritance today. It was such a powerful message.
As children of parents we start out our lives differently. Some start out living poor, while some others start out already being millionairs. As a general rule, parents will pass down all their results of their whole lives to the generations to come. Most of the children, if not crazy, will gladly inherit what used to belong their parents and ancesters and then continue to build their lives upon that blessings.
We have spiritual inheritance as well. Every good deed that our parents and ancesters did is a deposit in the heavenly bank account. They are accumulated and can be passed down to the next generations. We start out our lives on a different levels of God's blessings.
The Bible says that we're to honour our parents so our lives can prosper. The key to transfer the heavenly account that our fathers have accumulated to our bank account is all in the word "honour". In other words,honour can mean to acknowledge, to admit the benefit and to be thankful. If we have a million dollar inheritance but we don't admit that's rightfully ours, that million dollar wouldn't do us any good even though we are the lawful claimers.
So, seeing the benefits that you can have, would you still hold the grudging attitude toward your parents and not honour them? If you do, you'll be missing out big time.
I'm thankful for my parents for leading me to Jesus at a young age and for faithfully supporting and praying for me. I'm thankful for my grandfather, even though I hardly even know his name, I believe he had left a world of treasure for me. He was a pastor and was nearly appointed as a bishop in China. He had gained a theology degree in Harvard university. He died of a sudden heart attack in his thirties leaving his 15 children behind. It was interesting, he was actually quite wealthy and had quite a big saving in some bank in the states. But because he died so suddenly, nobody, even his wife had any idea where he had put his money. To this day nobody had ever found out where those treasure had gone. So my father grew up nearly as an orphan. But since he was nominated as the bishop of all the pastors in China at his time, he must have done some good and have gained enough respect. As a matter of fact, this is all I know about my grandfather. I'm thankful that I have a grandfather that my heavenly father knows and had covenant with, and I do feel favored because of that.
Lord, please forgive me for all the irrespectful words that I have said toward my parents and other ancestors. I'm thankful for all the good things that they have done before your eyes!

As seen by Susan @ 11:22 PM

Thursday, July 08, 2004

Hillsong Conference

It's awesome! I've been so busy being an usher at the conference but I'm enjoying every minute of it. It's so rich. I'm having such a spiritual feast.
I thought I've heard enough of Joyce Meyer now, I've watched her so much on TV. But today hearing her preaching alive totally changed my way of thinking, I'm falling in love with her now! She's so awesome and so real.
And this is some of the things God showed me today:
"The footsteps of the righteous are ordered by God". I know where I'm going, I can see the place that God has called me to go. And I can see the path.There are two angels on each side of me holding my arms. They're putting down beautiful paving stones to help me get to the place I'm heading. They put the piece down, waiting for me to step on it, firming it down to the earth so then they can put down the next piece. But unless I stand and take hold of it, and press it down, they can't put the next piece down. There are a lot of pieces to get there and it's a long way.But sometimes I just get so busy looking there(the place I want to go) and looking around, I can't be bothered taking ahold of the present. The longer I delay, the longer it takes to proceed, and the longer it will take to get to my destiny. Like any jobs we do, they always look enormous at the beginning, a lot of the times we don't know where to start, how on earth we can possibly finish that job, but as soon as we start moving, start with the little things that we know, and pretty soon we'll get into it and get the flow, and then we'll find we'll get the speed going and amazingly the job gets done! The same with getting to our destiny, it seems so vague and so far away at the beginning, but as soon as we start to take care of the little things that God has laid in our hands for the moment, we'll start to get the moving going, and we'll start to get into it. The angels are there to help us, they're eager and deligent and wanting to pave our ways to get there, but unless we take hold of each step that God has ordered for us to step on, we'll never get to go anywhere. So my thought for today is, look to the future, but focus on the present.
Another things is, the Word says, if anyone's thirsty, let him drink. If anyone's hungry, let him eat. Our spiritual person inside is just like our flesh bodies. Our bodies need to be fed three times a day, and we need to drink constantly. And so's our spiritual body. We need to constantly, three times a day, feed ourselves with spiritual food, and constantly allow ourselves to come to the presence of the Father to drink. Only by this way can our spiritual body be healthy and nourished. Have you been starving your spiritual body? I have. Sometimes I fed myself, and I drank, but most of the times I'm still hungry and thirsty. Well, you can't expect to be full and satisfied if you only eat once a week, right? So are we looking after our spiritual body just as well as we looking after our natural body? This is the challenge the Lord's giving me today.
Thirdly, don't worry about people's response. Stay close to God. Don't be ruled by people's reactions. Joyce was saying, that in the beginning of her ministries, her emotions were ruled by the amount of the mails in the letterbox. Some of the days she'll get a few mails, and she'd be wild. Some other days the mailbox was empty and she'd feel miserable. She'd get so ruled by her emotions that she missed God's purpose. When she started to concentrate on spending time with God and getting close with God, then God started to take care of her mail box. This really relates to me in blogging. The "comments" is a good thing. But sometimes it can take away so much of our attention that we miss our focus.
Interestingly, so many preachers have been talking about Moses, from different angles. I kept talking to myself, "there you go, Moses again..."

As seen by Susan @ 11:07 PM

Monday, July 05, 2004

Jack is here!

Jack is here! I still can't believe it. I only found out about her blog maybe a couple of months ago (don't even remember how I found out) and now she's here in our house, all the way from Florida!
Anyway she arrived safe and sound, another blogger friend whom she never met before either picked her up and took her to Hillsong church, as she lived around city, much closer to the airport, and Jack's been to 3 services already! I think she loved them all. A lot of the people have already arrived for the conference so yesterday at Hillsong it was jam packed. They also announced their miracle offering they received last weekend, which was 5 million dollars, and that's above the normal tithes and offering. After the Hillsong services she came to Times of Refreshing church at Parramatta, and she received quite a bit of prophesies from 5-6 people, and they recorded all the prophesies on a tape for her. The words covered quite a range or areas, from ministry, work to her personal life, with encouragement and directions. She was in tears before they finished. In the midst of prophesing to her, the pastor suddenly turned to me and said, "the word for you is, the Lord says not to go to China now. You will go to China in the future, but not now. It's not ready..." So there you go, no China for now. Then she continued to prophesy to Jack. I think the words for her are very exciting, but I'd better leave it for her to write about. The conference starts tonight, and she's having a bit of tour around the Opera house,etc during the day.
I think she likes our house, especially the lights(There are about 50 lights in the main living-kitchen area), although it's not quite finished.

As seen by Susan @ 9:21 AM

Thursday, July 01, 2004

Winter

It's winter here now. Not too cold actually, I'm only wearing a T shirt right now.
It's winter in my spiritual walk as well now, and I'm enjoying it immensely.
It's a season that there's really not much to see on the surface, all the leaves have fallen, no fruit, no harvest, but deep down inside there's a lot going on: only between you and the life giver. It's really important to have a good solid long winter, so that you can store up enough life inside to cope with the coming spring and summer. Harvest season's nice, but it'll be exhausting, and without a solid winter, the harvest will fall short and won't be able to stand.
Autumn can be sentimental, but there's not even a worry in the winter. All the outside is gone and forgotten, what is remained and strengthened is the richness of God Himself, His loving presence and His faithfulness.

As seen by Susan @ 3:10 PM

Faith

I can't remember which preacher said this(I think it's Smith Wigglesworth), "Faith is the currency in the kingdom of God"
Sometimes we want God to show us a miracle so that we can believe. But it's just like going to a shop, wanting to buy a washing machine but don't want to pay! So it's really simple, you want a miracle? then "buy" it with faith. How many miracles we want is really depending on how much faith we have.

As seen by Susan @ 2:49 PM