This is a link to Mason's blogggggggggg ;-) Go bro!

College Assessments

So far, I have handed in the first three assignments already ...am on a roll, but I have to be because my sister's baby is due around exam time - agggghhhh

What's in your wardrobe?

This is what I found in Julz' walk-in-wardrobe .... ewwwwwwwwwww

Today's devotion

This is today's evening devotion from the Sword Searcher program.

Ps 46:1

"A very present help." --Psalm 46:1

Covenant blessings are not meant to be looked at only, but to be appropriated. Even our Lord Jesus is given to us for our present use. Believer, thou dost not make use of Christ as thou oughtest to do. When thou art in trouble, why dost thou not tell Him all thy grief? Has He not a sympathizing heart, and can He not comfort and relieve thee? No, thou art going about to all thy friends, save thy best Friend, and telling thy tale everywhere except into the bosom of thy Lord. Art thou burdened with this day's sins? Here is a fountain filled with blood: use it, saint, use it. Has a sense of guilt returned upon thee? The pardoning grace of Jesus may be proved again and again. Come to Him at once for cleansing. Dost thou deplore thy weakness? He is thy strength: why not lean upon Him? Dost thou feel naked? Come hither, soul; put on the robe of Jesus' righteousness. Stand not looking at it, but wear it. Strip off thine own righteousness, and thine own fears too: put on the fair white linen, for it was meant to wear. Dost thou feel thyself sick? Pull the night-bell of prayer, and call up the Beloved Physician! He will give the cordial that will revive thee. Thou art poor, but then thou hast "a kinsman, a mighty man of wealth." What! wilt thou not go to Him, and ask Him to give thee of His abundance, when He has given thee this promise, that thou shalt be joint heir with Him, and has made over all that He is and all that He has to be thine? There is nothing Christ dislikes more than for His people to make a show-thing of Him, and not to use Him. He loves to be employed by us. The more burdens we put on His shoulders, the more precious will He be to us.

"Let us be simple with Him, then, Not backward, stiff, or cold, As though our Bethlehem could be What Sinai was of old."

Sword Searcher

I am sooooooooo stoked. One of my kewl brothers from college, Mason, has got me hooked on SwordSearcher, which is an awesome program that enables you to dig deeply into the Bible and gain new insight into what the Scriptures are saying. There are different translations of the Bible, commentaries from a variety of authors with different perspectives, all sorts of really interesting articles to read and there's even a collection of very enlightening images stored in the database.... I've pasted in two that I particularly like.

I also found a link to daily devotions. Today's one really hit me hard - it must have been for me. Funny thing is, it appears to be written in a really old fashioned style of writing ... not sure if you can change it. I'm still trying to get my head around the wealth of information and how to use all the little icons and drop-down menus and things ;-) Praise God!!!

Sparky likes to study

...well ok, not really. He just likes to eat my notes ;-)

Spiritual relatives

This is a piccy of Josie and I. Josie is like a spiritual mother to me, a real gift from God. When I first met her at a prophetic prayer conference, she told me that God told her I was meant to be at Bible college. I was not in the slightest bit interested back then. She told me she prayed for me every day after she met me, and then God spoke to me personally and told me to go. Fancy that ;-)

This is a silly poem Josie gave me ;-)

When God gave out brains, I thought He said train and I missed mine. When He gave out looks, I thought He said books and I didn't have any. When He gave out noses, I thought He said roses, so I ordered a big one. When He gave out legs, I thought He said kegs, so I ordered two big fat ones. When He gave out ears, I thought He said beers, so I ordered two long ones. When He gave out chins, I thought He said gins, so I ordered a double. Boy am I a mess!
[Ardywon Marton]

Call of God

One of my lecturers, Ps Eunice, told us today that she has walked with God since she was four years old... and now some 65 years later, she is still going strong, having never departed from doing His will. Pretty amazing. It helps that she was born into a precious home with loving, spirit-filled devout Christian parents who prayed for her every day! That's what my children will be like ;-)

Anyway, what was really interesting is that she said that during her life, because she had the gift of administration (i.e. she was great at organising things), many people tried to get her to fulfill jobs requiring this gift. Seems fair enough, I mean, she was good at them and enjoyed organising things. But her point being, that although God has given each one of us certain gifts, it doesn't mean that jobs requring the use of those gifts 100% of our time is what God wants us to do. In fact she said that some people miss their calling because they get caught up in doing minor things they are good at, rather than the major thing they are meant to be doing with their lives.

There are actually three different types of gifts mentioned in the Bible:
- firstly, the nine manifestation gifts referred to in 1 Corinthians 12
(i.e. words of wisdom, words of knowledge, discernment of spirits, prophecy, tongues, interpretation of tongues, faith, healing and miracles);
- secondly, the five-fold ministry gifts referred to in Ephesians 4:11
(i.e. teachers, prophets, apostles, evangelists and pastors); and
- thirdly, the motivational gifts referred to in Romans 12:6-8
(i.e. prophecy, ministry, teaching, exhortation, giving, administration and mercy).

At 69 years old, Ps Eunice is deeply content and satisfied because she discovered (many years ago) that God's purpose for her life was for her to be a teacher of the Word of God, rather than being an administrative assistant or some other role that uses the gift of administration. She said her gifts of being able to organise things well, among others, have definitely come in handy, but if she had put all her attention to doing those tasks, she would have missed the ultimate purpose God had for her.

Wow, I wonder what God's purpose is for me. I was really inspired - imagine getting to that age and knowing you have lived a life in accordance with God's soverign plan.

Holidays almost gone

Well today is my last day of holidays. So far i have spent almost every day doing work around Julz' house. I have:

• - cleaned out her kitchen pantry (which included ditching pungent dried anchovies, which had almost become powder form because they were so old, spider-infested oolong tea, moth-filled flour and oats and all kinds of seeds and removing cockroach and insect carcasses, etc... ewwwww);
  
• - shampooed the carpets in her house upstairs (included four of the five bedrooms and the corridors) and cleaned her staircase carpet by hand.... after which i had such a bad allergic reaction from all the pet hair, that i spent about half a day recovering;
  
• - sorted out all her clothes, washed them, dried them, categorised them (jackets, dresses, skirts, trousers, shirts, underwear - all in different locations), hung them up and paired about 200 socks with their respective partners (there are still about 50 socks without a mate!). She had piles and piles of dirty and clean clothes mixed together at the bottom of five built-in wardrobes, not to mention in garbage bags in the laundry, in wash baskets in her bedroom, loose all around the house and in the garage! - i even found dirty underwear stuffed into the bookshelves and lounge room furniture!;


• - swept, vacuumed and mopped all the hard floors downstairs - which unfortunately are constantly being dirtied each day predominantly by her dogs, who swim, then dig holes, then bring their mudied selves inside;


• - re-arranged the rooms upstairs where her two indoor cats live, including emptying tray after tray of cat litter into the garden - apparently makes great soil conditioner;


• - employed a friend, Brett, from college to help me clean up her backyard. Together, we picked up dog poo, raked rocks, pulled out weeds, pulled the vines off her shed, mowed and wipper-snipped the lawns and threw the grass cuttings in the peripheral garden beds! - it took us three hours; and


• - moved a few car loads of boxes from her house to mum's house, about an hour away.... to clear some space in her wardrobes.
  

So yeah, it has been a very busy time for me. Pretty satisfying seeing the end results, especially the garden. I felt really depressed looking at the garden each day - it was such an eyesore previously with over a foot-high long grass and waist-high weeds, and the stench of dog poo (over a year's worth from two dogs) just hit you when you walked near the back door.

I was so grateful to have Brett helping me. He said picking up dog poo was nothing compared to some of his previous work experience, which included working as Funeral Director. In that role, he apparently had to collect dead bodies, counsel the families and arrange the funeral. He said one time, he was called to a house where an old lady had died in the shower and the water had been running for two weeks over her until she was found. Her body literally fell apart as he picked it up. In other cases, he has had to retrieve decomposing bodies, some of which were children. What a horrible job. Back then he took drugs just to get over the images he saw. I guess there is always work available, you just need to have a strong stomach or drugs.

Anyway, after we finished the garden, there was so much joy in Julz' dogs' faces. They ran around and around playing games. It was so lovely to see them. What a transformation.

There is still heaps to do - many of the walls in her house are really brown because the dogs have pushed themselves up against them when they've been all muddy, and the windows all need washing, having not been cleaned probably since she moved into the house! The garage is an absolute shocker with all sorts of creepy crawleys in the dark corners (that's my next big project, but i've run out of time). There's also a lot of garbage to throw out, but Julz needs to be there to decide what to ditch, cos she's gets a bit cranky when i throw away stuff..... I also want to organise one of those professional mobile dog washers to come by and bathe the dogs. No matter how much i try and clean them, the bath water is always black.

Man, i am a good sister to her. One day she'll really appreciate all the stuff i do. At this stage, she has been very unwell because she is preggers and working very long hours, so hasn't really been able to comprehend what i've done.

The outcome of mixing genetics

My old chum Andrew (who is from Kenya) and his beautiful wife Pennie (from Australia) just had their first son Isaac on the 29 March 2008. Looks like neither of them really ;-) We were all very curious to see what he looked like. Haha ... pretty cute little chap. The proud parents are also below

New home

Feeling a bit frustrated tonight cos i gotta find a new place to live yet again .... aggghhhh ... Julz said Wolfy would love to share a place with me, but that would just be way too complicated in every possible way, especially when Julz has her baby. No thanks. I'm not keen on sharing with a bloke anyway, and especially not one who has entirely different beliefs and values to me. My life has enough challenges already!

There are lotsa people at college that want housemates, but i'm thinking i'd prefer to pay a bit more for my own space. I also have a lot of furniture I want to move into the place. Julz is moving from a 5 bedroom x 3 bathroom mansion into a 3 bedroom x 1 bathroom place, so I get lots of hand-me-downs ;-) Definitely no room for anyone else's junk. Haha

Anyways, I can't get over how much rent has increased in the time I've crashed at mum and Julz' houses..... i'm looking at a little place in Crawley and it's $200/pw, for just bare essentials. Crazy. About six years ago I paid $150/pw for a gorgeous little place, well double the size, in Subiaco. Uuuurggghhhh ... oh well, I guess there's a price for doing God's will. I know I'm meant to be at bible college this year and maybe next year too and it's a big sacrifice not working, but from a spiritual point of view, it's a huge investment.

I have heard people say so many times now that what we do this year will determine what the next seven year cycle of our lives is like. Wow!!! The year of new beginnings ...

Some more piccies

Wolfy put these piccies up on the web, which i've posted here just for the record... Julz said he has just accepted a job working as a doctor on a cruise ship, so he wont be around for her baby's birth. I'm not sure what Julz has told him, but it is such a complicated mess. God promised me though that He will perfect all that concerns me (Psalm 138:8).

Sparky

The lady at the pet store gave this really cute orange cat tunnel to Julz today when she went to buy some more food.... it was an instant hit with Sparky ;-) ...kinda looks a bit like he is in the instentines of some animal!

Renovations

Well this is part of the amazing renovations Julz has been doing.... the new kitchen and bathroom. Pretty satisfying seeing the end product!

A weight off our shoulders!

Last Saturday morning mum and I headed up to Julz's place in Stirling and despite the intense pouring rain, we shovelled broken bricks, tiles, concrete, wood and other interesting things into this mini-skip bin. We were so filthy, drenched and exhausted that we only lasted a couple of hours, then headed home. Yesterday and today after I finished college, we headed there again and we finished it off. It was hard work and we didn't have anyone we could ask for help - my bro is back in Ireland and Julz's bf is doing some off-shore work down near Exmouth... urrrggh - so we had no choice but to do the hard labor. Our motivation was the thought of pregnant Julz doing it herself - we just couldn't deal with that.

I can't wait for the day we have a great family, which includes strong blokes that can help with things like this. A lot of people take their wonderful families for granted. We didn't start off with a good one, however, I know without a doubt that we're going to have an amazing family through our kids. Praise God.

Revelation Knowledge

Recently, two big revelations have hit me in college.

The first was the revelation that when a person accepts Jesus as their Lord and Saviour, they become righteous. Righteousness is the ability to stand in the presence of God without a sense of guilt, condemnation or inferiority. It's becoming superior to satan and gaining the understanding that we can freely ask God for anything in accordance with His will for us and confidently know that He will listen to us and grant us our request. There is a Scripture that says "the effectual, fervant prayers of a righteous man avail much" - James 5:16b and for many years, I kept praying God would make me righteous because i wanted Him to answer my prayers. Anyway, having the revelation that I am that righteous person has given me this real excitement inside. I now have a greater passion for prayer ;-) Praise God!!!

The second was the revelation that when we are fearful, we are actually full-of-fear. Fear is the reciprocal of faith (faith is "the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" - Hebrews 11:1). Anyway, Ps Jim told us that when we are full of fear, it is equivalent to us having more faith in the devil than we do in God. His words peirced my heart and i went away feeling shocked! That night I claimed back the territory i had given to the devil and put it into God's big hands. Since then (about three weeks ago), i have had the deepest deepest peace.

Although all the same family problems are there, i have not felt at all worried or fearful or anxious about them. Consequently, my sleep has been peaceful - a big contrast to before that revelation. I was previously tossing and turning and so traumatised thinking but "what if this or that happened"... When i couldn't sleep before, i struggled to get out of bed in the morning. I couldn't pray properly, my worship time was compromised and i couldn't concentrate in class very well, so i was missing many of the pearls of wisdom that were generously being given to us through each lecturer. Wow, what a difference now.

In addition, it's like there is a tape player playing church songs inside me 24/7. All these songs that i heard in church so many years ago when i wasn't a committed Christian are going over and over in my mind. It is very beautiful. I'll end this post with the most recent song:

You are beautiful beyond description

You are beautiful beyond description
Too marvellous for words
Too wonderful for comprehension
Like nothing ever seen or heard
Who can grasp
You're infinite wisdom
Who can fathom the depth of Your love
You are beautiful beyond description
Majesty, enthroned above
And I stand, I stand in awe of You
And I stand, I stand in awe of You
Holy God to whom all praise is due
I stand in awe of You

Update

Had two exams today - one on Praise, the other on Prayer. Now I just have one to go - man, cannot wait until I'm done!!!

Tonight I'm headed to VLC Prayer for the Nations. Tomorrow night I'm going to the Well. Saturday morning I'm going to the quarterly Prayer & Muffins event at VLC and to Phil's 30th at Hillarys Pot Black and Emil's 32nd at Broken Hill Hotel in Vic Pk at night. Sunday morning I'm going to the W/O Walls Celebration Service in the morning and am working in the VLC bookshop at night. Some time during the weekend, I have to help my big sis clean up her Stirling house, which has a lotta rubbish cos of all the renovations she's been doing.

Agggghhh, too many commitments!

Exams ...

Well at this stage, I have had four exams and have three to go - two are tomorrow and the final one is on Monday. My brain feels fried, too much information in too short a time.

Mind you, it has been life-changing information crammed in because it's the Word of God. The Word of God is living and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart (Hebrews 4:12). According to Joshua 1:8, meditating on the Word of God day and night makes me prosperous and successful in all that I do and Proverbs 4:22 tells me that it will fill me with life and divine glowing health.

I have learnt the value of reading the Word of God out loud because "faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God" (Romans 10:17) and angels hearken to the Word of God (Psalm 103:20). If we don't speak the Word of God, then how are the angels meant to hear it and perform what it says?

For the first time in my life, I have tasted that deep peace that surpasses all understanding. It is in my soul and my heart. I finaly know without a doubt that I'm walking in the will of God. Praise God.

Wolfy

This is a piccy of Wolfy as a one-year old toddler ... it will be interesting to see how similar his baby photo looks to mum's first grandchild ...