thoughts, testimonies, news and all such things

2007-11-12T05:56:00.000-08:00

These words from Dr.Moorehead mirror my thoughts too and I suspect many people. It probably is something most people realize in some way or the other, but then remain trapped in it all. Because if we're honestly going to do those 'things that really matter' things that he lists at the end of the article, on any kind of regular basis, it means making some life changing decisions and most people consider that an'impossibility'. Thank God we serve a God who makes the impossible possible.

Remember

By Dr Moorehead

The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider freeways , but narrower viewpoints. We spend more, but have less, we buy more, but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time. We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but less wellness.

We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom.

We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often.

We've learned how to make a living, but not a life. We've added years to life not life to years. We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor. We conquered outer space but not inner space. We've done larger things, but not better things.

We've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul. We've conquered the atom, but not our prejudice. We write more, but learn less. We plan more, but accomplish less. We've learned to rush, but not to wait. We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but we communicate less and less.

These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small character, steep profits and shallow relationships. These are the days of two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses, but broken homes. These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill. It is a time when there is much in the showroom window and nothing in the stockroom. A time when technology can bring this letter to you, and a time when you can choose either to share this insight, or to just hit delete...

Remember; spend some time with your loved ones, because they are not going to be around forever.

Remember; say a kind word to someone who looks up to you in awe, because that little person soon will grow up and leave your side.

Remember; give a warm hug to the one next to you, because that is the only treasure you can give with your heart and it doesn't cost a cent.

Remember; say, "I love you" to your partner and your loved ones, but most of all mean it. A kiss and an embrace will mend hurt when it comes from deep inside of you.

Remember; hold hands and cherish the moment for someday that person will not be there again.

Give time to love, give time to speak! And give time to share the precious thoughts in your mind.

AND ALWAYS REMEMBER:

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

2007-07-11T07:07:00.000-07:00

This was written by one of my new myspace friends Steven Andrew. I think it's really cool and witty.

RECALL
Body: The Maker of all human beings is recalling all units manufactured,
regardless of make or year, due to a serious defect in the primary and
central component of the heart. This is due to a malfunction in the
original prototype units code named Adam and Eve, resulting in the
reproduction of the same defect in all subsequent units.

This defect has been technically termed 'Subsequential Internal
Non-Morality,' or more commonly known as S.I.N, as it is primarily expressed.

Some other symptoms include:

1. Loss of direction
2. Foul vocal emissions
3. Amnesia of origin
4. Lack of peace and joy
5. Selfish or violent behavior
6. Depression or confusion in the mental component
7. Fearfulness
8. Idolatry
9. Rebellion

The Manufacturer, who is neither liable nor at fault for this defect,
is providing factory-authorized repair and service free of charge to
correct this SIN defect. The Repair Technician, Jesus, has most generously
offered to bear the entire burden of the staggering cost of these
repairs. There is no additional fee required.

The number to call for repair in all areas is: P-R-A-Y-E-R.

Once connected, please upload your burden of SIN through the REPENTANCE
procedure.

Next, download ATONEMENT from the Repair Technician, Jesus,
into the heart component.

No matter how big or small the SIN defect is, Jesus will replace it
with:

1. Love
2. Joy
3. Peace
4. Patience
5. Kindness
6. Goodness
7. Faithfulness
8. Gentleness
9. Self control

Please see the operating manual, the B.I.B.L.E. (Believers'
Instructions Before Leaving Earth)
For further details on the use of these fixes......

WARNING: Continuing to operate the human being unit without correction
voids any manufacturer warranties, exposing the unit to dangers and
problems too numerous to list and will result in the human unit being
permanently impounded.

2007-07-04T21:15:00.000-07:00

Yay!! I have time to say something on me blog again...

A few days ago the leadership team at The Vine (my home church) got together for dinner and we were all asked to share one brief tip on leadership, and I was thrilled that almost all suggestions pointed towards servant leadership. I can't tell you how awesome an experience it is when you serve with a group of leaders who have an attitude like this. This is the kind of atmosphere that nurtures real and genuine friendships and honestly I am all for that.

Anyway, that was a tangent...a nice tangent : ), but what I really want to write about is the comment I ended up making on leadership. I said something to the effect that we should use encouragement rather than discouragement to motivate and lead our team.

Now these days, more and more, when I say something sensible like that : ), I tend to recall it during my private times with Jesus and give Him credit for it. So I was doing that this morning and He smiled and took that statement a bit further saying, 'use encouragement you mean rather than discouragement you don't mean'.

It's true isn't it?

Encouragement that ends up being just nice words someone is saying has a way of falling flat and failing miserably in the long run doesn't it?
On the other hand being nastier than you actually are or losing it when things are not being done the right way, or your way is just as tasteless, and then you end up regretting what you said and if you end up being too embarrassed or proud to apologise, the thing follows you everywhere you go like a bad smell.

I sometimes think we're so afraid to use grace and encouragement rather than a stern school principal kind of approach because the fact is, we live in a world where many times this kind of attitude gets people to walk all over us, but you know what?... I find that Jesus has been doing that for 2000 years, knocking on doors that won't open and some that open and then get slammed in His face again, and I find that...we (mankind) are still here, still being allowed to do that. Gosh! if Jesus was anything like me, His patience would have run out in the first 10 years and He would have let wrath take over (forget the lamb, just be the lion) and with God that means wipe out the world. Aren't we all glad Jesus is not like me : ).

I sure would like to be like Him though...you know why? because there came a day in my life when I connected with His grace, and my life never was the same again. You see, even though Jesus was my God ever since I can remember, I had never met Him and as a result connected with His throne of grace. Not until that day, when I was sitting in my room feeling miserable and unloved, and He spoke to me Spirit to spirit, and said, "Cheryl, I love you so much, I gave my life for you." Now before that, I always considered myself a fairly decent person. I was obedient to God's laws to the best of my ability, and all in all did not feel like too much of a sinner. When I heard Jesus say that however, the first thing I realized was how I don't deserve that...gosh! who does? how good can you be to deserve God dying for you? I realized that not only can no one deserve it, I was far from being someone who came anywhere close, even if...and yet He didn't seem to mind at all. He just kept pouring out His love and it broke me, like no whip or law ever could, and ever since then something of the old me that doesn't please God keeps dying, and something new comes to life in it's place, and today I obey God not because I am scared of Him, but because I love Him back so much I can't help it. Everytime I struggle with obedience, I allow God to love me and I still get surprised by how powerful that is to transform some of my greatest feelings of anger, frustration, worry, pain, hurt...whatever, and it's the only reason I want to preach the gospel, to give people the incredible life that comes to anyone who connects with the throne of Grace. It's an all powerful, all conquering treasure and in challenging moments, when I'm all tempted to lose my cool and put my claws out...when I take a few moments and sometimes a couple of days : ) to turn to God and allow grace to flow through me instead, the outcome is always mind blowingly blessed. It really changes the way you look at life and people. It's addictive really...use grace instead of anger once and have a blessed outcome, and it's hard to not want to do it that way again.

I'll end with Pastor Tony's leadership tip. "Don't criticise what someone is wearing, until you have tried on their shoes." LOVE that one! It's a good way to avoid harshness and put on grace.

2007-06-19T04:39:00.000-07:00

oh! my gosh!

MUSIC IS FROM GOD, ABOUT GOD AND IS FOR GOD!!! IT ABSOLUTELY IS!!!

I never thought I'd ever appreciate Opera, I don't understand a word this guy is singing but I had goose bumps big time! And I bet you will too. I don't know what others will call it, but in both these videos, I'm absolutely convinced it's God's Spirit in each one.

Do remember to pause my song player at the top of this page before you watch these videos yeah? Enjoy!!!

2007-05-10T05:05:00.000-07:00

I have been AWOL from blogger for a lil while, he!he! It's myspace's fault. Guess I like myspace :)
I've been making some nice new friends there and LOOK!!!! I got meself a fancy blogsite music player. I figured it all out by lil ol meself. I so smart!!! I've downloaded some of my favourite songs and hope you enjoy the music as you hang around here.

I might take a lil while to post another blog but in the mean time come visit me at myspace okay? okay.

Just click on zis thing.Cheryl’s Space

2007-04-03T03:18:00.000-07:00

I have a myspace account!!!!

Cheryl’s Space

why? ... I'm still figuring that one out.

So far it's been great fun browsing around myspace and checking out that world - gosh! some of it is totally alien, yet... some of it is remarkably familiar. For the moment each time I visit, it's a fascinating ride, so I'm taking it a step at a time.

Other than that, I have some kind of weird throat infection that has caused me to lose my voice. I sound so strange and in the mornings it's quite funny, because all I can do is whisper. It began on Sunday and this is funny... Mark came by as I was musing over my sore throat and I said in my crackling, 'poor me' voice, "I've lost my voice Mark" and he says, " Shhh! don't speak then".

Aaaaahhh!!! I want my mom!!! : (.

Well, actually I'm not such a whiny baby when I get sick.

Oh! something exciting ...or freaky depending on your view of such things. We have two new additions to our mini zoo at home. We've got two lizards...Frodo and Sam.

This is Sam

Frodo is semi exotic and was bought from the pet shop. Sam is his plain and common cousin, who was caught in our garden. I am happy to report that they are both currently enjoying their new home. Will try and post some pics of Frodo soon.

2007-03-24T18:52:00.000-07:00

My friend sent me this. It has a distinct HK flavour to it that is rather amusing, but hey! you've gotta like it : )

2007-03-21T15:41:00.000-07:00

He did it again...

Jesus makes the best comments when we watch the Lord of the Rings together. I've seen the movie like countless times, and I do it a lot when I want to spend 'hang out' time with God. He doesn't get bored... Isn't that awesome? : ) Have you ever done that? Hung out with God? I'm only asking because, it's still a relatively new experience for me... : ). Have you heard the song, "I am a friend of God, He calls me friend". Those words happen to be... entirely True!!! : ), and God will go with you, and do whatever you want to do and yeah...He will comment and chat through it all, just like any friend would. He never leaves you, that's bible truth : )... so yeah... He'll be there even if you're doing what you shouldn't be doing. : ) For example... He'll go with you when you sneak out to have a smoke, and yeah! he'll pass a few comments too... you just may not like what He says about it... but trust me it's the best way to get cleaned up : )

Anyway, I totally LOVE what He says when we watch the movie together. He is so insightful and so deep and He's a brilliant buddy to watch the movie with. And I know it's like 'unspiritual' in a way, to talk about God like it's a surprise He's so brilliant... but it's one thing to say it because it's the right thing to say, and another thing to experience the reality of it and then say it. I don't think He minds, I believe He wants me to be real. So many times, I read His word and I say to Him, 'God you are just soooooooooooo brilliant - no one I know can put it the way you do...there really is none like you' and He says, 'Thank you'. : )

So what He did this time was point out the team work that exists between the 'fellowship' as they battle together. They are constantly there for each other. There is this one scene, where Aragorn is in the front line and the Uruk-hai are charging towards him and from behind him, there is this volley of arrows that is shot by the elves to bring down the enemy. There is another time in the battle when Aragorn sees danger coming and he turns to Legolas and asks him to handle it. He does not try to do it himself, he knows who can do the job and he asks him to do it. Also there are hobbits who offer their services, these are little ones who clearly lack the experience to do the job but while in the battle, no one judges their performance, no one stops to blame them for wrong moves and no one stops to train and instruct in the middle of the battle.
Then God said, "How often does my army behave like this? "
When we see the enemy attack someone(which basically means - sin is revealed) what do we do?
We judge, we complain, we get upset, we get disappointed, we get depressed, we feel ashamed - any number of things which amounts to us putting down the weapons that we have and letting the enemy just walk all over us.
We are supposed to fight... the enemy...NOT the person. Our brother's enemy is our enemy. When sin is revealed, it is not a time for scandal, anger and gossip - whose weapons are those?

Getting into all that finger pointing, anger and judgement is as if Legolas saw the enemy attacking Aragorn and then took the spear from the Uruk-hai's hand and killed Aragorn himself.
I don't know about you... but my first thought was, 'that is an entirely ridiculous thing to do'... and yet, don't I do it? don't we do it? Oooooh!, God opened my eyes big time with that one.

I realize that the weapons we have is the fruit of the Spirit. Forgiveness, grace, mercy, the word of God and I realized that when sin is revealed either in myself or in a brother or sister, the weapons I must use are God's, and not the enemy's.

Now here's my preachy bit... : ) Satan is after God's chosen, and we need to be mindful of the weapons he uses. We also need to be mindful that we're not just watching our backs, but we're watching the backs of the whole team, and while we should not makes excuses and pretend things aren't wrong, we should not get into scandal and judgement either. Prayer, peace, trust, love, forgiveness, wise councel...there is much God has given us that is all powerful and are the weapons we must use...I don't know about you, but this makes total sense to me. We're not winning especially when it comes to unity within the body because we're using the wrong weapons - we don't know it, because it's so 'natural' to do that, but with this analogy, when I realize how ridiculous it would be for Legolas to take the enemy's weapon and slay Aragorn with it...I see how deceived we are as well, and have to stop acting 'natural' and act 'super-natural'.

So yeah...that's the cool stuff God shared.

2007-03-08T14:22:00.000-08:00

Our God is creative, so are His people and He speaks through us...

I loved this video...

I love the fact that so much creative talent is coming out of the church.
If that video impresses me however... this website just blows me away...

Have you heard of Akiane?

God speaks volumes to me through her paintings and poetry, but mostly through the fact that she is only 12. Se was born into an athiest family and after a visit to heaven at 4, brought her whole family to God and has been painting and writing poetry ever since. When you brouse, go to the 'her life' link and read the questions and answers.

http://www.artakiane.com/home.htm

YES!!! that famous verse in Joel comes to mind doesn't it? In the last days He will pour out His Spirit. Sons and daughters will prophesy.

2007-02-13T19:40:00.000-08:00

Some strange ones...

no... I am not trying to suffocate myself... just talking on ze phone on a very noisy train.

This pic is not very clear, but really, it's the funniest sight. Shibah (the brown one), likes to sit on Ebony's (the black one) head for some strange reason and for an even stranger reason, it doesn't seem to bother him one bit. : ) She just sits like that for 5-10 minutes sometimes.

DB Fridays. This last one was so awesome. We were out in the plaza and we hung out and sang, chatted and prayed, as all the activity happened around us, and it was the coolest experience. Totally 'out of the box' I tell ya, but an absolute blessing to be a part of.

Sorry these pics aren't very clear, but I had to resize them for easy upload and they totaly lost their clarity, and I'm still learning how to deal with all this techi stuff, so please bear with me. : )

speaking of DB... I just got to hear Aaron's new CD 'True Disciple'. Oh my gosh! I listened to it for the first time yesterday, and I played it like 6 times in a row. : ) There is this funky thing he's done with the love chapter and it's called 'All about love' and it's really really so cool. Then ther's one called, ' When I come to Heaven' and it sounds kinda Indian so of course I totally dig it!!! The whole album is so great to listen to actually. The last song 'Did you know' is about stromy times and it's got like the sound of thunder and stuff in it - FANTASTIC!!!.

I absolutely love the music talent at the Vine, and I think it's so awesome that some of my favourite singers/song writers/musicians in the whole world go to my church, are my friends and are such neat people. I wasn't asking for that, but it's so like God to add some extra special treats when He answers prayers yeah?

Anyone in HK who doesn't have a church. Do come visit us at "The Vine Christian Fellowship" www.thevine.org.hk .

okey kokey blogsite, I'll miss you till I see you again. And by the way... I've realized my blog's a 'she' and funnily enough...she also happens to have a lot in common with me : ) ... and I'm thinking up her name at the moment. Any suggestions?

Happy valentines day YALL!!!

Family and friends, let me tell you,
I Love you... and honestly, from the bottom of my heart...
after God, you are the best thing that ever happened to me.

BYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!! for now

2007-02-10T21:00:00.000-08:00

Some more pics...

Tong Fuk Beach

The normal green water of the HK ocean has actually been this lovely blue for the last week : )

The Cool T

T and Shi

That's T's famous 'look at my poor tired puppy look'. They're a team... these two!!!

Now where does she get this silly streak from?

A -HA!!!

Like father, like daughter...

2007-02-08T14:35:00.000-08:00

Gosh! I still have too much on my plate to post a decent blog update but I need to say this ...

I have been missing my blogsite so much, it's beginning to worry me.

I do believe that I now have for my blogsite, what some guys have for their cars... what some musicians have for their guitars. You know that thing...when inanimate stuff goes from being an 'it' to a 'he' or a 'she' and if you did not know what they were talking about, you'd be convinced they were talking about the love of their life...

Yikes! I'm afraid it's getting a bit like that, with me and my blog.

The good thing is - it's not quite got to the 'love of my life' stage.

In fact... it's not too bad really... because, while it's gone from being an 'it' to ' sorta human' status, the gender isn't quite defined yet. Like... I don't know yet, if my blog is a 'he' or a 'she' and so yeah... I think I've nipped this thing in the bud... I've caught the virus before it spreads, you know?
Anyway, just wanted to say that - this is only one of the many things I've been going through this month. Yeah, so if that bit of news tells you that my busy life is probably affecting my head and I need to rest, I think I'll agree. : )
So yeah, it's been rather hectic and even freaky...some of the stuff we've been going through, but all in all - it's been good, and anyone out there who knows what challenges are like in the life of a believer, you'll know what I'm saying... but enough talking... let's post some latest family pics for the folks and friends out there.

ze cool dude on ze bus to Mui Wo Ferry Pier.

the rest of us on the other side of the same bus.

that's our two boys and our girl - yup! She rules!!!

and this is our new body guard. : )

Okey kokes, that's it for now. God bless!! Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!

2007-01-03T20:25:00.000-08:00

Hello beautiful people and a wonderful and blessed 2007 to you.

I have had an absolutly lovely Christmas and New Year and today I'm sitting here so grateful for all the people I have come to meet, know and become a friend to in 2006.

I do have lots to share and I hope I get a chance to soon but for now let me just say...

HAPPY 2007 TO YOU...

AND MAY YOU HAVE AN

AMAZING,

AWESOME,

FANTASMAGORICAL YEAR.

2006-12-09T19:05:00.000-08:00

I received this from a friend recently and it made me think...

If they know of him at all, many folks think Ben Stein is just a quirky actor/comedian who talks in a monotone. He's also a very intelligent attorney who knows how to put ideas and words together in such a way as to sway juries and make people think clearly.

The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS Sunday Morning Commentary (USA)

"Herewith at this happy time of year, a few confessions from my beating heart: I have no freaking clue who Nick and Jessica are. I see them on the cover of People and Us constantly when I am buying my dog biscuits and kitty litter. I often ask the checkers at the grocery stores. They never know who Nick and Jessica are either. Who are they? Will it change my life if I know who they are and why they have broken up? Why are they so important?

I don't know who Lindsay Lohan is either, and I do not care at all about Tom Cruise's wife.

Am I going to be called before a Senate committee and asked if I am a subversive? Maybe, but I just have no clue who Nick and Jessica are.

If this is what it means to be no longer young. It's not so bad.

Next confession:
I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I don' t feel discriminated against. That's what they are: Christmas trees.

It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, "Merry Christmas" to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu If people want a creche, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.

I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution, and I don't like it being shoved down my throat.

Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship Nick and Jessica and we aren't allowed to worship God as we understand Him?

I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too.

But there are a lot of us who are wondering where Nick and Jessica came from and where the America we knew went to.

In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke; it's not funny, it's intended to get you thinking.

Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her "How could God let something like this Happen?" (regarding Katrina)
Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She said, "I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives.
And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?"

In light of recent events...terrorists attack, school shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found recently) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK.
Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school. The Bible says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK.
Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he's talking about and we said OK. Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.

Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with "WE REAP WHAT WE SOW."
Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell.
Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says.
Funny how you can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing.
Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.

Are you laughing?"

2006-12-06T12:45:00.000-08:00

Tiara's birthday with friends.

Hello, this is Tiara again...

Christmas is in the Air... It's December, my favourite month,

because it's my birthday, and my mommy's birthday and it's

Jesus' birthday month. I LOVE DECEMBER!!!

Johnson Christmas Tree.

My grammy sent me this real funny link. It's Santa Claus singing 'White Christmas' and I wanted to share it here.

http://www.mesasoftware.com/merrychristmas.htm

ENJOY!!!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!!

2006-11-30T14:00:00.000-08:00

Anyone who missed Aaron's message last Sunday... gosh! you must listen to this. I believe, this is an awesome example of new wine. http://www.thevine.org.hk/grapevine/pages/audio.html. For those not familiar with how this works, scroll down the page and choose the 6.00 PM message on Sunday the 26th. And even if you're not a memeber of the Vine, you are most welcome to hear it. We all know that when God speaks, so many times, He's addressing all of us and not just those inside the room at the time, which is why I so love pod casts and the whole media thing.

Pastor Tony's message was really good too and I haven't listened to Maggie's yet and am looking forward to that : )

Anyway, Aaron's message comes at such a great time for me.

Excerpt for Cheryl's journal 27 Nov. 2006...

This last month or so I'm in a very special place in my relationship with God. It's more personal and intimate than it has ever been and I am loving my Bible... and Aaron's message gave me that same excited feeling I get when I ... watch a movie say, and it's an amazing movie, and then I meet someone who has seen it too and is just as taken with the movie as I am. That's like so awesome ... and together we get all hyped and excited talking about it. It was like that.

You know, there was a time in my life when I never knew that the Bible would get me so excited. I almost wince as I say this right now, because today I know that nothing else in my life, comes anywhere close to the valuable treasure that my Bible is to me, but when you don't know... you just don't know. It freaks me out a bit that when the blinders are on, it's like you can't see what's right in front of you, ... but anyway... Praise God, the blinders are off and I LOVE MY BIBLE!!! and everyday, may I learn to use this precious word of God, the way He wants me to.

Gosh! I remember as a kid how often my dad would try and get me to read our Bible. He never ever made me, but he would ask me to, every now and then. I did not listen to him, and of course now I'm like, ' Cheryl you knuckle head!!!' but I so love my dad for planting those seeds in me.

Our God is precious and falling in love with Him and doing the whole 'for better or for worse' thing with Jesus is the best decision I have ever made. It's so amazing to be crazy about God? it's like... intoxicating. I can't get over Him. I just can't. Right now, I'm in a 'crazy fan' sort of place about Jesus... I'm in a 'Jesus you're my Super Hero' place and I love it and I never want to lose it and so I'm writing it down here to read anytime down the line.
I never want to find myself straying from this place of awe and wonder and fascination for my God, my hero, my knight in shining armour, my friend, Our Awesome God.

Gosh! I feel like a giddy headed teenager right now, hehe! and I like it.

I love the many levels on which I can connect with God.
When I'm in deep pain or anguish, I can turn to Him,
when I have a huge crisis on my hands, I can turn to Him,
when I need sound advice and wisdom, I can turn to Him,
I can be disciplined by Him when I am being stubborn,
I can sit on His lap and delight in my daddy like a 3 year old would,
when I need a buddy I can turn to Him,
and, I can experience the intoxicating feelings of first love with Him too.
He satisfies my every need.

Lord may I always turn to you, in everything, for everything. Jesus, come alive in me and show me how to commune with my Father the way you did.

2006-11-21T20:20:00.000-08:00

Nov 15 2006 - Hillsong United were in Hong Kong...

What a lovely evening… I had such a blast, and I realized a few things...

1) I realized, that worshipping God with a famous band like Hillsong, is wayyyyyy better than just watching a good band perform.

2) I realized, that the audience honour a worship band so much more, when they allow the band to lead them in worship (let it be about God), rather than when they let the event be all about the band… and that choice is in the audience hands.

3) Thinking about that a bit more, I realized that when we idolize people, we really are letting them down. No matter how much the band may want it to be about God, I don't believe He will make His presence felt in such an awesome way, if the audience is all about the band.

4) Thinking even more about this, I realized that worldly fame is actually quite an awful thing. I mean… it’s one thing to experience what it’s like to become an idol for some starry eyed person, to feel like a god/goddess and constantly realize that you aren’t, and it’s a totally different thing to let the honour go where it is due, and receive instead an honest sense of achievement and satisfaction in your talent that God gives through His spirit, which can manifest through people's appreciation, but it's healthy and good honour... that is real, and one you can keep with no burden of pretense behind it.

5) So, I realized that in this world we really settle for a lot less when we keep God out of our lives and our experiences…

6) Finally, I realized, that while I really love Hillsong and think they are a superb band... there is this unique spot in my heart for the Vine band and I don't think anyone can take that place : ) and this is lovely to know. It feels right and it makes me happy.

2006-11-18T19:00:00.000-08:00

An excerpt from Cheryl's journal Nov 11 2006...

I've been watching the Lord of the Rings again this last week and it's a great movie to watch with Jesus : ). It's funny how I'm still in awe of these experiences with God, and how even though I've known the verse, 'He never leaves me' for the longest time... watching a movie with God is still a relatively new experience for me.

I mean, it was a funny thing, the day I realized that God is with me (all the time) whether I acknowledge His presence or not, and all I do now is ask a question like, "what do you think of this Father?" and He just answers...

Who would've thought He'd have an opinion on a movie? and yet on the other hand, it's like... of course He would... He knows how many hairs I have on my head!!... He is the living God who cares about everything that I'm about. It's awesome to wake up to the truth of this reality.

Growing up I just had no idea I could connect with God like this, but as I've hungered for more of Him, to see His face, to know His character, His person. As I've read His word with a desire to know what He is actually saying, which He reveals through His Spirit for the simple reason that I ask Him to, and believe He will, I am getting more and more familiar with who He is, just like I would get to know anyone I choose to spend time with and I find that hearing God's voice comment on so many aspects of my life, a thing that is happening more and more and it's an incredible experience and I am so in awe of it. His love is so real, He is so real and it's ...like...it's LIFE like I've never lived it before.

So anyway, this morning, after two weeks of 'The Lord of the Rings', God keeps reminding me of this one line...

"Aslan is on the move..."

Hehe! I guess He's been watching 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" with someone else. : )

And I say, "Yes Lord : ), You are on the move".

What an exciting time to be alive! : )

2006-11-11T17:20:00.000-08:00

Hello this is Tiara.

This is my mummy's blog site , but she said I could use it if I wanted to.

I just want to share a cool song with you. I found it this Halloween and it's called 'Do the Growl'.

I like it because I think it's cool and it's a good way to stop yourself from getting angry at someone and even though I don't like Halloween at all, this song is great. You can listen to it at this link.

http://www.ilovewavs.com/Holidays/Halloween/Music/Do%20The%20Growl.wav

I hope you enjoy.

love,
Tiara

2006-11-04T22:07:00.000-08:00

yesterday's DB service...

was so special and I want to record this because God does these incredible things at times and when I don't write it down I forget, and that's a terrible thing.

It was a small prayer meeting. We did not have the great set up that we usually do, and in the end, we did not even have the venue, and so we were out in the open, and while at the start this was something we noticed with some sadness, I think we all knew that God would turn it around like only He can and He did. : )

You know, at our regular Vine services, as I'm sure it is in all of God's churches the world over, we do realize that it's not about all the hi-tech stuff and all our talent, we do realize that we have an awesome experience only because God is in the building, but then...maybe there is room for that doubt to creep in...'hmmm! what if we did not have all the 'flash'?

Well last night was absolute proof that when it's Jesus you're with, He'll make any gathering awesome and somehow stripping away all the 'flash' was like the best thing that could've happened. You know how like in worship at the Vine sometimes, in the middle of the song, the band just stops playing and all we hear are the hearts of the people as they sing in unison praising God, how that is somehow entirely different and special... last night was like that.

We were out in the open, with one guitar, one drum and a few people who were there to love God and seek His face and He showed up in a way that did something different to all of us there. I cannot really put into words what happened, but I'll try... : )

There was a spirit of brotherhood, an appreciation for one another, a corporate strengthening of faith, an openness, a deep longing for more, an anointing for healing and a desire for signs and wonders and to be used by God in any way He would choose, even if it took us out of our comfort zones, there was prophesy and some incredible sharing and there was one distinct moment for me when I KNEW I was in the midst of God's people. I sensed Jesus in them. It was such a lovely, peaceful moment and this is a valuable treasure. Because I know we're all just people, we're all works in progress and we're going to have those times when we'll see each other failing, making mistakes, falling off the path, walking in the flesh ... but to get a God given glimpse like that into their hearts, to see them as He created them, the unblemished version ... I know with this knowledge, it's going to be so much easier to love unconditionally, to understand people when things go wrong, to be there when someone falls, because I feel I've seen what's deep inside and it's beautiful, and that's what God gave me yesterday and I believe it's the kind of special thing He does when He shows up in these 'all is stripped away' moments. Something entirely mind blowing like that.

A new boldness seemed to touch us. Aaron did such an awesome job being sensitive to God's lead and leading the rest of us accordingly and everyone shared some incredible stuff. It's like God spoke through each and everyone there and we left knowing that God was leading us, and we were following and it was awesome. You know that is such an attractive thing. I feel so strongly, that this is what God wants, this is how He works and if we walk like this, the lost WILL come to Jesus. Church like this, which flows out of the hearts of the people, is attractive like nothing else. It really is all about relationships, being open, genuine, trusting and free. It is entirely what the Spirit of the Lord does and being out in the open made us realize something else too. This spirit is really not meant to stay inside the four walls of a church building, it's meant to be out there.

Lord I say this often, but then until you give me some new vocabulary, you just must hear it again... You Are AWESOME!!!

2006-10-17T20:27:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've posted something and it's because I am overwhelmed... Make that like OVERWHELMED!!! Sooooooo much has happened at church, at home, in our lives and in friends and families lives and it's like...oh! My gosh! World...Stop turning... : ) Pretty glad the world doesn't listen to that though : )

So who else has been insanely busy? Meg says she's been. Ed's been too. And it's not like busy with just work for me, it's also spiritual busy, like dueling with the enemy and dealing with the everyday pressures of life. It's like all happening at the same time. Is this like busy phase or some such thing? Does anyone like busy? I don't. Not right now at least. This whole multi tasking thing that women are supposed to be good at... I don't know what happened to me, but either I'm terribly bad at something that's supposed to come to me naturally, or whoever said that lied, and women just agree because it sounds nice. : ) So will all this busy busy end soon?

Let me take a moment to ask God...Yes, it will. Good, now I feel better.

It's good to force yourself to stop every now and then and have a chat with God right in the middle of all the huddle muddle. Funny how sometimes that is such a challenge in itself, but what I find even more bizarre is that EVERYTIME I do do this, without fail God comes through each time to get me refreshed and able to go on. So then why don't I just run to Him, like ...Immediately?

Must be the 'duh?!?!' in me. : )

The 'spirit of stupid' like I heard someone say recently. : )

Hmmmm! I do think it comes upon me when I allow the spirit of 'busy busy' to come upon me too. I do believe they work together. And busy busy just creeps up on me and takes over and it's so hard to take a moment and decide to give up certain things. I find that a super challenge. Do you? 'cause everything seems so important and it's like 'if I don't do this, the whole world will fall apart' . It takes wisdom and patience to sort life out when busy busy takes over and I for one am sure glad I'm not on me own dealing with this. Gosh! what did I do before I knew Jesus? I know, I walked through the valley and I suffered. Today I walk through the valley, but it's a journey with God and every time I turn to Him in the valley I prosper.

Lord, for the record, I want you to know that the worst valley moments in my journey with You, far supersedes the best times in my journey before I knew you. Thank you for what you've done to my life. You are so super awesome : )

2006-09-19T21:11:00.000-07:00

WOW!!!

so... I played it at home right? and I watched the scale I had placed on my player measure the quality right? :) and would you believe it?! the arrow moved from 'good' to 'awesome' to 'just as I thought - above awesome' and...wait for it...the arrow kept moving!! Yup! right on to 'way above my expectations' and then it stopped there but that's also I suspect because it was the limit on my scale. :)

Congratulations on a job well done, Tom and the entire team.

So, my favourites are
1) Desperation Song: I love what Tom says in the DVD that God breathed this song into him. I absolutely believe that 100%. How appropriate is this song for every nation of the world and then at the Vine with so many nations represented, while we all sing it for HK, we all sing it for the nations we come from too. How blessed is HK to bless all the nations by the number of nationalities that have been welcomed by her to make her their temporay or permanant home. I certainly love singing it for India too and won't every heart that cries out for their nation the world over be absolutley blessed by this song. Only the Holy Spirit can give us such a lovely prayer that we can offer to our Father God. Yes Lord! take this song around the world and let your healing come to us.
2) This is love: Gosh! this is a song after my heart. This song to me is the entire gospel right there - in it's totally sweet, simple and awesomely miraculous form. I honestly believe and pray that this song will win many souls for Christ.
3) I fear you: What a sweet voice, declaring the fear of our awesome God the way He means for it to be. Sarah sounds just like the angel she is. :)
Okay these are my top 3 but then every other song on the album is special and wonderful to me in it's own way.
I do love this album and believe and pray that it's the first of many to come. While I am excited by the success (God's gift and promise) this will bring Tom and the team, I am more excited about their life ahead as each place of glory brings them closer and closer to our wonderful Father God.
I have noticed that in our walk with God, each step in faith, each offering we make, results in a manifested blessing (our God is faithful and delivers His promises) but truly the relationship this gives us with the blessor supercedes everything else and may each and everyone in the team, press on into this very real and priceless blessing above all blessings and may they keep passing this on. Thank you Lord for an awesome worship team and an awesome CD.

You are all we can ask, think and dream of Father, there truly is none like you.

2006-09-12T23:54:00.000-07:00

This is awesome...

I know many of the wonderful people actually involved in the making of this CD have been very excited about it's release, for all the reasons they should be, but as someone who has not been directly involved, I want to talk about it too, from a different perspective.

As someone whose main involvement is going to be buying the CD's, worshipping God through them and giving some away as presents, I want to say that I am very excited too... you know why?... well yes, partly because this is being launched by my wonderful home church The Vine, but actually, the real reason for my excitement, is that I don't look at this CD like it's an offering to God by just the few awesome people who worked so hard on it. I see it as an offering to God and to the rest of Asia and the world from all of us, the people of HK. I see it as my involvement in something that God is doing and wanting very much to do through the media in HK.

This is our first ever home grown worship CD of this quality. That's huge, that's history and something I as a HKer am proud of and so happy to offer. I really would like to encourage all of us 'the church of HK' to really see things this way, to realize that we can be and are a part of something great that God is doing through the media right here in HK.

Isn't it so wonderful that we, the body of Christ in HK, can be used by Him to impact the world for Him. It's real, it's happening, it's God's plan and may many be a part of and be blessed by this awesome vision and promise.

Congratulations to the whole team that made this a reality. Come to the launch party all and lets give God the Glory!!!

2006-09-11T20:40:00.000-07:00

I love my dad...

You know, we've been so blessed by the 'Father heart of God' message by James Jordan that we heard at the Vine recently and I keep thinking of my Dad and I really want to honour him.

I've always loved my father (red shirt) and have been grateful for him, but I am realizing more and more what a real blessing from God he is to me.

I think the two most important things a father can do right, to bring up a daughter well (that my dad really excelled in) is.

1) love and encourage her (and exaggerate every now and then about how wonderful she is :) ).
2) love and encourage her mother.

It just puts a girl in the right place somehow and makes everything as it should be in her world as she grows up. My dad's encouragement to me has been what has kept me standing so many times when the lies of the world have come against me, and by complimenting and appreciating my mom, it made me feel secure, and it gave her the encouragement she needed to love and support us kids even when times were tough.

I remember when I was 8/9 when my dad helped me ride my first bike, how he'd tell me I was probably the best rider in the whole world :) - I think even then, I knew he was exaggerating but I knew he was proud of me. I remember the long walks we used to take after dinner and the stories he'd tell me. I remember how he was always so convinced that I was smarter than I thought. I remember when I first came to HK, and was so alone and missing all my family and friends, how he'd write these long letters often with words so big and flowery that I needed a dictionary near me to understand them : ) hehe! I remember how both my parents went without so much themselves all their lives so that my brother and I could have the best they could afford- it cost them, but they did it so lovingly and willingly that as kids we were not even aware that they were doing this. As teenagers growing up however, both my brother and I couldn't but be sensitive and learn from them a kind of love that is very special. I thank God for them from the bottom of my heart.

God, as His word says, made us for relationship and we get into the right realtionship with Him quicker sometimes I believe, when we have examples in this life that come close to what He is to us. His role as our father and as our husband are crucial for us to understand, in order to live the blessed and victorious life we are called to live in Him. It's not a surprise at all to me that these two are the very relationships that have come under so much attack in this world, and this has distorted tremendously our view of our Father God and our groom Jesus Christ. Today the happy, loving, united family is becoming a rare experience. Fathers are hardly around for their children and expectation rather than encouragement is used to get children to grow up and perform well in the world. Husbands and wives are seperating and divorcing one another like never before. The true family life, where love goes beyond surface level, where it is sacrificial in nature, where it is encouraging, refreshing and uplifting is rather rare today and it is because Satan has come hard against all those who are in these roles of relationship. He has done so I believe for one purpose, to seperate us and warp our idea of Father God and our groom Jesus. I really think it's time to take back ground that was stolen.

I bless my dad and all dads in Jesus name. I bless Ed my husband and all husbands in Jesus name. May they have God's choicest blessings showered upon them. May He be close to them, may they be protected from all weapons formed against them. May burdens and bondages they carry be broken and may they be set free to love and be loved, to cherish and be cherished, to treasure and be treasured by their families.
I love you Dad and I love you Ed. I am really grateful for the both of you. : )

2006-09-04T17:50:00.000-07:00

Now the bedroom, and yes Carmen, you're right... :) there is nothing wrong with a phone camera.

I'm really so happy with our newly painted home and the blessing it has been doing this job as a family.

Before...

After...

even after...

Straight out of 'Better Homes and Gardens' or what? hehe! ... you like?

You see why I'm so grateful? We feel like we have a new home. And the fact that doing it was so unbelievably cheap only goes to show that what Cliff Ma says about God's economy is so true. He says 'God's economy cannot be learned in school', it's through the Holy Spirit. Brilliant!!

This life of greater and greater faith is an awesome joyride isn't it? and as God calls the Vine to stir up our faith, we can all go on this joy ride together. SUPER!!!!

See yas soon!!
Byeee!!

2006-08-28T04:53:00.000-07:00

The love letter that changes lives.
The only truth that matters.
You've got to read it to believe it

http://fathersloveletter.com/flltextenglish.html

2006-08-26T20:50:00.000-07:00

Some more...
This is another view of our living/dining room. The red wall ends and the white begins...

Our open kitchen. I love this about our house. This way I get to be a part of everything while cooking. It's wonderbar!!! That's Tiara pealing potatoes for me. Part of the benefits of homeschooling is that the mummy gets free kitchen help. Well, not totally free she earns anything between $ 2 - 10 for the help she gives us :) Things like painting the house, watering the garden, transplanting, weeding, cooking etc. all get done in the name of homeschool (extra curricular) out here and well, it's incredible because Tiara is actually leanrning some great stuff. She's around us a lot more, she feels important, confident and a significant part of the 3 of us, it's fun and we have extra help for very little pocket money. It's great I tell ya!!! so many birds with one stone. :)

So this is the entrance to our place. The swing chair is what you see when you stand in front of our gate. We picked that up in India for like cheap cheap and then Ed made the funky stand and voila! we have this awesome garden swing chair. That's another fish tank that you can't really see on the side. This one actually has fish in it. :)

This is the main door that takes you into our home.

Okay, that was fun. Sorry, these are bad pics cause I'm still using my phone camera.
We finished our bedroom yesterday and it's like soooooooooo nice. Will post more pics soon. Byeeeee!!

2006-08-21T17:30:00.000-07:00

Finally, I have half an hour to blog again. Hello blog site, I missed you.
So here are the pics. Sorry they are so blurry and bad but our camera is broken and so I used my phone camera. Ah! what would life be like without a camera on my phone ?!?! :)

this first pic is the corner of our living/dining room. Notice that one wall has been painted a deep red (it's a maroon, wine sort of colour and it looks really funky). The pic doesn't do this masterpiece of ours any justice actually. :( oh! well! :)

This is the other corner. That fish tank (which you can't really see - it's up on that brick stand, has tadpoles in it). :) Yes, you guessed it, it was Tiara and Ed's idea and I don't mind them at all (definitely better than spiders). In fact they're really interesting to watch as they grow and turn into frogs. A couple of the bigger guys are making their front legs now and it's so cool.

This is my favourite room. Again we've done one wall a different

colour and this one is pink. It's a bright room although very tiny

but it looks out into our lil garden and we've made it like a little

prayer/work room. It's a lovely and peaceful 'read the bible', hang out with God kinda place.

That's the doggies competing for Ed's attention. This is the other side of the same room.

Well, that's all we've done for now. We've still got our bedroom and Tiara's room to do and then the bathroom and I'll put up more pics when that is done. :)

So, have we done a great job or have we done a great job? :)

Upstairs we've got our office, Tiara's class room and a guest room, where you will stay when you visit. :)

It looks like a different life doesn't it? It is in many ways. But that's the beauty of HK. It's one place where we really have it all. We've got the busy city life with all it's light, excitement, technology and glitter and we have this quiet, peaceful life as well, with the hills, ocean and countryside. Aren't we HKers blessed? :)

2006-08-11T02:08:00.000-07:00

Have you ever had so much going on, your blog can't keep up? Well, I have decided to just leave a bunch of stuff unsaid as the thought of catching up to the present, is stressing me out too much. =)
Okay, one of the things that's been keeping me from blogging is that we're painting our home and we're doing it ourselves. It's taking up all our free time but it's lot's of fun. You know, not being able to pay for stuff and as a result doing things yourself is a marvellous thing. Jesus did say to gain, you need to lose right? Well, again I can testify that He knew what He was talking about. :)
Tiara, Ed and I have had a blast playing handyman and Tiara most of all loved it. She feels so important. Actually I do too. There is a unique satisfaction that comes from doing this kind of stuff yourself. It's like cooking at home as opposed to eating out. Nothing wrong with eating out at all. In fact, it's great, but a home made meal with that extra special dash of love thrown in, is just something else, don't you think? Linnet http://cookingpad.blogspot.com/ should know, she does a fair bit of both :) . Similarly, I think there's nothing wrong with hiring someone to paint your home at all. If you can afford it - why not? but doing this paint job ourselves, has given us moments and memories as a family that money can't buy. We're quite pleased with what we've done and I'll post pictures next time.

If you like music videos then this is a cool site to visit, http://www.breathecast.com/media/mv_archives.htm. I found some great stuff there and was so thrilled with the video's for some of my fav Christian Songs. I tend to go for songs rather than the artists, and so it's cool to get a wide variety of them.
I saw the video's for "Legacy" by Nichole Nordeman. Wow! this is like my favourite song ever. I also got to see, 'Song of Love' by Rebecca St. James and was very excited to find that the video for 'Cry Holy' by Sonicflood was shot in India. I don't quite get what it's about but just the fact that it's in India kinda makes me happy.
I also found a new song (at least I haven't heard it before, by Jump 5 - they're like a teenage band that Tiara likes) and they have this amazing song called 'It's a beautiful world' that's like so so good. I LOVE the lyrics. There's a whole bunch of real cool video's there. SCC and all, very cool.

Okays, gotta go now and oh! if you've got other ways to get Christian music video's online, please tell me, I'd love to know.

Question: why the cow?
Answer: I don't know.

2006-08-04T04:06:00.000-07:00

Tiara Facts:

Her name: I read it in a book when I was around 15 and was so taken with it, it's all I remember about the book :). This is her with Ebony and Ivory and she is 8 years old, Ebony is 4 and Ivory is probably 5.

Tiara in India getting her hands and feet henna'd for our friends
wedding.

Tiara was born 9 months after Ed and I were married :) and we have
all grown up together :), it has been crazy, fun and an awesome blessing.
She was a lovely baby who hardly cried, but when she did, she made sure that her grandparents both in the States and India heard her. Boy! she was loud. : )

Okay this is the most notable daddy quality that she has. In this picture
she is holding what is in fact, a snake. It's called the blind snake because it's got no eyes and it looks like an earth worm. She also loves frogs and so I guess, is not the typical girly girl, although she does not care too much for spiders. We've got one in our bath room named spidey face whom Ed refuses to get rid of because he's cute and eats the bugs and Tiara's not too fond of him. :)

Tiara's blessed with a very sharp mind and learns very easily and homeschooling her is fun, although the latest challenge is to make everything more fun and less academic and for someone who studied in India that's a super challenge. Tiara has many friends of various ages and currently she is enjoying the big friends she is making at the Vine.
Her favourites I believe are Mark (although I'm going to have to keep his puppy spanking habbit a secret). That'll just break her heart : (. She also likes Chris (I thinks it's his cart wheels) and Nate and before she found out Nate's name, she referred to him as the guy who looks like his head is on fire, hehe! that was so cute and funny. She's developed a new love for Carmen recently and likes squeezing her. She also likes Wolali very much and after I told her Tom called her a sweety she's developed a soft spot for him too. :)

She likes to draw and sing. Her favourite songs are 'in the belly of the whale' by the Newsboys and 'live out loud' by SCC.

2006-08-03T21:26:00.000-07:00

Wow! so much to do, so little time...

I've been wanting to say so many things here and just haven't had a chance and I'm feeling like I'm about 5 blog posts behind. Then my photo thingy won't work, the link is broken and what? why? when? and how? are a some of the questions I have, with no answers to at the moment. Ah! my technical ignorance once again becomes apparant to me. Thank you Lord for Ed :)

So, I want to write about Tiara. I also want to tell you about our new friends from Togo and what a blast it is to play board games with them. I want to tell you about our new Sri Lankan friends who made the most spicy curry I have ever eaten, and I make some pretty spicy stuff myself. Yummy! I want to tell you about some of the teachings we have been listening to. My latest favourite is this guy called Larry Randolf. My gosh! he is awesome. I want to tell you about this amazing book I'm reading called 'The bait of Satan'. It's one of our Cleansing Streams' text books, so I don't know if it's available otherwise. This book is blowing me away and is certainly cleansing my streams.

So, what do I do, with so much to do and so little time?

Okay, let me just say for now, that you are beautiful, awesome and wonderful. I am not lying because I don't know who you are reading this right now : ), I am paraphrasing scripture : ). Ah! ha! you see ...so it's true. You are fearfully and wonderfully made and you are my brother, (that is if you are a guy :)) or my sister and this fact about our Christian life is more real for me today than ever before. So I love you :) and I hope you love me too :)

2006-07-25T04:21:00.000-07:00

I've been walking around in a sort of daze these last few days. It began on Sunday actually. During the evening service, Pastor John asked the church to receive God's love as He poured it out. I knew Jesus was there, I opened my heart and gosh! I felt such an overwhelming outpouring of love. The next day I was watering the garden. I was chatting with Jesus and He said something funny, I laughed and I suddenly realized, 'God is in love with me'. I have to be frank and say, I don't know how to react to this. There is no human expression that I have expressed so far that comes close to expressing what this means to me. At first I was filled with this incredible joy, then I realized how much I had been missing out on before, then the idea that none of us really gets this hit me, then the intense desire to share this truth with everyone took over, then I realized that everyone already knows this, at least we know the words, we know what it means but ...you know... we just don't know this do we?. Think about it, if someone awesome, all powerful and all wonderful were to fall head over heals in love with you, wouldn't you just flip out? Why aren't we all flipped out about the fact that God loves us with a passion like no one else? What don't we get here? On the one hand it is God who is in love with us and on the other hand it's not some feeble love we're talking about either. The best version of human love that exists,' Romeo and Juliet' that kind of stuff comes nowhere close to the depth and passion of God's love. Wow! I'm so into getting this. I want nothing else. That line in Tom Read's (worship leader at the Vine Christian Fellowship) song, "when my Jesus died for me". That's exactly who He is, My Jesus. He is your Jesus, Our Jesus, the world's Jesus. He died for us all because He loves us so deeply. There is possession in that phrase. I love it. It's incredible, it touched my heart when I first heard it. I know Jesus likes it when I refer to Him as mine.
I know I don't fully comprehend God's love for me yet (I'll be a lot more like Jesus if I did), but I know I can. Abraham knew it, David knew it, Jesus knew it and He said I would too and I'm determined to know this love. Lord, I'm crazy about you. Bonkers, absolutely bonkers about you. I want you to know that and I want everyone to know that. You are our love and you love us with an intensity that we don't know how to handle. But I know you'll help us Father. We are your bride Lord, your first love. It's mindblowing Father, but oh! so so so fantastic.

2006-07-20T03:01:00.000-07:00

I'm so familiar with the standard symbols that point to God, like a cross or two hands joined together in prayer or a candle and then also stuff like waterfalls, mountains, rainbows and things like that. I have recently however become more aware of so much more. I find that almost everything that I look at tells me something about Him. And exploring this is like so fun. A few posts ago I put up some funky animal pictures, that told me quite a few interesting things about Him. Today I came across this one.

Now if I am made in the image of God, could this one charcateristic that I have, to react a certain way to stuff like this, possibly have come from Him? If I can look at this picture and instantly speak a very odd language that results in everyone around me thinking I've lost my head over a kitten or rather a picture of a kitten, then does my God do this too? Does He create this kitten and then get all cuddly poo about it unable to get over the cuteness He just created? He!he! I don't know but it certainly paints a great picture of Him.

2006-07-14T00:10:00.000-07:00

Laughter really is the best medicine...

or as God puts it, "A cheerful disposition is good for your health; gloom and doom leave you bone tired". Proverbs 17: 22 (message)

Awesome language... sounds like my Dad (who's a Shakespere fan and talks a version of English that belongs in an antique shop and I tease him about it no end, but actually I love it.)

So anyway...last night none of us slept well. Tiara kept having weird dreams, Sheeba (our doggie) kept bothering Ed and I had a tummy ache. Normally when any of us in the Johnson household loses out on sleep, we have a bad day the next. In me, the feline comes out, claws and all and no it's not nice and Jesus and me always have to have a heart to heart after and even though He's always so nice about it, I feel kinda small after.

Last night however, I made up my mind, I was not going to have a bad day today. I began praying right then, like I did about a year ago when I felt a flu coming on. I remember that night so clearly, I prayed in faith, decided I did not want to succumb to the nasty flu, declared that by my Jesus' stripes I was healed, went back to sleep and I woke up flu-less. I felt that same faith stir up in me again last night and so I decided that sleep or not, today I'd be on the look out for Satan who loves it when I am vulnerable, and I'd take whatever he tried to throw at me and chuck it back in his face. Yeah! show the devil my feline self for a change.

So did I wake up smiling when the alarm went off? No. Did I crawl back into bed and sleep some more? No. Tired or not I was determined to win this battle.

I had a chat with Jesus and we decided to give the Father's advice a shot and put on a cheerful disposition. I decided to make my day as easy as I could, meaning not do anything I did not really have to. Instead of normal Home School for Tiara and her friend (which is now technically summer school) where it is mostly academics, I decided to do something light and easy. Tiara was tired too but she perked up as soon as she saw we were going to make leanrning time even funner. And you know what? ... it happened, we ended up laughing so much... I had such a rush of energy afterwards I finished half the pile of ironing I had left undone for the last week : ). Glory Halleluyah! Father God, whether it's little everyday stuff or big ministry work, your advice totally rocks and I just can't get over it sometimes.

So the higlight this morning was when we 'mad libbed'. A very neat education game we found online. We took a passage and changed all the nouns, verbs and adjectives to make it sound really funny. How it works is that you are given a bunch of choices and you choose one per blank and in the end you can see the finished version of the whole passage.

So here's the funniest one we created.

Our Cafeteria

Our school cafeteria has really sleepy food. Just thinking about it makes my stomach sneeze. The spaghetti is invisible and tastes like goats. One day, I swear one of my meat balls started to shiver! The turkey tacos are totally delicious and look kind of like old monkeys. My friend Dana actually likes the meatloaf, even though it's invisible and scaly. I call it "mystery meatloaf" and think it's really made out of socks. My dad said he'd make my lunches, but the first day, he made me a sandwich out of feathers and peanut butter! I think I'd rather take my chances with the cafeteria!

Try doing this with a bunch of giggly 8 year old girls - the de-stress effect is 100%.

2006-07-10T02:58:00.000-07:00

more : )

Thank you Lord for our little princess and thank you Lord for little girls. These girls really are a mixture of sugar and spice and everything nice. They represent Hong Kong, Philippines, India, America and England. The street on which we live is really rather unique actually, in that we have 16 different nationalities living here. Yup! It's a miny United Nations alright.

Let's see (we've got in order from the house at the top of the street) Philippines, England, Argentina, Switzerland, Hong Kong, China (Shanghai), New Zealand, America, India, Canada, Thailand, France, Nepal, Scotland, South Africa, Australia, and living on the other side of the village but still a big part of the local bbq scene is Germany. : ) so that's 17 in all.

2006-07-10T02:24:00.000-07:00

More stock shots...

As I kept going through the photos I found these and gosh! I can't help but share them with you.

This was halloween last year. Halloween, Hawaii...get the connection...?!?!?! = )

Aren't they all just adorable. These are the Tong Fuk girls. Almost every family here is blessed to have one of them.

okay, let me see if I can find some more...

2006-07-06T04:10:00.000-07:00

I’m a Jesus freak = )

I remember when our last helper Gemma (who is now happily married in the Philippines, we miss you Gemma) first came to live with us. After only a few days, it became very clear to us that she had one passion in life and that was Jesus. It wasn't that she talked about Him all the time or any such thing, but it was still very obvious and while I was quite happy to have a God fearing young girl taking care of our home and Tiara, I also wondered why at such a young age, she was so ‘religious’. I wondered why at 25 she did not seem to have any other interests. Yet she did. She loved to garden and was always looking for new and interesting plants to decorate our home with. She loved to bake (she made the best cookies, pizzas and bagels ever) and she loved arts and crafts (much to Tiara’s delight) but still it was pretty clear that what dominated her life was her God.

Like I said while I thought this was very sweet and stuff, somewhere in me was this thought that she was somehow missing out, or that it didn’t have to be this way, or that she probably had nothing else to occupy her, and basically that she was a bit over the top about it all – kinda too religious.

Today however, that’s me in so many ways = ) and the one thing I know, is that I am most certainly not religious. I had an encounter with the living God, had a glimpse of what His love for me is and I got hooked. I’m a Jesus junkie now. Totally addicted and loving it. Why wouldn’t I be? He is only like the Son of God who created the universe!!!!! We all want to hang out with the best dudes in town don’t we? This is God almighty who says He will never leave me nor forsake me, who says that He lives in me. Next to Him everyone and everything else just fades away. Why would I want to ignore Him? ?!?!?! I long for a glimpse of that love every day, it gives me such a high and when I don’t have it (only because I get caught up in the unimportant things around me, I go to bed feeling empty). Yes I am totally addicted, and I am so so so thankful for it. May I never never never be so stupid as to lose this, I know I have the potential to, that’s the scary thing, but I have had a glimpse of what I stand to lose if I let my Jesus go and I honestly can’t stand losing that place. I feel lost, alone, like I am going nowhere in life, I feel downright miserable and I walk around pretending like I don't feel this way. Yup! Not very nice withdrawal symptoms at all and so I get right back, and have me a good and proper Jesus dose and all is well with my world.

2006-07-03T23:48:00.000-07:00

I was going through our stock shots and I came across these and laughed. Jesus reminded me of the verse that all of creation speaks about Him and I was like, "Lord, what does this say about you?" = ).

Here's the Bible verse. Romans 1:20 (The Message)

"But the basic reality of God is plain enough. Open your eyes and there it is! By taking a long and thoughtful look at what God has created, people have always been able to see what their eyes as such can't see: eternal power, for instance, and the mystery of his divine being."

So, what does this tell me about Jesus?

Well, He's got an amazing imagination. He is a creative genius. He has an eye and taste for the unusual. He has an incredible sense of humour. He cannot be put into a box and He is simply wayyy tooooo cooooool!!!

The 3rd. shot...that funky bug thingy, lives right here in our garden.

That last shot is like so great. It's like..."what's up bro! how u doin today?"

We serve an awesome God!!

2006-07-03T01:30:00.000-07:00

My favourite place in the world...

My bed...

why...

cause this is the view I get every morning when I draw the curtain, and that's only one reason. You see that white bloom in the corner, it smells devine. Also my absolute favourite bird in the world the bul bul (reminds me of my childhood) visits this tree all the time and I wake up to that each morning. I LOVE it.
And somehow even though I've been blessed to travel to many parts of the world and stay in some awesome hotels with wonderful, expensive, designer beds and blankets... my cozy, cheap, 'smells like home' bed has always been my favourite place.
Isn't that odd?

Anyway, words of wisdom I received over the weekend.
Unity is not about being the same, it's about loving each other while realizing that we must be different. What a world of wisdom in that statement.

2006-06-30T21:32:00.000-07:00

Awesome, awesome, awesome...

that's our God and I have a wonderful testimony to share.

Last Friday a Filipino Pastor we know called late in the night to ask for some legal advice from Ed as his wife had just been arrested. I don't want to go into all the details about it, but just that she was found to be running some small business while only on a visit visa. How was she found out? A business partner had a problem with her and turned on her and called the cops, and whether the person intended or not, it got very ugly (it takes only a small seed of bitterness to cause a lot of damage) and she was taken off to jail.

Over the course of the last 10 days I have seen the Lord at work to deliver promise after promise as we turned to Him and I have to, have to, have to share how good He is.

1)God changed my heart: my initial reaction, when this person called was of the flesh. The whole thing looked ugly and the cops were involved and stuff and I wanted to turn and run away from the problem. Thank you Lord that you gave me the sense to come to you with this. As Ed spoke on the phone totally getting involved, I prayed about my feelings. I told God honestly how I was feeling, and you know what He did, He made me go from the north pole to the south pole. = ) I went from hesitation to having this huge burden in my heart to cry out in prayer and intercession for them. I was surprised by this, it was like something awful had happened to my family. I could not understand why I was so moved by what had happened but I was.
2)God kept their faith alive while circumstances looked the worst. Ed spent the next day at the trial with the pastor and they stood together in hope and faith while the wife was denied bail and sent to prison for 6 weeks before the next hearing.
3) God touched us all to pray for them. Ed asked the Pastor to come to our one body meeting at the Vine and we all prayed for the family in the spirit. It was a prayer of protection and strength, of submitting to God's will, of rising in hope and faith,of breaking bondages and standing against the weapon formed knowing that God's protection would cause it to fall away.
4) God's promise came through. Ed visited the wife in jail and she was strong in the Lord, witnessing to whoever she could, far from feeling sorry for herself and wondering why all this had happened to her.
5) God's promise came through. The husband found a lawyer to help appeal the case and try and get bail. They had another hearing yesterday and bail was set at $40,000 + there was a lawyers fee of $10,000.
6) God's promise came through. Although this family is only 4 months old in HK, and did not have the money, God did an amazing thing, He raised $40,000 in a couple of hours. Friends worked together to come up with the money to settle the bail amount and she was released. It reminds me of the early church in Acts where believers got together, sold their stuff and shared what they had to help each other out. We praise you Lord!

All along the way I see how faith has worked to give us what our flesh so easily could have lost us. Anywhere along the line a feeling to get hopeless and settle for the worst or less (which was a temptation that bothered everyone involved) was crucified as faith, hope and belief was chosen.
I can't thank God enough for His spirit, without which we would have been so lost and alone.

Lord may what we have experienced form deep roots in our hearts, may it bless everyone reading this to know that you are our rock and our strength and when our hope is in you, there can be no other outcome but the fulfillment of your promise. Let this experience Lord be the firm foundation that will stand strong, that will hold our faith and conquer any storm that we might ever face. You are our rock and our strength Lord. We love you Jesus.

While she is out of jail the trial will go on and we ask for your prayers. The Lord's glory will shine through just like it has so far. Let us all release our faith in the awesome God we serve. Keep us Lord ever close to you,and be glorified Father in all that we do. Amen.

2006-06-29T23:16:00.000-07:00

You know what...

I can't stop saying nice things to people. I guess I've always been this way to some extent (I think it's why I got my flight attendant job before) but since Jesus told me how much He loves me, this thingy about me has escalated. I have a passion for people. They are so wonderfully made. I love nature, I adore animals but gosh! People are the best thing God every created. In all their sizes,shapes and forms, in all their colors, in all their diverse yet similar ways, what an awesome wonder they are. I find that as I meet more and more people, I tend to notice, very soon, many things that are very special about them. I don't believe that it is me doing this, but Jesus in me, and He has no problem whatsoever being nice and saying nice stuff and so I don't either.

I think in this world we tend to hear more negative than positive. I remember my first few conversations with God, I found it uncomfortable to hear His words of love that were so passionate and so much. I wasn't used to it although I've been blessed to be loved by family and friends, it was still too much. He loved me so much that I could be healed of all my self doubt and worries and insecurities and I know that's how He operates. He loved me into humility and submission and self confidence and He keeps doing it. And yet in this world we want to beat each other into these attitudes. We are so worried about pride and arrogance and things like that, we've stopped trusting one another to just go ahead and be nice, knowing that the other person is an adult and can handle it. I think this is why I am stubborn about sowing the opposite seed. I don't have a problem telling people how special they are. Big, small, young, old, male, female - I don't care, if there's something special about you and there has to be because God made you, and He only makes awesome things, well, I'm gonna tell you.

I do hear every now and then that guys tend to be tempted a lot more than women with things like pride, arrogance, power and lust (I don't know if that's true ) but honestly once Christ touches someone, man or woman, they are free. What did He set us free from? Sin, and he whom the Son has set free is free indeed. We all have our own journey to take in realizing this but I find that God trusts that we already know this and He blesses us with encouragement just taking it for granted that we will react the right way, and while we notice all those who end up not, the ones who fall into pride and sin, all those big ministers who fail, that the secular media publicizes to no end, we don't see that mostly God's trust and love sets the captives free. Drug addicts, prostitutes and murderers turn away from their sin not because of the finger pointing but because of words like, " you are beautiful, I love you so much I died so that you can be forgiven - you are now washed clean by my blood. I took your place so that you can be radiant and shine and you do, you are beautiful". Of course this gets no publicity whatsoever except on the few Christian channels and news services which I have had the awesome blessing to have come across. Check out God TV and TBN. They both have online beams and so can be watched via the internet too.

I might be wrong to blindly trust people like this but I find that God does this with me. He treats me like an adult even though I sometimes feel like I'm a child. I have learnt that Jesus' death on the cross actually meant something. He gave me the ability to conquer sin especially stuff like pride, arrogance, greed, selfishness and things. I'm not saying I don't face any of these temptations, I do, but I find them easier and easier to detect and check and I know my God trusts me with being sensible like this. He wants to, He's been wanting His people to grow up for 2000 years, He wants me to stop trying to conquer what Jesus already conquered, just grow up and start walking like Jesus did, disciple to nations, heal the sick and raise the dead. If I'm still so busy trying to conquer the little things of the flesh however how can I conquer the bigger things, which is to get rid of unbelief and doubt in His word and get into faith so I can actually do 'the greater things than Him' that Jesus said I'd do. I have His job to do now. He left telling me that He has purified me, broken the curse of the fall, that He has given me access into the throne room of the Father, He's given me joint heir status and the Holy Spirit to help me stay pure and give me the ability to have the faith it takes to move mountains. Now I either believe Him or I don't.

What I find exciting and very encouraging is to see this sort of walk with God happening with the next generation. In the Vine I've noticed at least 4 teenagers who are so mature, they're not dealing with common teenage problems, they're working on their faith. Carmen Reed's recent post (http://carmenread@blogspot.com) blew my mind. While I see so many adults having such a problem with silly sins of the flesh this young girl (she's 18)is conquering a faith battle in the battle field of her mind. Getting her mind and thoughts to line up with God's word and believe in His love for her and in His promise to prosper her and give her her dream which she knows came from Him. Wow! I see how she can grow in faith to really make a difference in the lives of others. And there are more and I see them on Christian TV and websites and magazines, in pockets amongst youth in various churches around the world and this gives me great hope for the future. While the darkness gets darker I can see how the light is gatting brighter and that gives me tremendous joy. Lord may we all grow up and honor you and reflect your glory. May the world look at us and truly see the difference. May they look at us and see you Jesus. We love you Lord. Amen.

Wow! That went somewhere I totally did not think it would go... but that's my thoughts or... are they? Actually I hope with all my heart that they aren't. Lord may you be glorified in everything I say and do. I love you Jesus, my brother, my friend, my God.

2006-06-28T05:44:00.000-07:00

Beautiful South Lantau... yup! this is Hong Kong... hard to believe isn't it? Yet it's right here on our door step and we love to share so come visit anytime...: )

Now, meet the family... this one is the cutest...she's Tiara, she's 8 and she's the best.

isn't she a cutie?...

that's Ed... he's da man...yup! that's where she gets her looks from. Thanks daddy you did good and since she's got my brains : ) and our heart, I think all in all we've got a winner. Thank you Jesus.

that's me and two of our doggie dogs, Ebony and Ivory (we have 3, the 3rd being Sheba that's short for Bathsheba - don't ask... Tiara picked the name) contemplating life half way up the hiking trail on the hill behind our home, which eventually gets to Lantau peak, the highest peak in HK.

Beautiful Tong Fuk...

this is a view of our village and beach from a hiking trail on the hill behind our home and it wasn't even a clear day.

okay, that's it for now... more later.

2006-06-27T03:37:00.000-07:00

I have a dream...

and a vision that every Christian home in Hong Kong (and the world for that matter) will have Christian media in it, whether that be magazines, comics, CD’s DVD’s, or Videos, we will have the alternative to what the world is giving us, we will choose it and have our lives changed by it.

This dream began when Ed and I started having this need ourselves. As we began to allow our first love, God's Holy Spirit, to take us over, our taste in worldly media began to sort of disappear. It was so weird but stuff that we really used to enjoy before suddenly began to seem so tasteless to us. We got rid of more than half of our CD's DVD's, books and magazines - we kept the comics though ( I still enjoy those very much)
The other day we were listening to a commentary on JR Tolkien and CS Lewis, the famous Christian authors of 'The Lord of the Rings' and the 'Chronicles of Narnia' and the speaker was saying that the one problem they had with the literature of their time was that they could not find anything that they wanted to read, and so they decided to write the books themselves. That's a bit like what's happened to us.
We remember the day we went to the bookstores in HK looking for Christian magazines that were modern and interesting and a good read, stuff written by local Christians and we could find almost nothing. We had to subscribe to the ones made in the States which are really good by the way. Anyway our dream to see the same done in Hong Kong began, and what an awesome dream it is. The Hong Kong people are readers. You see it all over the place. People read on the MTR, we all have magazines in our homes, there are little magazine hawkers all over Hong Kong. The comic culture is also huge among the kids in Hong Kong.

We have a dream that what is being read today will be replaced by what will actually help lift our spirits, entertain us, edify us, solve our problems and complete us and God certainly can do all these things and He wants to.

This is not an impossible dream. Nothing is impossible with God.

May more and more people dream this dream with us. Thank you Father for dreams and thank you that you deliver way above our dreams and expectations. You are exciting Lord. Awesomely exciting. Give us some great stuff Lord. We look forward to it, we do, we do, we do. Amen!

2006-06-23T19:14:00.000-07:00

I'm very contemplative today, it happens sometimes... : )

Mary vs Martha,

Luke 10:38-42 (New International Version)
38As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. 39She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. 40But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, "Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!"
41"Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things, 42but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her."

Reflections…

This seems so unfair to poor Martha doesn’t it? I mean take the same situation today. One person is busy , working hard to get the job done (so everyone might be fed, including Jesus), and yet it’s the one sitting at the feet of God (seemingly not working as hard as the other) that He says is better. Why? Is He an unfair God? Yet I find that people cannot help but react like Martha towards those who behave like Mary.

I used to be this way, you know. I did not like very much to give away the money I worked so hard to earn. I mean I gave my tithes and stuff and well I actually did give most of it away but I wasn’t really a cheerful giver. I wanted those who received from me to really deserve it, in my eyes (I did not really ask God whether He wanted me to bless them). You see, I was giving to people and not to God. I did like blessing people (it's was a 'makes me feel good' decision) but somewhere deep down was the thought, ‘you know if you really want it you should work for it like me.’ You see I wanted something back in return, I wanted them to deserve the money I had worked to make. It was MY money and I was being this wonderful person and giving it away. It was a ‘me’ thing. Today, I am very blessed to say, that old me is all dead and gone. I love blessing people today and I actually want to have, just so I can give and get the pat on the back from my Jesus. It makes Him so happy and I love that. Thank you Lord for opening my eyes to that one and setting me free.

You know this is a trap I see many people stuck in. Another trap is that nobody wants to be Mary these days. Mary looks like a lazy person. I had this problem too. It’s easier to be Martha and look down on Mary than be Mary and have only Jesus understand what is actually going on. It’s a lonely place if one is seeking man’s approval but it’s the place God says is better. As a woman I have this problem, how much more men?

Why is it so difficult to be Mary and so much easier to be Martha? The words ‘I’m so busy’ is like a fashion statement today. I hear it from people all the time and today I hate it when it comes out of my mouth, because usually it’s the reason I haven’t done something I know I should have that is usually relationship oriented. With such a busy life how can we actually spend time with God and do the things He wants? Yes, we try but usually we get stuck in this horrible place where we're a Martha who pretends to be a Mary. ‘I’ll fit God into my 45 minute lunch break. ’ Even some of us in active ministry sometimes have this attitude. ‘Surely God expects me to have a life!’

There are too many Martha’s and too few Mary’s and we as people pleasers wanting so much to fit in, join the Martha’s rather than the Mary’s. I’m not saying this to condemn us. I think it’s a genuine problem that only God has the answer to. One that I hope more and more of us will seek to find for our own sakes. It’s a hard answer to seek, because we feel like Martha did, that if we do not do the work and get all 'busy busy' then everything will stay undone, or that we will be utterly useless or that our lives will be boring and lack meaning or that we'll have no satisfaction that we've actually achieved something or that people will not respect us or we won’t have any friends. Yes, and it seems genuinely unnatural that any other outcome should result. But surely we’re missing something here. Why would Jesus say that it’s better to be Mary than to be Martha if we’d end up losing out? Surely He couldn’t have meant that? Yet He clearly was suggesting that Mary had it right to sit at His feet while Martha did all the work. What did He mean? Only He knows and we need to not try and guess or use our own wisdom or understanding and come up with some kind of rule to explain this. There is too much of that going around.

Only God knows the hidden things of Him and He will reveal it to us if we ask.

2006-06-21T21:42:00.000-07:00

Jehova Cuddly Bear…

Soon after Jesus revealed Himself to me I began to discover an aspect of God I had no idea existed. The ‘daddy’ side of Him. I was in this new and awesome world and realized that I could actually go into the throne room where the big God who sat there, was also my daddy who longed to reach out to me, to have me sit on His lap and just chat. We had some really special conversations (and we still do) where He talked to me like a loving father does to a 3 year old.

I will never forget this one however. I was on the bus alone, going from Tong Fuk (where we live) to Mui Wo (Silver Mine bay) and on a warm sunny day this journey is a very pretty one and it was that day. The hills were so green and fresh, the ocean looked so cool and refreshing, the flowers, the butterflies, the sky, the cute village homes in the shade of the trees, it was all so beautiful and I was chatting with God about them. Now this conversation happened naturally, it wasn’t some deliberate thing. It was in my thoughts, and it was two way, and it was so clear and real that I suddenly stopped after I had said something, wondering if I had just said it out loud. I was suddenly aware of the fact that there were people around me and I had probably been smiling and oh! dear if I had actually said stuff out loud, I would have looked like those kids who go around with their imaginary friends. I knew my invisible daddy was laughing at my self consciousness and realizing that no one was actually near me I allowed myself to chuckle with Him and said something like, “Lord, don’t do this to me, I don’t want people thinking I’m nuts… = ). I mean in the bible when you revealed more and more of yourself to people it was always this awesome thing like, Jehova Jireh - God will see or provide, or Jehova Shalom – God is peace or Jehova nissi – God is my banner, or Jehova Ropheka – God is my healer and to me it’s like Jehova cuddly bear - God is my cuddly bear imaginary friend who goes along with me to keep me company. "

I shared this with my husband Ed but not with anyone else, not knowing quite how they’d react and fearing I suppose, that they’d think me weird. A couple of days ago however it just came out in a conversation with a friend and he surprised me by saying that he knows of someone who says God revealed Himself to him as Jehova sneaky as He’s always sneaking up on him. = ) I sense that many of us are seeing this lighter, relaxed, fun side of God and I find that it’s just as awesome a picture of Him as all the other revelations. This world is so in need of their Dad and He wants so much for us to just hang out with Him as well. Over time we’ve done so much revering, honoring, exalting and fearing it’s turned into a flesh thing that actually separates us from Him. We put God on this pedestal and keep Him in that lonely place and that’s not at all what He wants and we lose out on so so much by doing that. Lord you are the cuddliest Father there ever was and ever will be and I thank you for every precious cuddle you’ve given me. I love you Dad.

2006-06-21T04:28:00.000-07:00

Not by might, not by power but by His Spirit…

This scripture has taken on new meaning for me today. I realize more and more as I seek God and His ways that it’s not about what I can do for Him, but about what He can do through me. There is only one way we can be effective for God and live the victorious life that Jesus died to give us. It is by laying down our lives as a living sacrifice for Him, by doing things not by might or by power but by His Spirit. That might sound too profound, abstract or radical an idea to adopt practically, but actually as has been revealed to me this morning, by our best friend Jesus, it is an extremely practical and very simple idea.

We all know that we are the bride of Christ. In other words we are called into marriage with Christ right? Now, what is an ideal marriage? One in which the husband and wife spend time with each other, getting to know one another and loving each other. As this is done, day by day the two gradually become one.

Is the marriage any good if they do not spend time together on a daily basis? Is the marriage any good if they have a brief honey moon period and then proceed to get on with life growing away from one another? Is the marriage any good if they both get caught up in the duties of marriage and forget about each other? Is the marriage any good if they force themselves into a relationship out of a sense of duty or guilt? No. It’s the same in our relationship with Jesus. Many people experience the life changing initial moments with Jesus when He reveals Himself to them, they have a brief honey moon period with Him when they are on fire for Him but then the busyness of life gets in the way. Then there are those who get so caught up in the busyness of being a Christian, evangelizing, preaching, teaching and ministering, they get caught up in the kingdom, they forget about the King. Still others spend time with God out of a sense of duty or worse still, out of guilt. Gosh! what a slap in the face for any spouse who is treated this way, and yet as the bride of Christ ... how many times do we do this? In being this kind of bride to Christ, living according to the scripture, ‘not by might nor by power but by His spirit’ becomes a huge challenge and is in fact I realize impossible.

Just like we cannot have a victorious marriage without loving each other and becoming one , we cannot live a victorious life in Christ without becoming one with Him. We cannot do things by His Spirit if we are not one with His Spirit. 1 Cor 6: 17 says, ‘But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with him in spirit.’ Are we? Do we expect the victory of being a Christian without loving our Lord the way He wants and deserves to be loved?

If however, we commune with Him on a daily basis like a husband and wife does, if we hang out with Him, we relax with Him, we chat with Him, we find out how much He loves us, we tell Him how much we love Him, we ask His opinion and we submit under His authority. What will happen?

Clearly when we do this in our marriages, the person whom we love becomes a huge influence in our lives. His/her decisions become ours, his/her choices become ours. It is the same with God. When we treat Him as our husband and get into an active relationship with Him giving Him the place He deserves as our husband, it is only natural that He becomes the leading influence of our lives. His Spirit becomes one with ours and pretty soon the things we do will no longer be by our might or by our power but by His Spirit.

I have experienced some of this. I find myself changing, my taste in the things of this world is going, my taste in the things of God is growing, I find myself doing things better, being nicer, kinder, more loving, all smiley faced and stuff and with no real effort on my part, in fact I almost can't help it sometimes and I know it's Christ's spirit in me doing this. Yeeeeeeeehhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaa! It's way cooler than trying to do the right thing in my own strength. Man! that's tough. Isn't it awesome? I love God... and He does a whole bunch of amazing stuff through me and I am blessed and His glory is revealed... and who wouldn't want this life? Jesus Christ you are awesome. I LOVE BEING A CHRISTIAN.

2006-06-13T00:36:00.000-07:00

My Favourite testimony so far.

I was raised Catholic and one thing that I got from that, was a love and admiration for Jesus. He was my best friend ever since I was about 7 and I had a deep adoration of Him and growing up, I was a huge fan of His. I grew up with nuns around me right through school and college and I was an absolute 'goody goody' girl. For anyone who understands religion, you know what kind of a trap that can be. Being good and doing the right thing was this huge burden I carried. I was very aware of my love for Jesus but had no clue really of His love for me, of the freedom that it brings and had no active two way relationship either. About two years ago however, I was watching a Christian television show and I felt like the guy talking had something more in His relationship with God than I did, He was saying stuff like God spoke to him and I was like, "c'mon that's weird, God doesn't talk to us... or does he?" Anyway, I don't know why I did it, but at the end of the program I prayed the sinners prayer and did not think I had done anything spectacular or different, but I felt nice.
Soon after however I had an argument with my husband Ed (one of our typical cat and dog fights - if any of you feel bad that you and your spouse fight, take it from me, you can't beat how terribly good we were at it : ) ), I was sitting around and moping and feeling sorry for myself and I asked the question in my heart, 'why can't I experience a love that goes without for me? (typical!!! - too many fairy tales : ) ) So there I was feeling all hurt and upset, because Ed would not come into the room, go down on his knees and apologise, : ) And I heard Jesus so clearly, I will never forget it, He said, "Cheryl you want to know of a love that went without so you can have, I love you so much, I gave my life for you". I was stunned, (it's amazing how you can grow up knowing this, and yet not know it at all) In that instant, I experienced a love like none I had ever experienced. It was supernatural and it drove out all my insecurities, doubts and fears and at the same time brought me into an awareness of the fact that, I did not deserve it. Yet I knew that I had this love and He poured it out so freely. I was so loved and so overwhelmed and it rocked my world. ALSO, I knew that Ed was actually this wonderful guy who loved me very much. Amazing, how that happened. : )

Then the changes in the natural began to manifest and they went at roller coaster speed. It's like God did not waste any time at all. What an awesome God He is. I was still working as a flight attendant with Cathay Pacific Airways but a question I had suppressed for about 2-3 years would not stop coming into my mind. 'Why am I doing what I do for a living?' and I answered "because God asked me to" and He said, "really? did I?" and that's when I realized I had not really asked God at all, and so I did and God said, 'Do you feel like this is where you are meant to be?' and I said, ‘no’ and He said, 'so quit' and I said, 'NO' and He said, 'Okay...' and He slowly revealed to me the real reason I would not quit. It was because I did not believe that if I did what He was asking me to (follow the desires of my heart and join my husband full time in the magazine ministry he was just launching, and be a full time mum to my daughter Tiara) that God would take care of me. Of course I argued that this was not the case, that it would be irresponsible to quit my job and things like that and I came up with some very good, seemingly biblically backed arguments as well (my religious upbringing helped greatly in this regard), but in the end God showed me that I had a fear that our needs would not be met, if I did not depend on myself and my job and I was hiding it very cleverly. The bible verses, " look at the lillies in the field... and seek first the kingdom of God and messages like that kept coming up so much, it was almost funny. I faced the reality that my dependence upon my secular work was a trap of fear that I disguised as responsibility. He showed me that my work should not be my source, that He is and when we do what He created us to do, we are rewarded by Him whether that is through a secular job, a business or in active ministry, our supply comes from Him alone. There is a difference between working at a secular job and claiming God is our source and working at a secular job and actually having God as our source. It's a fine line actually, and it was an issue I avoided confronting until God helped me to. But I had to choose to believe this and to me this step was like jumping off the cliff, but my love for Him was so strong and the realization of His love for me too real to worry about this like I used to, and it remains the same to this day.

By this time ( it had been about two months into this conversation - I was taking my time and God was being very gracious ) Ed had already left secular work to begin the ground work on the publishing ministry. A call that began over 6 years ago for him with one failed, part time, half hearted, faithless attempt in his bag already. We realized that this task could not be done unless we both worked at it full time. So our dependence on secular work had to be crucified. As we began to pray and seek God in this call He gave us more visions and dreams and revealed to us His desire to unite the body here and bring the young generation to Him through media. Praise God I am so amazed at what He has done with us.
It's a journey where we stumble and fall and then rise in victory on a daily basis almost and life for me is unlike it has ever been before. I have faced and overcome challenges I had no idea I could overcome and even during the toughest parts of this journey I can tell you with all honesty, I will not change a single thing. I only want more of this life in God. Every struggle I have with my flesh has led to tremendous growth in my spirit and deep down I know I have found the path to the life we as human beings crave. I am headed towards victory in Christ and it's awesome. Jesus Christ you totally rule.