God gave me a picture once that just came back to me, and I want to share it with you.
I was standing in a place, between God and between the devil.
The devil was reeling off all my failures and God said, very calmly 'Yes, but she's mine'
And the devil reeled off all my mishaps.
And God said very calmly 'Yes, but she's mine'
And the devil then told God all of my sins, and since the devil clearly wasn't understanding, God said 'Yes, but she's mine. She's covered in the blood' and suddenly I was no longer stood there. Instead, in my place, there was a sheet of blood, representing me. I don't know when the transition took place, but it did. I wasn't afraid; I was His.
The devil can throw accusation after accusation at you, but the reality is; God doesn't care what he's saying. He has already justified you. There is NO sin that you do that God does not already know about
Once you're God's, you start and continue listening to His voice and His voice alone, for He is The Voice of Truth and He has REDEEMED and CLAIMED you.
So stop worrying, and start living and loving.
I knew this was for someone. I hope they've read it.
All my love
Bethy xx
A blog of one girl, going after God and her discoveries!! Some serious and honest, some light-hearted and giggly! Let your heart tummy get involved and send you skittering!
Saturday, 29 December 2012
Thursday, 15 November 2012
The Time Is Now
'Time to clean up, shape up, toughen up, get real - or forget it!'
This is a quote from my dear Mum! It had been pressing on my mind for a while. She's referrig to being a Christian; we can't just float along.
It came into my mind a few nights ago whilst at a prayer meeting and we were singing a song with the lyrics 'There's passion in my heart, this stirring in my soul, to see the nations bow, for all the world to know, I'm living for your glory on the earth'.
I was stopped short, you know. Where is the sense in me singing that if I'm not doing? If I'm not willing to? It Really is the time to clean up my act, shape myself up ready for whatever comes my way, toughen up in the face of adversity and get real about my Jesus .......... or live a different life. It's a very scary thought to think about packing it all in ......... very scary.
I've been drifting along, just being .... not being anything in particular, but just being. Existing, is a better word for it. Doing work to tell people about God, but not talking to God. It's a horrible place to be. Empathy. It's awful.
If we're going to sing 'burn like a fire in me', well then we have to WANT it, and allow God the SPACE to burn in us, because He is an ALL-CONSUMING fire and He wants us to be TOTALLY available!
It's hard, and I'm not there yet. But I know for myself, that I need to button up and start .... otherwise, I'll just carelessly drift by!
Thank you, Pappa for this revelation!!
Bethy, xx
This is a quote from my dear Mum! It had been pressing on my mind for a while. She's referrig to being a Christian; we can't just float along.
It came into my mind a few nights ago whilst at a prayer meeting and we were singing a song with the lyrics 'There's passion in my heart, this stirring in my soul, to see the nations bow, for all the world to know, I'm living for your glory on the earth'.
I was stopped short, you know. Where is the sense in me singing that if I'm not doing? If I'm not willing to? It Really is the time to clean up my act, shape myself up ready for whatever comes my way, toughen up in the face of adversity and get real about my Jesus .......... or live a different life. It's a very scary thought to think about packing it all in ......... very scary.
I've been drifting along, just being .... not being anything in particular, but just being. Existing, is a better word for it. Doing work to tell people about God, but not talking to God. It's a horrible place to be. Empathy. It's awful.
If we're going to sing 'burn like a fire in me', well then we have to WANT it, and allow God the SPACE to burn in us, because He is an ALL-CONSUMING fire and He wants us to be TOTALLY available!
It's hard, and I'm not there yet. But I know for myself, that I need to button up and start .... otherwise, I'll just carelessly drift by!
Thank you, Pappa for this revelation!!
Bethy, xx
Wednesday, 31 October 2012
How GREAT is our God?
That's a rhetorical question up there! There's no human answer to the question 'How great is our God?', I don't believe!! He is beyond humand comprehension and we can never fathom all that He is or all that He has done!
Yesterday, in our devotions, we watched Louie Giglio's touring preach 'How Great Is Our God' where He tells us how big this universe is, covers the subject of LAMININ and explains a bit more about the human body. It's a hard programme to watch and not fill up at! It mkaes you realise that we really have nothing to worry about, we're very priviliged, very blessed and VERY loved by an Awesome Father. A father who, if He can create this vast and beautiful universe, He can take care of all that I go through!
Here are some facts for yae:
1 million seconds ago is 12days ago!
1 billion seconds ago is May 1975 (as of 2009)
1 trillion seconds ago is 29,000 BC
1 quadrillion seconds ago is 30'000'800 years ago
And we think that God can't understand what we're going through! It's crazy, isn't it?
One of the tings LG said in his message was that
''Sin shrinks God down and puffs us up in our own estimation'
Do you ever get ahead of yourself? Ever think that you'll mangage it without God? You can sort it out yourself, thank you?
Sin SHRINKS God down and PUFFS us up in our own estimation. That's a dangerous place to be in! You imagine you can do more than you think and begin to tread on dangerous waters, sussing stuff ut for yourself, jumping to your own conclusions. You know when you've done tha because you look back and think 'Ah, I should have ..... prayed/asked God/followed His adivce'. He knows best!
There are 3 TRILLION cells in our body! There is enough DNA in our body that to read it, one character per second, would take 96 years of a person's life.
Every three seconds, 50'000 cells in our body dies and are replaced. When you read that, it happened once. And again .................... and again ............... You get the picture! How amazingly intricate are we created?!
BUT, The Supremacy of Christ means that 'In Him, ALL things hold together'
Bethy, xx
Yesterday, in our devotions, we watched Louie Giglio's touring preach 'How Great Is Our God' where He tells us how big this universe is, covers the subject of LAMININ and explains a bit more about the human body. It's a hard programme to watch and not fill up at! It mkaes you realise that we really have nothing to worry about, we're very priviliged, very blessed and VERY loved by an Awesome Father. A father who, if He can create this vast and beautiful universe, He can take care of all that I go through!
Here are some facts for yae:
1 million seconds ago is 12days ago!
1 billion seconds ago is May 1975 (as of 2009)
1 trillion seconds ago is 29,000 BC
1 quadrillion seconds ago is 30'000'800 years ago
And we think that God can't understand what we're going through! It's crazy, isn't it?
One of the tings LG said in his message was that
''Sin shrinks God down and puffs us up in our own estimation'
Do you ever get ahead of yourself? Ever think that you'll mangage it without God? You can sort it out yourself, thank you?
Sin SHRINKS God down and PUFFS us up in our own estimation. That's a dangerous place to be in! You imagine you can do more than you think and begin to tread on dangerous waters, sussing stuff ut for yourself, jumping to your own conclusions. You know when you've done tha because you look back and think 'Ah, I should have ..... prayed/asked God/followed His adivce'. He knows best!
There are 3 TRILLION cells in our body! There is enough DNA in our body that to read it, one character per second, would take 96 years of a person's life.
Every three seconds, 50'000 cells in our body dies and are replaced. When you read that, it happened once. And again .................... and again ............... You get the picture! How amazingly intricate are we created?!
BUT, The Supremacy of Christ means that 'In Him, ALL things hold together'
Bethy, xx
Sunday, 28 October 2012
Not OUR time; His time!
| Praying with the Right Mindset |
| You...do not receive, because you ask amiss. James 4:3 |
| Sometimes in our prayers we are 'me' centred and see God as a genie to be conjured up to fulfil our every wish. Then when we don't get what we want we think He doesn't hear, doesn't care, or maybe doesn't exist. James says, 'You...do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.' Selfishness is at the root of many unanswered prayers. The first petition in the Lord's Prayer is 'Hallowed be Your name', the second 'Your Kingdom come' and the third, 'Your will be done' (Matthew 6:9-10 NKJV). Note, our first concern in prayer should be what God wants, not what we want. So here are some suggestions for praying with the right mindset: 1) Ask God to slay your sinful nature. As new creatures in Christ we wrestle daily with our old nature. And as long as that nature has the upper hand, our prayers will be hindered. 2) Ask Him to cleanse you with His blood. You can't come into God's presence tainted by sin; you must confess it and ask Him to forgive you. 3) Ask Him to fill you with the Holy Spirit. The indwelling of God's Spirit enables you to overcome temptation and live according to His will. 4) Ask Him to guard and guide your steps. God's plan for our lives is always better than anything we could ever devise. 5) Ask Him to use you for His glory. Make yourself available as a servant with a willing heart to do whatever He asks. Bottom line: when you pray with the right mindset you'll get answers you never imagined possible. |
That was my daily reading for today from UCB UK!
The other day, I had a catch up over a brew with one of my lovely prayer partners and mentors and after she left, I sat down and decided to spend some time with God. I felt like I should wait and let Him speak first although I had soooooooo sooooooooo much I wanted to say to Him, to tell Him, to let Him know about and to lay down at His feet. After a few minutes of me trying to be quiet, I felt suddenly that this is what we do as Christians!
See, I had met with my mentor for an hour and a half and then it was 1pm and I had to be somewhere by 2:50, so in my mind, I had set aside an hour 'FOR GOD', and then would need togo out and I realised we do this ALL the time, don't we? We set aside some time and then EXPECT God to turn up in the pitiful few minutes we have laid aside for Him. He's not working on our time; He's working on His.
I'm not saying that when we sit down in our quiet time, God isn't going to show, but we can't give Him a few minutes out of our time and then have a time limit for how long we have before we gotta bounce. God's working on His time scale and He wants us to be ready when He calls, not when we decide we're free. He is calling the shots!!
Bethy xx
Thursday, 25 October 2012
WAKE UP!!!
This week at work has been a little different! The majority of the team are in Israel, following a histoical and beautiful tourist path, visiting the Wailing Wall, the Mount of Olives and the Garden of Gethsemene. It sounds and looks amazing!!
So, there's only 7 of us left in and around the office, which makes for a quiet week! So our devotions was pretty quiet but still really good, and after worship we watched a preach by Francis Chan!
I was so tired though, that I slumped across three chairs with my notebook on my knee and closed my eyes. I was still listening, I just had my eyes closed, but I could feel the tiredness keeping on getting stronger and stronger and stronger until I bolted upright and that's when revelation came to me:
If we want to get closer to Father in our walk with Him, we have to sit up and make the physical effort to sit UP and listen from that upright position, rather than slump and get by.
Interesting thought, isn't it?
Bethy xx
So, there's only 7 of us left in and around the office, which makes for a quiet week! So our devotions was pretty quiet but still really good, and after worship we watched a preach by Francis Chan!
I was so tired though, that I slumped across three chairs with my notebook on my knee and closed my eyes. I was still listening, I just had my eyes closed, but I could feel the tiredness keeping on getting stronger and stronger and stronger until I bolted upright and that's when revelation came to me:
If we want to get closer to Father in our walk with Him, we have to sit up and make the physical effort to sit UP and listen from that upright position, rather than slump and get by.
Interesting thought, isn't it?
Bethy xx
Saturday, 20 October 2012
A light-hearted observation and a SERIOUS idea!!
Tonight, I went to the cinema with friends to watch Madagascar 3! It was great!
I laughed, talked, sang along (and it's not even a singalonga film!) shrieked, jumped and scooched down in my chair several times and was pretty sure I was going to get a dig in the ribs by my friendling next to me!
But they used the song 'Firework' by Katy Perry a few times in it and it occured to me, this VERY sensible thought: I have NEVER felt like a plastic bag floating through the wind, wishing to be reincarnated. Ever.
'Do you ever feel, like a plastic bag, floating through the wind, wanting to start again?' Erm ... NO!
Also, I had a Dragons Den style thought: (C) = COPYRIGHT!
Croc Socks! So your feet will never be cold in Crocs! (Even thought up a slogan on the spot!)
Socks for crocs with holes adjacent to where the holes are in the crocs. So where the holes are in the crocs, there'll be a bit of sock. And where the holes are in the sock, there'll be a bit of croc!
So you have croccy feet that can keep warm!! Be a pain to wash though!
Night night
I laughed, talked, sang along (and it's not even a singalonga film!) shrieked, jumped and scooched down in my chair several times and was pretty sure I was going to get a dig in the ribs by my friendling next to me!
But they used the song 'Firework' by Katy Perry a few times in it and it occured to me, this VERY sensible thought: I have NEVER felt like a plastic bag floating through the wind, wishing to be reincarnated. Ever.
'Do you ever feel, like a plastic bag, floating through the wind, wanting to start again?' Erm ... NO!
Also, I had a Dragons Den style thought: (C) = COPYRIGHT!
Croc Socks! So your feet will never be cold in Crocs! (Even thought up a slogan on the spot!)
Socks for crocs with holes adjacent to where the holes are in the crocs. So where the holes are in the crocs, there'll be a bit of sock. And where the holes are in the sock, there'll be a bit of croc!
So you have croccy feet that can keep warm!! Be a pain to wash though!
Night night
Being God's Girl
The other day, I was in our office looking for something to do and happened upon a book on our bookshelf called 'Every Young Woman's Battle'. I was intrigued as to what I and the millions of other young women around the world battled with, so I opened it and began to delve into the words. I soon realised what we all battle: SEX!
There, I said it! 'That' word! It! The Deed! The 'S' Word! Or as my niece called it once 'Sykes!'
I started to read it and found it really interesting! It's full of personal stories and Bible verses and guides as to what the harm is in sex before marriage, even just fooling around but taking that step to far, in dressing slightly provocatively. It also gave me a small insight into what lads think when we're flirtatious even a little bit, or how too low or tight a top can be distracting to them! That doesn't mean dress down all the time, but just beware what your image is letting off.
Ayway, one of the things that it said was that in the boys version 'Every Young Man's Battle' was that they advise the boy reading it to learn how to 'bounce' their eyes, which means that if they're looking at a girl and they know they shouldn't be or it's causing them to think too hard, lose focus of God or fantasise, they should immediately bounce their eyes away - physically look elsewhere. Like a picture of a plant; that'll divert anyone's mind from the darkest of thoughts!
I LOVED this idea and decidede to put it into practice! It's really fun to do, actually! It makes you feel that tiny bit more protected knowing that you can not stare at a bloke and think 'Hmmmmm!!'
My girlfriends will know that for a year or so, I've struggled with being single, which is bizarre because it's one of the most natural things to be! I must drive them mad when I joke-moan about it! I don't neeeeeeeeeed a boyfriend, but sometimes when you're out in a big group with friends and they're pairing up to buy their meals and hugging, you sometimes feel it. I don't begrudge them their partners; I think they're great together! I found it difficult the last few months when one of my best friends got a boyfriend. Suddenly, she wasn't as accessible becuse you devoted time to someone else so she wasn't always free to come round and hang out. Now she had other priorities and I found that weird for a while and gave her a bit of a hard time! But I see that this guy is important to her and as one of her best friends, that's important to me! That she's cherished and respected and nurtured! It's not for me to feel jealous! It's for me to be happy for her and for him, as well!!
Now, I kinda get it and (I hope) that I'm more reasonable!! Ha ha!
So for a while, this has been present in my mind.
When you feel just a little bit low, you'd love to be able to ring up your boyf and let him speak comfort to you, wouldn't you? Yeah!
But about that!? God's been speaking to me and explaining to me that, until I can go first to God when I'm feeling low or sad or hurt or lonely, and cry and talk to Him, what's the point of going to a HUMAN!? God is Super-natural and will have a Super Super-natural way of comforting me and knowing my future.
And so this book really helped me for a couple of days to 'bounce' and to think on God! And that's been great. But what happens when you log onto facebook and see that someone else is in a relationship? You do the right thing! What you DON'T do is sit there and feel sorry for yourself and remind yourself how you're still single!!
You say to God, firstly that you love HIM and that He is your Everything and no boy will complete you. You're only incomplete if you don't have God. When you have Him, you have everything you're EVER going to need.
Then you just be honest with Him. Tell Him, because He loves to hear you talk, that sometimes you find it a bit hard when everyone (it seems!) is lurrrrrrrrved up and you're not!
Then ask Him for His help. HE Wants to help you, but He'll only help you if you ask Him to.
Then tell Him you love Him again!! All you Want is Him!
The more you look for your Mr. Darcy and not God, the less you'll find either of them! God knows who He has for you and He knows the right time! He just wants your WHOLE heart first so that He can give a little bit of it to the guy who's going to love you on Earth!
But first, prioritise and give God it all!!
He loves You! Are you going to love Him back?
And I speak to myself as much to anyone!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPb9Lggo2mY
Much Love,
bethyblogger92
bethyblogger92@gmail.com
There, I said it! 'That' word! It! The Deed! The 'S' Word! Or as my niece called it once 'Sykes!'
I started to read it and found it really interesting! It's full of personal stories and Bible verses and guides as to what the harm is in sex before marriage, even just fooling around but taking that step to far, in dressing slightly provocatively. It also gave me a small insight into what lads think when we're flirtatious even a little bit, or how too low or tight a top can be distracting to them! That doesn't mean dress down all the time, but just beware what your image is letting off.
Ayway, one of the things that it said was that in the boys version 'Every Young Man's Battle' was that they advise the boy reading it to learn how to 'bounce' their eyes, which means that if they're looking at a girl and they know they shouldn't be or it's causing them to think too hard, lose focus of God or fantasise, they should immediately bounce their eyes away - physically look elsewhere. Like a picture of a plant; that'll divert anyone's mind from the darkest of thoughts!
I LOVED this idea and decidede to put it into practice! It's really fun to do, actually! It makes you feel that tiny bit more protected knowing that you can not stare at a bloke and think 'Hmmmmm!!'
My girlfriends will know that for a year or so, I've struggled with being single, which is bizarre because it's one of the most natural things to be! I must drive them mad when I joke-moan about it! I don't neeeeeeeeeed a boyfriend, but sometimes when you're out in a big group with friends and they're pairing up to buy their meals and hugging, you sometimes feel it. I don't begrudge them their partners; I think they're great together! I found it difficult the last few months when one of my best friends got a boyfriend. Suddenly, she wasn't as accessible becuse you devoted time to someone else so she wasn't always free to come round and hang out. Now she had other priorities and I found that weird for a while and gave her a bit of a hard time! But I see that this guy is important to her and as one of her best friends, that's important to me! That she's cherished and respected and nurtured! It's not for me to feel jealous! It's for me to be happy for her and for him, as well!!
Now, I kinda get it and (I hope) that I'm more reasonable!! Ha ha!
So for a while, this has been present in my mind.
When you feel just a little bit low, you'd love to be able to ring up your boyf and let him speak comfort to you, wouldn't you? Yeah!
But about that!? God's been speaking to me and explaining to me that, until I can go first to God when I'm feeling low or sad or hurt or lonely, and cry and talk to Him, what's the point of going to a HUMAN!? God is Super-natural and will have a Super Super-natural way of comforting me and knowing my future.
And so this book really helped me for a couple of days to 'bounce' and to think on God! And that's been great. But what happens when you log onto facebook and see that someone else is in a relationship? You do the right thing! What you DON'T do is sit there and feel sorry for yourself and remind yourself how you're still single!!
You say to God, firstly that you love HIM and that He is your Everything and no boy will complete you. You're only incomplete if you don't have God. When you have Him, you have everything you're EVER going to need.
Then you just be honest with Him. Tell Him, because He loves to hear you talk, that sometimes you find it a bit hard when everyone (it seems!) is lurrrrrrrrved up and you're not!
Then ask Him for His help. HE Wants to help you, but He'll only help you if you ask Him to.
Then tell Him you love Him again!! All you Want is Him!
The more you look for your Mr. Darcy and not God, the less you'll find either of them! God knows who He has for you and He knows the right time! He just wants your WHOLE heart first so that He can give a little bit of it to the guy who's going to love you on Earth!
But first, prioritise and give God it all!!
He loves You! Are you going to love Him back?
And I speak to myself as much to anyone!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPb9Lggo2mY
Much Love,
bethyblogger92
bethyblogger92@gmail.com
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