Focus!

I was going through my yahoo notepad today and I rediscovered some notes I wrote a few years ago. This one is quite fitting to where I'm at now (turns out I've been walking around in circles for a long time. Thank God for grace!).

Thank you Lord....

You are everywhere,

Present with every breath I take

Every morning I wake.

Focus

is what I need to do

Not on them but on only You

Cause that is when I'll see

the Be in beauty, You in me.

Focus on You

each minute of the day

Lord, I am never alone

You are always here with me

The only thing I need to do

Is open my eyes and acknowledge You

Forgive me

I turned my eyes away from You

And to the questions of critics,

To the discouragement of the world

You want me to be joyful, to grab hold of Your promises

I WANT TO LIVE

LIFE with

ENTHUSIASM, (=HAVING GOD WITHIN; DIVINE POSESSESION; DIVINE INSPIRATION; LIVELY MANIFESTATION OF JOY)

PASSION,

YOU!

Grace

Jesus doesn't care what you've done before 

How you've rebelled or slammed the door 

No matter how far you've run or

how long you've been untrue 

Jesus doesn't care 

He still offers forgiveness to you 

(Song: Jesus doesn't care)

"as far as the east is from the west, so far does He remove our transgressions from us." (Psalm 103:12)

"I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness." -The LORD (Jeremiah 31:3)

"Love never fails." (1 Corinthians 13:8a)

But He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness." (2 Corinthians 12:9a)
He said to me, "It's not about your power or lack of it. It's all about me. So look to me and you will find freedom, love and all you need." (He told me to: Taste and See)

"You surround me with songs of deliverance." (Psalm 32:7) :-)

Shelter :-)

~~Psalm 91~~

1 Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High

will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.

2 I will say of the LORD, “He is my refuge and my fortress,

my God, in whom I trust.”

3 Surely he will save you

from the fowler’s snare

and from the deadly pestilence.

4 He will cover you with his feathers,

and under his wings you will find refuge;

his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.

5 You will not fear the terror of night,

nor the arrow that flies by day,

6 nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness,

nor the plague that destroys at midday.

7 A thousand may fall at your side,

ten thousand at your right hand,

but it will not come near you.

8 You will only observe with your eyes

and see the punishment of the wicked.

9 If you say, “The LORD is my refuge,”

and you make the Most High your dwelling,

10 no harm will overtake you,

no disaster will come near your tent.

11 For he will command his angels concerning you

to guard you in all your ways;

12 they will lift you up in their hands,

so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.

13 You will tread on the lion and the cobra;

you will trample the great lion and the serpent.

14 “Because he loves me,” says the LORD, “I will rescue him;

I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.

15 He will call on me, and I will answer him;

I will be with him in trouble,

I will deliver him and honor him.

16 With long life I will satisfy him

and show him my salvation.”

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“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls." -Jesus :) (Matthew 11:28-29)

"Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him."

(Psalm 34:8)

"Umbrella" remix by Coffey Anderson: http://youtu.be/vE57VcA8E_M

Take it from the "Woman at the Wella": http://youtu.be/3HWELbShjag

"I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."~ Jesus :) (John 16:33)

Spirit of UNITY

"May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God."(Romans 15:5-7)

If we should learn only one thing this weekend it should be humility.

“The death of Christ was designed by God to unite races in a passion for the supremacy of Christ and of God the Father. Christ died to ransom worshippers from every race and every language.”- John Piper

Practicals

1. It's all about God- Unity is for Him (worship/glory/praise) and also by Him (He is the One who gives us a "spirit of unity.")We may work at achieving this with our own strength like the world does -just through talking (usually arguing and slandering) but that won't cut it. It's all about God that's why we need to fix our eyes on Him and pray for unity. Think about it, we are all different (multi-ethnic + individual differences) but God made us all therefore He knows us perfectly. So the most effective and the elementary step we should pursue in racial rec is prayer (consistent). Talk to God about that different person that you can't figure out and He'll give you His eyes for them.

2. Accept one another- I like what Rici said when she talked at Common Ground, something like, "It's about time to share your uncensored self with the rest of the fellowship, they can handle it." When she said the last part, I was like "Ha! I wish!" It's time to accept each other whether or not we completely understand each other because as we do this with our eyes fixed on Jesus we will get closer to God (intimacy) and to each other. To the censored and misunderstood, Jesus says "You are free to be yourself. Just keep your eyes on Me and keep sharing yourself with others whether or not people get you. You should look to Me for approval and not chase after the approval of men. Eventually, people will have eyes to see you as I see you." Yup it's time for all of us to be real (that's how racial rec happens). It's time to be our real selves and to be real friends. Let's quit this adversarial relationship- we are on the same team. If you wanna fight then fight in the spirit (prayer) against the real enemy (the devil).

3. In the Kingdom of God, humility applies to everybody. Jesus is the perfect example.

"Jesus called them together and said, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:42-45)

To the Elders and the Flock

To the elders among you, I appeal as a fellow elder and a witness of Christ’s sufferings who also will share in the glory to be revealed: Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, serving as overseers—not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not pursuing dishonest gain, but eager to serve; not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away. =)

In the same way, you who are younger, submit yourselves to your elders. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.” Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. (1 Peter 5:1-6)

Jesus, You became nothing, You humbled yourself by becoming obedient to the Father to the point of death...even death on a cross! Then the Father exalted You and gave You the name that is above every name! Now who am I not to humble myself before You. That You may lift me up in due time. (Philippians 2 + 1 Peter 5 realizations. 1/29/12)

There's more to this topic of unity so stay tuned :)

"I surrender" by Kim Walker.

Let's surrender all to Him. Let's trust Him alone.

Love you guys! I don't know you all :( hope that changes this year.

(To my InterVarsity family)
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Update: 5/29/13 
Beloved, God is calling us to Love one another. It doesn't matter whether the school year is ending and people are graduating soon. God is still calling us to love each other. (Even more reason to feel the urgency to love.) To be united in Love. God is Love. So consume us God!

"As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely Humble and Gentle; be Patient, bearing with one another in Love. Make every effort to keep the Unity of the Spirit through the bond of Peace. There is One body and One Spirit, just as you were called to One Hope when you were called; One Lord, One faith, One baptism; One God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all." (Ephesians 4:1-6)

Winter Rains

"...He will come like

the winter rains..."

(Hosea 6:3)

The rains fell- Holy Spirit.

Seeds were sown- Word.

Roots grew- Faith.

Some ploughing: spirit of insecurity and inferiority dug out.

Love is NOT selfish.

"Now is the winter of our discontent. Made glorious summer by this sun of York;
And all the clouds that lour'd upon our house" (Shakespeare's Richard iii lol)

So after winter break (you can read about my experience in my post Let Go. Let Love Flow) I was excited to apply all that I had learnt. Unfortunately, a lot of things... more like everything, didn't go as I had planned :'( But lots of lessons were learnt and things could have been way worse if it wasn't for mercy, if it wasn't for Jesus :)

Alien Girl Faces Mental Oppression

So each time I would fix my eyes on God He would remind me who I am and tell me to be myself which also meant sharing my life with others. Then it would be application time and that's where the problems came in. I would face opposition in various forms but it all boiled down to spiritual warfare. (I talk about this in the post The Present in the section entitled "Worry, the joy stealer"). It was focussing on opposition that brought in confusion, worry, discouragement and weariness. You see all of those were distractions- The devil was keeping me from being myself, sharing my life with others and acting on the desires God had put on my heart (the urgency to pray, worship and fast corporately and consistently). God reminded me that being myself, who He calls me to be meant being different, meant being a light, meant being a leader, meant being a servant, meant loving ( 1 Peter 2:9). But I couldn't be who He calls me to be, a lover/giver/leader/servant if I was not okay with being different.

"Whoever decides to soar must first fight through the flatland that hangs heavy over the swamp of sameness." (Charles Swindoll)

He did some ploughing right there and dug out some deeply rooted weeds which I hadn't dealt with. Fear of standing out and fear of rejection (because being myself/being different in the past led me to face "persecution" in the form of rejection).
I was discouraged a lot last quarter but God really fed me through His Word (I was mostly in the Book of Psalms) and He led me to songs and other stuff on the internet for encouragement and confirmation like I watched this clip. God showed that guy, Steve Foss, that at the root of every sin is the spirit of insecurity and spirit of inferiority.
This made a lot of sense. God has been teaching me a lot about vision- what you see is what changes you. So He's been reminding me to watch what I'm fixing my eyes on. My eyes are meant to be on Jesus full-time. So the devil's plan is to distract me. He wants me to focus on anything/anyone other than Jesus. But God taught me that I can't love with my eyes on anything or anyone other than Him. I can't love with my eyes on the world (leads to discouragement, confusion, worry and people-pleasing) and I can't love with my eyes on myself (self-pity and false humility). So yeah Love is not selfish (1 Corinthians 13).

Love needs Vision

The song below is how I felt for most of the winter quarter (Cool fact: The singer was in my high school in Kenya! She was the leader of the dance team in our Christian Union. Now she's all famous and shining for the Lord :) The main form of opposition (barrier to love; barrier to be) I faced was brought on by cultural differences.

*On the giving end: Through a class I was taking, God showed me how I had developed social anxiety disorder (social phobia)- it started in high school in Kenya then it intensified in America. This was brought on by cultural differences- not just cultural differences between ethnicities but mostly between kingdoms (the culture of God's Kingdom vs. the culture of the world.*1 Peter*). So yeah I had to let go of my fears and insecurities if I was going to let love flow through me. Jesus told me to love like He did "with arms wide open and a heart exposed sometimes bleeding" (also a song by Misty Edwards) -to love whether or not it hurts, whether or not I'm understood. He told me not to take rejection personally and to let Him be my defense, my everything (Matthew 5:1-12).

*On the receiving end: Love is not selfish so you can't love cross-culturally with your eyes on yourself (your own cultural lens). Love needs vision. You can't love someone if you don't see them. To be unseen is to be unloved. A topic for another day lol. Other things I learnt that I'll address later: the difference between waiting and procrastinating lol.

I ran into this song at the end of the quarter and it's prophetic (spoke perfectly into my situation and what God had been teaching me). God was growing my roots (faith. being grounded in Him alone). He was reminding me my true identity and security which can only be found in Him so that meant weeding out false identities and insecurities. He reminded me that He is my loving Father and Shepherd and all I need. He is the One who sees me (always) hence fully knows me and fully loves me =)

You can check out my facebook album for the picture summary of my quarter: Winter '12.

Hosea 10:12

"Sow righteousness for yourselves,

reap the fruit of unfailing love,

and break up your unplowed ground;

for it is time to seek the LORD,

until He comes

and showers his righteousness on you."

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Practicals:

1. Sow righteousness for yourselves- Don't wait around for someone to "feed you." Yes be in community but remember that there is no substitute for seeking God for yourself in the secret place (you and Him). Please read your Bible for yourself and ask God for wisdom. Pray: "Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law." (Psalm 119:18) He makes reading the Bible fun :) Haven't done this in a while? You can start with a Psalm a day. And you can get tips/resources/discipleship from your spiritual leaders.

2. Break up your unplowed ground- Also don't wait for someone to call you out. Surrender your all to God and pray this prayer in this post: Search me. Test me. Lead me. We need to surrender our insecurities and all our burdens to God so that we can love. And let's also Fast-it really helps you tune into what God is saying better (from my experience. Post: Fall Fast)

3. Seek God- No time to seek God? LIE! lol. We have time for facebook, movies, video games, and other forms of entertainment. Also, do you have time to be discouraged, angry, confused, sad, depressed, disappointed, hopeless, complain-y? Then you definitely have time to seek God, those are the times that you should seek Him even more for His peace, strength and Wisdom :)

4. Love- To love you need vision. You need to see people where they are at. That entails displacing yourself. That entails letting them lead you into their life. Yeah just fix your eyes on Jesus and He'll teach you what love is and how to love. He will give you vision. You should check out the songs I posted here: LOVE ME :) especially the last one "Arms Wide Open" by Misty Edwards.

Let's do our part. Let's seek Him. He'll do His part. He'll come. He'll rain down His Love =)

"May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it." (1 Thessalonians 5: 23-24) =)

*Special thanks to ivhop (IV House of Prayer). I was discouraged a lot throughout the quarter so I went there for their prayer and prophecy (words of encouragement from God) on Monday nights anytime between 7-10pm. Wanna check it out? Let me know and I'll go with you :)

Eyes Wide Open

"I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you,

the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people,

and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way." (Ephesians 1: 17-23)

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*FAITH= Seeing with the eyes of the heart.

Lord increase my faith in You. Not just in who You say You are but also who You say I am and all that You have for me. Everything that You have freely given me. To really know that I lack nothing. Open the eyes of my heart Lord. I want to see You. You are all I need. For real. Why do I bother fighting Your arms when You just want me to let go and rest? Help me to see clearly so that I can rest. To see that there is nothing to worry about since You got me. And You got me real GOOD! =)

A Prayer for me and all the saints (yes that's what You call us:)

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hahaha! I just re-realized (lol) that that Scripture is a prayer for REVIVAL in the church.

*REVIVAL = When the body of Christ wakes up to who God is, who He says He is (everything, all-powerful) and who He says we are (free, healed, filled with His power).

Anything apart from that is a lie from the devil! The devil likes to blind us from that truth so that we can live weak, defeated, self-centered lives so that revival can't happen in us and spread through us. So let's stop falling for that lie! Jesus meant it when He said, "It is finished." He purchased us on that cross as well as our freedom and healing. We have a rich Father who cares for us, why do we worry about anything? -__-

"It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery." (Galatians 5:1)

*So let's keep on believing and proclaiming this freedom over every area of our life until that truth manifests itself (that's what renewing your mind is and that's what it does).

"But everything exposed by the light becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light. This is why it is said:

“Wake up, sleeper,

rise from the dead,

and Christ will shine on you.”

(Ephesians 5:13-14)

God wants us to wake up to who He is, the God of all comfort. He wants to bring us comfort, freedom and healing so that we can share what He gives us with others. Yay God! =)

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ." (2 Corinthians 1:3-5) =)

*Related Post: "Remember who you are."

*Read the Book of 1 Peter. -Just 5 short chapters I just feel like that's what God is saying to us right now. It keeps coming up. It's a wake-up call.

BOOT CAMP!

Welcome to Orientation =)

Hello and welcome to bootcamp! You are probably here because you've been feeling a little 'wimpy' of late, you know confused, disoriented or discouraged, blown about by the stresses and worries of this life or maybe you are okay with where you are and just want to check it out. Wherever you are on that spectrum you are all welcome here :) This program is designed for people from all walks of life and there is 100% guarantee of success if you stick to it (Joshua 1:7). Some of success stories come from the likes of Moses, Joshua, David, Timothy... who are now among the Generals who will be training you! (The Commander in Chief is YAHWEH). By the way I'm in boot camp along with you, I just checked in a little earlier so that I could scope it out and let you know what to expect. Here's the welcome video:

♫ Let's get down to business ♫

*Our business and Core value: LOVE.

*Main Goal: To toughen up! To have power (unity) so that we can love .

"for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-discipline."

( 2 Timothy 1:7)

♫ Once you find your center you are sure to win ♫

1. Know your Commander in Chief and know your enemy- Know who's fighting for you and who's against you. Know who to take orders from. (Posts: The Kingdoms, BEHOLD! , GOD is)

2. Know your position in the army- Know who you are. (Post: REAL Identity)

3. Know where you are, why you are there and how to advance- Times & seasons & GPS. (Post: My G.P.S, Pimp My Ride)

4. Know your weapons as well as those of the enemy. (Post: FULL Amor of God, Prepare the Way!) 

♫ Somehow I'll make a man out of you ♫

"So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers,to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work." (Ephesians 4: 11-16)

So yeah, that's the overview of the program. Welcome :) If you're still up for it then say yes, say your goodbyes, get settled in and we'll be good to go :)

"No one serving as a soldier gets entangled in civilian affairs, but rather tries to please his commanding officer." (2 Timothy 2:4)

Registration: *FREE!

(The price was paid once and for all by Jesus, the King of Glory, the Lord of Hosts so you can thank Him :)