Monday, April 29, 2013

Falling in Love With the Task...


Falling in love with the task: if your compassion for people exceeds your passion for Jesus you will end up opposed to Him on the day of His coming. William Wilberforce hardly prayed for the ending of slavery as his prayers were mostly prayers to KNOW JESUS more and to keep up the good fight. - notes from an Abolition conference earlier in 2013

Lately I've been kept awake at nights - partly because the heater white noise isn't coming on because it's trying to becoming Spring (it was 82F/27C today.. Thursday it might snow :/ ) - and partly because I am lying awake consumed with thoughts about this latest vision the Lord has given me and this week just happens to be very crucial in the timing of it all. (I'll share more as it happens! Just know it is VERY on the Lord's heart). 

I've been worried that this vision has been becoming larger in my heart than God Himself, and I NEVER want that to happen. Yet it is just taking up SO MUCH of my thoughts, mental space and emotions!! 

I'm one of those people you might call a "visionary". These people are such that once they get an idea, they run full force ahead with it, at least in their minds, researching it and finding out as much as they can, even connecting people together if it involves people; they look at all angles and possibilities to see how this idea CAN come to pass and it CAN be done! Because of course it can! Anything, if it's from the Lord, is possible! It is all possible in HIS perfect timing and HIS perfect wisdom, strength and ability! It just takes chasing HIM first... 

So, I'm lying here tonight, and thinking of how I don't want my passion for the task to exceed my passion for the Creator... Im saying to Him how I want to know Him and to run the race well, to fight the good fight. And He says to me,
"Serena, you just keep Chasing after Me. Go after what I've put on your heart and seek to Know Me in the middle of it all, seek to walk in the way I would do it... Seek to know Me in the middle of it all. And I'll take care of your heart."

You see, I've been worrying about my heart. And yet HE is the only one who knows my heart. I actually don't even know if this vision He's given me is becoming bigger than Him. Of course there's some times when you KNOW that it's bigger and more important and of course then, you are responsible to know your heart and talk to Him and do what you need to to make JESUS first again. But when there's times where you're not sure... He says: "[your name here], just chase after me and seek to live out My heart in My ways... And I'll look after your heart." phew. 

Let's not get all tied up in knots needlessly. Yes we need to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. Check our hearts. But if we're not sure - the answer is, bring HIM into everything. Continue to READ His WORD back to front. Talk to HIM constantly. Have HIM constantly before your eyes and your thoughts. And It will be okay :)

I bind my mind to the mind of Christ. I bind my heart to the heart of the Father. Holy Spirit, thank You that You are with me. Please remind me of everything that Jesus taught and how to live imitating HIM. Let me flow with You minute by minute, breath by breath. Let my only thoughts be Jesus' and my only emotions be out of the Father's heart. In Jesus' Mighty Name, Amen!

Friday, April 26, 2013

Heavenly perspective in the midst of change

Jennifer Roberts has been here in Kansas City for something like 14 or 15 years, and before that she was IN THE NATIONS for something like a decade (I only just found out about her), and is now going to pioneer the International House of Prayer in Brazil... For anyone ESPECIALLY who has done Harvest School, or YWAM... This podcast is so good and so relevant! Especially if the Lord has called you to somewhere like the west, for a season (like me!). Enjoy!!


Sunday, April 14, 2013

I will Tell the World... for I carry you in me

Now that I have seen
I am responsible
Faith without deeds is dead
Now that I have held you
In my own arms
I cannot let go till you are...

And I am on a plane
Across a distant sea
But I carry you in me
In the dust on... the dust on... the dust on... the dust on....
My feet

I will tell the world
I will tell them where I've been
I will keep my word
I will tell them, Albertine
I'm sitting down to finish my assignment on worship due tomorrow... and put my itunes on shuffle to help me concentrate. The first song I played was "Albertine" by Brook Fraser. This song has been special to me for awhile mainly because of the lyrics posted above. There is more to the song which you can find if you want to google it, however these lyrics resound with me the most... I think you would understand why! If you don't, you probably don't know about the last 2 years of my life. Feel free to start at the start of this blog and read onwards!

I carry the children of Mozambique in heart. I carry the faces of those on the streets, from the poorest to the richest of that land. The Lord has given me His heart for them all... Maybe one day I will be long term there (meaning, a couple of years all in one go!), or maybe not.

You see, I also carry the children on Ukraine in my heart. Oh wow I felt it, even just then as I typed those words out. The children and the teenagers of Ukraine are just soo hungry for the breaking in of the Lord! They are hungry for His love and His truth!

I carry the people on Nepal, the people of other south-east Asian countries, I carry the children of Mexico and Guatemala in my heart. I carry those ones in my heart who I have not met yet... and, most recently I carry the children of North America in my heart...

I feel the burden of those children who are in the foster care system. Those ones who are orphans by very definition ---- Those ones who may have been waiting a year, 5 years, 15 years, in foster care just hoping for a permanent family to choose them as theirs. It is said that 75% of these kids who grow up without being adopted end up homeless. In fact, half of the homeless population of (Canada of the US, I can't remember for sure) is made up of foster kids who have "aged out" of the system without being adopted. Would we, as the ones who are meant to be the extended body of Jesus, accept His heart to set the lonely in families? To take care of the orphans?

I just want to put this out there and make it known. If you're worried about expense, it can cost pretty much nothing to adopt from the state foster care system (and I know this from friends who have done it, and would do it again)! Of course if you feel called to adopt internationally or to go start a children's home overseas, DO it! The Lord is WITH you! But there is an EXTREMELY legitimate need right here in the States, even in Australia, in the UK, and everywhere else you wouldn't normally think about - for children to have families to support them not just until 18 or 21, but even for life.

Bless you as you go about your day and lean closer into the Father's heartbeat :)

Serena






Tuesday, April 9, 2013

The cry of my heart...

God, release the sound
Release the movement
I'm laying down everything

God, you promised nations
I want the nations
I am not gonna settle, now
I, I hear the cry
I hear the longing
This is the sound of freedom

I stand in the gap
I stand here praying
For the next Great Awakening

Jake Hamilton - "The Next Great Awakening"  - Marked By Heaven