'To die would be an awfully big adventure' :)

On my bucket list I wrote that I wanted to grow something edible so with the help of my dad I've been growing runner beans. I waited eagerly with anticipation at each growth development stage. There was patience and still is as I saw the beans successfully growing. I have already had some of the harvest :D They were big and tasted lovely, and was well worth the wait. It was so nice to sit at the table and eat something I had grown. 

However, when I was picking off the runner beans that were ready to eat my dad explained to me that some of the flowers hadn't died yet so there was more runner beans to come. The vibrant red flowers need to die before the runner beans can grow. This fact of creation spoke to my heart and reminded me of the fact that being a Christian requires us to die to ourselves so that we can see God's harvest. 

'Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.' Luke 9:23-10:3

Lord, show me how to die for Love's sake. 

Show Me - Audrey Assad

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9b5Snkw18Lg

When the glitter is stripped away..

Last week God asked me to do something that I found hard. He asked me to not wear any jewellery of any kind or make-up. God wanted to show me that my beauty, value and approval needs to always be in and from Him.

'But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.' Matthew 6:20  - I would rather my heart care more about the treasures in heaven that receive approval from God than the earthly treasures that can receive approval from others. 

I battled with God when He asked me to do this and even in the battling I still felt guilty for not wanting to do it. Freedom came in the first day, I felt I could breathe as I began to accept who I am. I can't lie, there were bad moments too where I was on a date with my boyfriend and so many attractive girls came on the train to which of course I noticed the little secret glance at them from his direction..I don't blame him for that. I want his attention but actually only God can truly fulfil my need of being wanted. 

It's strange but some people didn't even notice a difference, they still showed approval of me and made comments about my beauty. 

The need for approval from others steals so much joy and effort. Last week was a step in the right direction on my journey that is still a long way to go. I want to find myself in my Heavenly Daddy and enjoy collecting treasure with Him. 

What does your message say?

I bought a pack of greeting cards as I needed to send one to someone. On the back of the pack there was a piece of paper that said -

'Message inside: Blank'

As I read that, a question appeared in my mind asking 'what does your message say inside?'

'Clearly, you are a letter from Christ showing the result of our ministry among you. This "letter" is written not with pen and ink, but with the Spirit of the living God. It is carved not on tablets of stone, but on human hearts.' 2 Corinthians 3:3

I would like to reveal the new message that God writes each day on my heart that beautifully explains who He is and what amazing things He is doing in me. Sometimes I feel like the people I meet only get half the message because either I allow the others things to cover the words or they are just to blind to see it. For the times it is me, Lord challenge me with your grace and the times that it is others, open their eyes Daddy God. 

The moments that people read the message God writes elegantly on my heart and the soil in the garden of their hearts are ready to receive the seed are just so beautiful I wish I could take a photo and frame them to remember them. 

What is the message God has placed in my heart today..
'I delight in you but I also delight in others. It breaks my heart to see injustice. I want to use you to bring my Kingdom, to bring joy to a broken world. Let me. Don't just sing of my glory, show it. Little acts are actually really big to me'

What does your message say? :) 

A whole lot of beautiful

'They say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder
But most of the beholders are looking over their shoulders
And beauty is slowly leaving this world
And love turns to hate and selfishness unfurls'   (29th Chapter)

I don't want to look over my shoulder. I see a whole lot of Beautiful and it's changing me.

The beauty in sisters looking for the good in each other instead of looking for a fight.

The beauty of meeting God in worship and discovering what matters again.

The beauty of a friend revealing that she still cherishes something I gave her long ago.

The beauty in being a part of a young person's journey with their Heavenly Father.

The beauty of the delicious flavours of gelato on your tongue.

The beauty of a community coming together to celebrate the inspiration of sport

The beauty of using a gift God gave for everyone to enjoy

The beauty of allowing someone into your heart and walking alongside one another

The beauty in something so small carrying so much hope

The beauty of a blanket of snow reminding that He's cross covered our sins and made us pure.

The beauty in sharing

The beauty of an unexpected friendship that nurtures your soul so much that you wouldn't want to be without and anticipating what you'll discover next. The beauty of a smile that you find Jesus in.

The beauty in being silly and not caring how ridiculous you look because you're more importantly having fun

The beauty of vibrant new life

The beauty of having fun dancing with your friends

The beauty in celebrating the miracle that a person is

The beauty in embracing a new place and learning through amazing people

The beauty in allowing landscapes to take your breathe away

The beauty in watching the sun go down

The beauty of people who know you completely and love you well, no matter what our lives look like

The beauty of pieces of music that move your soul

The beauty of the power of prayer

The beauty of admiring a piece of art

The beauty of achieving something that took a lot of hard work

The beauty in someone who finally let something go

The beauty of a meaningful hug

The beauty in a heart fully surrendered to Jesus

Jesus, You are the beauty.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Th5UTNGgv60

Getting burnt!

For a while now I have been asking God to show me what it really means to guard my heart.
'Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.' Proverbs 4:23

Then as I looked in the mirror at my sore red, peeling back, arms, nose and shoulders something began to make sense. The world is full of things that can appear to be good and are okay in small doses but if you're not careful it can lead to you getting burnt. Guarding my heart is about watching the environment I am in, putting the 'sun cream protection' on of spending private time with Daddy God and allowing him to show me and speak truth over my life. Now I did put sun cream on while I was in Guatemala, factor 30 in fact, but not enough; I wasn't continually putting it on or being careful how long I was in the sun for. I just enjoyed how the sun looked on the water, the feel of it on my skin; it appeared harmless. My burnt back reveals otherwise. I am still on a journey of learning what it means to guard your heart. I would love to hear your thoughts on the topic...:)

Revival Through Unity

I was away at a conference a couple of weeks ago that was themed on the Father's Heart. The speakers were Mark Stibbe founder of 'The Father's House Trust' and Heidi Baker founder of 'Iris Ministries'. When I was standing under an open heaven of intimacy with my Heavenly Father there was a great release of God's mercy. I saw His children in need of being bought back into the arms of their loving Daddy God and I was wrecked. Tears and more tears. Since the beautiful garden of Eden, Satan has been making orphans, he is the ultimate orphan-maker. He made orphans out of Adam and Eve and he has been in that profession of stealing, lying and destroying ever since. It's time it stopped. Both spiritual orphans that need their Heavenly Father and orphans on earth that have no parents.

A way that this could be overcome is for spiritual mothers and fathers to rise up in the church.
God speaks in Malachi 4:6 that God will 'turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers.' Through God speaking to me through the book 'Jesus Culture - Living A Life That Transforms The World' by Banning Liebscher and in other ways, God has revealed His heart to me that He wants revival to come through the generations aligning themselves. Blessings fall in abundance with the power of God's ordered alignment. In Exodus 17, there is the story where Joshua was sent with some other men by Moses to fight against the Amalekites. While Joshua and the rest of the army fought courageously and skilfully, Moses was holding up the rod of God overlooking the battle. Even though Joshua and the army were well-trained, they began to loose the battle as soon as Moses' arms weakened and the rod lowered but once again they became victorious when Aaron and Hur assisted Moses in holding up the Rod of God. The victory could not have been won without each generation. Moses and Joshua were dependent on one another and in correct alignment. There was a submission to authority and there was an honouring of the elder.

There is a generation gap in the church that is quenching the Holy Spirit and stopping revival. Banning Liebscher describes two reasons for this. The first reason is that there is a spirit of independence in the generations. The younger generation has the mind-set that they can do things without the older generation and that the older generation do not understand them. Pride oozes out. Now when God was rising up this passion in me to see the generations align, it was only right that He showed me the garden of my heart which actually had the weeds of independence in it that were choking life from allowing me to see God's greatness through alignment. The seeds of independence were sown in my childhood where once the Lord set me free from the enemy using fear against me, he caught me in another way where I felt that because I had relied so much on my parents in that fearful time I had to prove myself. So once God revealed this to me, we dealt with it  together with lots of Holy Spirit weed killer. It has produced a lot joyful freedom as I re-aligned myself with my parents and He is teaching me to honour them fully.

The next reason is that the church has believed the lie that Satan has been telling them about how revival is going to come. The lie has seem to spread like wildfire that revival is only coming through the younger generation. Eck-errr! Revival is coming when the generations unite. So come on spiritual mothers and fathers! rise up! There are no lesser sons or daughters of the King. God can use anyone! You just have to position yourself to cling to the Father. Allow Him to love on you and then let that love pour out on others, on your spiritual sons and/or daughters. Who are you investing in? and who is investing in you?

You are love, Lord and Your ways testify

God's been doing some big things in me that are taking a while to process. I look forward to sharing them with you soon but in the meantime here is a song that I am really enjoying at the moment..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNd22xG4_14
'You are Love' by Rend Collective Experiment

:)

We are the branches! :)

 ^'“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.' John 15:5-8


This is our Kingdom Identity. We were made to be attached to Jesus, abiding in Him and allowing His words to bring life resulting in us producing satisfying love, delicious joy, refreshing peace, sweet kindness, aromatic goodness, sustaining faithfulness, nurturing gentleness and nourishing self-control that glorifies the gardener that is our Heavenly Father. Sometimes I forget and try to do things in my own strength. Then when I get worn out and wonder why it feels harder than it should be I fall at my Heavenly Father's feet with Him gently saying 'shall we do it together?' We were made to have the amazing privilege of being co-labourers with Christ (1 Cor 3:9) for it is through Him that we can do all things (Phil 4:13). 

God's grace

As part of my teaching course I was required to go on a visit to a Sikh Gurdwara in Southgate, London as when you teach R.E you have to teach about different religions which may include a visit to a religious place of worship. Before the visit I was a little unsettled because of what spirits may try to attach themselves to me in the Gurdwara but then I remembered the bible verse 'You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.' 1 John 4:4

I would be going into this Sikh Gurdwara as a light for Jesus. 

What struck me as I sat there on the floor with a pink scarf covering my head and no shoes listening to the Sikh tour guides was how beautiful the decoration of this place of worship was but it felt pointless because it wasn't for glorifying the one true God, the God who humbled himself to come down to earth to sacrifice Himself for our sins in order to bring us back to relationship with Him and claim back our authority He had given us in the beginning that we disgustingly handed over to the enemy. They spoke about how love was in all that they do but it felt empty. 

I respected that they said that they are very much for equality and do not judge others. They said any member of any religion may come to their Gurdwara to worship their different gods. Also, that they were very hospitable. These characteristics should be of the church too as a result of living out God's will of love which I think sometimes people don't always see the first point about equality when they think of the church. Very sad!

In his book, John Ortberg describes that there are many religions that share the same principles of serving and helping but what makes Christianity stand out is God's grace. 

Curiosity

As me and my sister were going to our house group 'Radiant' yesterday, I sat at the bus stop to find this was written on the bus stop glass:

 'Give me land, lots of land
  And the starry skies above.
  Don't fence me in'


It's not the normal scribble graffiti that is displayed around London, it has depth and meaning behind it.
I couldn't help but take a photo of it as so many questions rolled around in my mind..
Who was this person?
Why did they feel the need to write this in a public place yet leave it anonymous?
What was 'fencing them in' and making them feel trapped?
What is the land and starry skies representative to them?
Did they write this or is it a quote from somewhere that they identified with?

All I can think of is the line from a Vicky Beeching song: 'where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom'.
I probably won't get those questions answered but I hope this person finds the freedom they want.

Thames Youth Walk For Charity

On Tuesday 10th April, Restore Youth and their leaders set off with big bags on a sponsored Thames walk to raise money for charities such as Water Aid, Great Ormond Street Hospital, Latin Link and my charity was Athentikos. 

Reading the map to find out which way we should go from Putney Bridge.

After a few miles...

Stopping to pray near Battersea Power Station and allowing God to speak through it.

                               
Ringing the bell for freedom in the year of Jubilee outside the Archbishop of Canterbury's gaff.

There was a series of tasks set for each 'family', telling a joke to a stranger was one of them!

Awkwardly, the man didn't speak and understand English very well.

Famous London Eye!

Praying for our government!

'I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people— for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.' 1 Timothy 2:1-4

Taking a break!

                                                     Restore Youth in Greenwich

Praying for God to rain down His spirit on London.

                  'Team Reem' (Oh dear! :P) performing their brilliant rap that was one of the tasks.

                                        My family for the walk :)

                                               
                                             Nice views!

18 miles, 6 large blisters, lots of laughs, bringing heaven on earth, money going to make a difference.

Yeah, I'd do it again.

Turning the world upside down.

Psalm 72:4

He will defend the afflicted among the people and save the children of the needy;
he will crush the oppressor.

God wants to use every person to bring His kingdom. Let us raise the alarms. Joseph Kony must be stopped.

'One for One'

I AM A BIG FAN OF TOMS. Blake Mycoskie started off a movement that is extremely clever and worth-while. He came up with the idea of 'one for one', which means that for every shoe sold they would give a pair of shoes to a child that needs shoes. Why shoes you may ask? So many children across the world are at risk from injury, infection and soil transmitted diseases because their feet aren't protected. Some children can't go to school unless they wear shoes and if they can't go to school then this doesn't give them or their community a lot of hope for the future. Also, many children in less-developed countries have to walk for miles everyday.. imagine doing that without any shoes on! There has been over 1,000,000 smiles across the globe as TOMS gave shoes to those that needed them because people that could afford to buy shoes purchased them from TOMS. This is my third pair of TOMS shoes and I don't regret a single penny. There are lots of different designs to choose from and they are rather comfy to wear. So next time you are thinking about buying a new pair of shoes, why not buy a pair of TOMS..you may just save a child's life :)

TOMS video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Evbs3ilpqwU#!

TOMS UK website:

http://www.toms.co.uk/

TOMS America website:

http://www.toms.com/

Chosen not rejected

For a while now, I have been reading John Ortberg's book 'Love Beyond Reason' which is a book that aims to help you to move God's love from your head to your heart. A chapter I read today switched on a light in my soul and I wanted to share my revelations with you. The main theme of the chapter displays the idea that to be loved by God is to be chosen by Him. Being chosen means four factors in today's world:

1. I am seen as unique

2. I am seen as someone who has something to contribute

3. Somebody wants me

4. I am superior to someone else

The first three were apart of God's plan but the last was definitely not, in fact it was the opposite.

When God chose me, that action is meant to augment others not make them feel inferior leading to deadly envy. We are missing out on a huge joy when we are jealous of our brother's and sister's joy of being chosen instead of rejoicing with them. We are all chosen and God lovingly chooses every son and daughter with immeasurable uniqueness. This means that there is no need to compare ourselves against one another, which would of resulted in us struggling to love one other. We are not chosen at the expense of someone else. No one is rejected or alone. We are all God's beloved.

Thank you Almighty God for loving us and choosing us each uniquely. I love and praise You for that. x

Peace

'One very wet and windy Autumn morning I was looking at the garden out of my kitchen window. The rain was teeming down and the Silver Birch tree was taking a real battering from the gales.

As I looked, I noticed on the bottom branch, right against the trunk of the tree, a little dove sitting calmly and peacefully, waiting out the storm. It was totally undisturbed by it's uncomfortable, noisy and chaotic surroundings.

A lovely truth came to my mind. It is possible to have complete peace and calm in our hearts, even in the middle of the turmoil and storms of life.

That little dove had settled on the strongest part of the branch - next to the trunk, and was perfectly safe.

God has promised that He will keep us in perfect peace if our hearts and minds are trusting in Him.'

This was put in a card from a friend to encourage me as I went back to teaching after being ill. In the midst of the uncomfortable, noisy and chaotic surroundings, I can say that God has been giving me a peace beyond understanding and I'm just waiting out the storm, until my placement is over.

21 parts of me

On Saturday 21st January I turned the significant age of 21, so I've decided to share 21 things about myself. Some things will change with time and others will always be apart of me, however they still bring colour into the outline of who 'Daisy' is. There is also much more to me than these 21 things that I don't even know about myself yet.

1) I am a small person in height but this is so God can show His greatness through me.

2) I love photos - “A photo says, you were happy, and I wanted to catch that. A photo says, you were so important to me that I put down everything else to come watch.”

― Jodi Picoult

3) I can be quite impatient unless it's with a child - God's working on it ;)

4) My boyfriend is my best friend and I love him for simply who he is.

5) I love film scores; 'The Holiday' film score will always be my first love <3

6) Waking up early is easier when there are beautiful sunrises that are full of pinks and oranges.

7) Skype chats with my brother Al are special :)

8) I am a big twilight fan!

9) I enjoy a lovely piece of cheese.

10) I like to collect things: mementos, shells..I even used to collect stamps.

11) I am learning to play the beautiful instrument that is called the piano, it makes me happy.

12) 'Shall we watch a film?' :D Drama has the power to move people; it is a passion of mine, both watching it and being involved in it.

13) I love it when God uses me to encourage the people around me with His words and pictures.

14) PINK.

15) I support the football team Arsenal but not greatly. I enjoy to go to the odd match with my boyfriend when I can afford it.

16) I've tasted travelling and I want more.

17) Hot chocolate and prayer, and wine and laughs..yes!!

18) I am a leader - house group, youth, children; wanting my teacher Jesus to lead through me.

19) Swimming for exercise, for fun and relaxation is just immense and I miss going every week.

20) I could sing and dance for King Jesus all day long if I could.

21) Hearing little people giggle makes my day.