Banquet

Just a quick not on the Banquet, everyting went well after an extremerly stressed me Jenny and I. But as we realised, we thrive on this, the thrill of it all is enough for us! Everything went off beautifully!

Thank-you everyone!

Bible Study #6 - The theme of the Bible

JESUS! GOD! RULES!

I'm sure these are some of the things that come to mind when a lot of people think of the Bible. But they're fairly well off the mark. Yes God and Jesus and Obdience to God are part of the bible... they're not the complete thing.

Christ was treated as we deserve, that we might be trated ad He was condemned for out sins, in which he had no share, that we might be justified by His Righteousness , in which we had no share. He suffered the death which was ours that we might recieve the life which was His.

The Plan of slavation was not an after though, God had the plan right from the beginning, as soon as there was sin there was a Saviour. We all know that the wage of sin is death (Romans 6:23) Wages are what we earn and what we deserve, but a gift is something undeserved! You don't have to do anything to get a gift, if you do it ceases to become a gift. God has given us the gift of eternal life, all we have to do it reach out and claim it!

When you are the citizen on a country you have all the rights and protection of a citizen, even when living in another country. When we accept Jesus as our Saviour and commit our lives to Him, we recieve the gift of eternal life and immediatly become citizens of heaven, with all the rights of said citizenship.

Having said of this, The real theme of the bible?

OUR SALVATION!

Paper flowers and Propechy seminars... gifted?

My gift is for theatre, plain and simple. It's the thing I love and I want to do with the rest of my lfie and I know I love it, because no matter how bad one day is, I still go back the next day!

Dave has recently decided that my gift has to be made useful, and I'm loving it! So many things to do! Propechy seminars and banquets! Jenny and I spent a non-stop 1 and a half hours talking about the decorations and ideas for this Leader's Banquet on sunday and what a plethera of ideas we came up with! Never in my life have I enjoyed a planning session so much!

I feel as though I'm truly appreciated and accepted for who I am by this amazing family! David and Jenny have been amazing in my crucial steps towards becoming to christian person that I want to be! My baby steps have been made so much easier by both of them. When my baby steps became too much for me to handle with the support of a single person, who, even though they helped on the fisrt and most important steps, Dave and then Jenny jumped in to offer that much more support for the next steps!

Thank-you...

Thank You Jared, David and Jennt for being the amazing people you are and being so instrumental in helped me take the teps that I've taken to make me happier than I've even felt in my life!

Bible Study #5 - Where did Evil come from?

Two teenage girls selected and talked a New Zealand tourist in Noosa's National Park, Queensland, to carry out a carefully planned "thrill killing". They bashed and stabbed a 59 year old grandmother as she walked the park's track. One of the girls had a long-held desire to kill someone and was surprised and dissapointed went she realised she hasn't succeeded. When she was told by the police that she stabbed the woman more than 22 times, all she could reply with was "cool". She expressed pleasure at watching the blood spurt from the victim. It is alleged they were involved in some sort of Satanic Cult.

These are stories that are becoming so common-place in our media that they don't even raise and eyebrow or make the front page anymore. SO, what kinda of God lets this happen to us? This seems to be the question plaguing the world. If God made only good beings, where did evil come from? If God is who He is, why does he allow such things to happen?

While in this life we'll never be able to fully comprehend the problem of evil, God has told us enough to show that it wasn't because He doesn't love us, or because He wasn't powerful enough to do anything about it. When GOd created this worl it was "very good" (Genesis 1:31) But the serpent (or Satan), tempted Eve, playing on her ability to choose, and caused evil to come into this world. The question is, where did the devil come from?

Rebellion in Heaven:

The only way Lucifer (meaning morning star) could attempt to win the throne of God was by misrepresenting God. This was his strategy in Eden and also in the temptations of Jesus in the desert, offering to people, that which wasn't his to offer.

"Satan" means "adversary" or "enemy" and "Devil" means "slanderer". Instead of putting God frist in his affections, Lucifer centred them on himself. Pride led him to want God's position, and so, Lucifer "morning star" became the Devil or "slanderer"

Satan has already lost the game that he is playing, so instead of playing to win, he's now just trying to take away as many of God's followers as possible, for, as we know, every time we hurt ourselves, or disobey God, we hurt Him. Jesus died on the cross for us, rose from the dead, tasting death and taking the burden of our sins, meaning that we could be forgiven for being tempted by Lucifer.

In giving us freewill, God gave us the choice to obey him, wishing that we would obey him out of love, not out of fear, his angels obviously were given the same freewill. If God chose to detroy Satan, what would be the point in the gift of freewill?

While satan is a defeated foe, many don't know or believe this. The best things Satan ever did for himself was convince us that he didn't exist, and in not believing in him we let him still ahve Influence in this world. We will finally be delivered from Satan and evil will be stripped bear for the lie that it is and Jesus will take us to heaven.

When we resist the devil in Jesus' name and strength, he has no power over us. He is a defeated foe - defeated by Jesus on the cross. Jesus' victory over Satan is our victory when we accept Jesus as our savior.

Reading, Prayer and Small Group

Never, in my whole lifetime, did I ever imagine I'd find a group of peopel so accepting of me, this was the single thought that hit me tonight after leaving my first small group.

It was a group of young adults, there was 6 of us and Pastor Dave (sorry dave, no young adult title for you :p) and we talked about Jesus being the shepard what it meant to be a christian, what ways can we improve our lives to accept Jesus more freely.

I'm finding so much that this is a whole new family waiting to meet me and support me... it's amazing, going into reading and prayer with Brian and Sheila, both of whom I've met once and both of whom greeted me as if I were an old friend. Dave asking for my help for the seminars in October and November.. asking me to use my "gifted-ness" (his word not mine :P)

I love this journey.... I wish I could make so many more people as happy as I am!

This is horrible...

I was crusing through some forums that frequent, one's topic being morality and religion, when I came across a forum entitled "If God is gracious how can he let people like this live?" and I clicked wondering what kind of people he was talking about.

After clicking, I read the guys post which basically said, check out this website, how can god make people like this?

www.godhatesfags.com

I read through this website and these "Christian" people are a disgrace! How can they parade around thinking that they are right? Justifying their actions with passages of the bible? terrorising innocent people, being over-joyed by the bombings in london because "The queen and Prime Minister Tony Blair push gay rights"

Their point is completly invalid.

Judge not lest you yourself shall be judged..

Love Thy neighbor as thyself...

Need I go on? What gives these horrible people parading under the banner "christian" the right to say the things they are saying? If supporting gay people and letting people live their lives by their choices is wrong... then who in this world, is right, nobody, because I bet every single day you do something that will offend at least on person in this world...

My first Sabbath School and Sermon

Today was my first Sabbath School and Sermon experience, and it was a great one!Thanks Dave! Feeling more nervous than I've felt in my whole life, I ventured up to the Rosny Adventist church. The Sermon was so full and complete, covering so many points, to check them out Click here!

Sabbath School was very relevant to me, discussing Christian and non-Christian morals, as I'm still having the fun of separating myself from my old morals while building new ones. Talking about the things that people do to gain the material things that non-Christians seem to put so much importance in! The things people do to make themselves look better and the way they manipulate people to get themselves to the top!

Dave's sermon was so inspiring, describing his points in ways everyone could relate to and understand, using metaphors in the best ways, and bringing us back to the simple things and reminding us that the simplest things in a Christians life are the most important! The basic of which, are the ten commandments. Even in my short life as a Christian (the whole 3 months so far!), I've get so wrapped up in the beautiful theology of the bible and all of god's teachings, that I forget the simplest things are the most important! God loves me and God will provide for me.

The most important thing for me today:

You shall know them by their fruits

Thirteen

I just watched a movie titled Thirteen. It is an incredibly touching movie based on a true story. A young girl, Tracy, hitting her teens is swept away by another girl her age, Evvi. Evvi sweeps tracy into a dark underworld of sex and drugs. Tracy goes through changes physically, emotionall and spiritually through this movie. Her father isn't around and her mother's boyfriend is an ex-crack addict. Her morals are eroded before they have begun to develop and we see her going to self-mutilation. Before Evvi reveals her true colours after her stash is found by her guardian. Evvi places the blame on Tracy. Tracy's mother finds out about everything and the movie closes with her mother holding her in her arms overnight, Tracy wakes the next morning and looks around her... what is she to do now?

This movie touched me in so many ways as I remember the pains of going through early teens wondering who I was and what I wnated to do, what did people expect of me? I wish I had known the words of God at this time in my life, I probably would have ended up a lot different from what I am now.

Girls Like Tracy and Evvi need this sort of guidance, what can we do to help these sort of girls, these stories do happen, girls are going through these things younger and younger, what is to blame? Lack of parents, School environments or something more sinister? Why are young girls attracted to this sort of lifestyle?

Something needs to be done, parents, schools, churches aren't showing these girls the *real* effects their choices have, how they can ruin their lives so quickly. I don't think this neccesarily means preaching to them about how Jesus Saves Lives, because I remember the urge to rebel and how strong it was at that age, but show them the real effects... the tangible things, the girls who are on the streets selling themselves for their next hit, the girls with young families because they made the wrong choices... before we can help these girls have faith we need to help them have sense of self!

What can we do to help these girls?

Bible Study #4 - What's wrong with the world?

To start off this blog I want to start by talking about the opinions that I've heard about whats wrong with the world.

Some views among my peers are:

1. Capitalism is evil, and the root of all evil and greed
2. I'm sure we're all familiar with GWB's speech "the axis of evil" in which he refers to the middle east and terrorist groups being the axis of evil, i recently saw a forum thread with the title "The axis of evil: Christianity"
3. That humans have lost their sense of self and soul
4. That people mis-interpret things and twist things to fit themselves
5. Religion
6. Money
   

These are just a few views that I've come across and I'm sure more people share these views. The one that bothers me ever-so much, is religion. Why is it the religion that gets blamed, and not the individuals who cause the actions.
If I say the word "terrorist" to you, what pictures pop into your head? Perhaps a middle eastern man with a bombed strapped to his body, perhaps an amreican soldier off to fight a war. Which is correct?

NEITHER, I tell you, is correct, there are no generalisations for terrorists. Our ultimate terrorist is Satan, and he prays on people who are weak to the wealth, cares and pleasures of this life.

Anyway, onto the bible sutdy!

Why do babies starve, when there's enough food to feed the world/Why, when there's so many of us/Are there people still alone?

Tracy Chapman sings these words, about the contradictions of like today.

Love is hate/War is peace/No is yes/And we are all free

She makes the best point with all the contradictions in our society, why are people insisting that we're free? We claim to be free to make our own decisions, that we can be who we want and what we want and not care about the consequences of our actions! Gone are the days where peopel cared for each other, manners were instilled in us from birth and people, as a general rule, didn't blow things up.

Why terrorism? The threat of terrorism has reduced our freedo, eincreased our insecurities and made us more suspicious of our neighbors, and even in that is making us turn from the scriptures (Love your neighbor as yourself [Lev. 19:18]) . Terrorism is a fear tactic, no matter who is insighting it and fear is what Satan uses to lure all of us into him.

On April 20, 1999 Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold went on a shooting spree at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, by the end of the day there was 15 dead. Cassie Bernall was one of these.

Cassie was in the library reading her bible that day. She was asked by the gunman if she believed in God and she replied "There is a God, and you need to follow along God's path". The shooter looked down at her. "There is no God," he said, and he shot her in the head.

A diary found in Harris' house, presumable written by Harris was reported as detailing the year long plans for the killings, which the teenagesr hoped to result in 500 poeple dead and end with them hi-jacking a plane and crashing into New York city.

What made these boys cold, heartless killers, utterly devoid of pity? If life is meaningless and there is no hope, then what we do doesn't matter... our whole society reflects this attitude, our media, our education, music and literature.

The commonly asked question we ask, especially of God, is why? Why death? Why pain? Why evil? God gave us free-will and in giving us that free-wil, gave us the option of following him, or making our our choices, devoid of his influence, which ultimatly leads to Satan

In John 8:44 Jesus calls Satan the father of lies. "You will not die" and "You will be like God" are the basis for most non-christian religions. The two main teachings of the New Age movement are that we are "gods" and that we have past lives through the cycle of reincarnation.

The Temptation of Eve
The three areas in which ever was tempted were the physical, mental and spiritual. These are the categories of all tempation. The temptations presented to Jesus were in the same categories, however, he suceeded where Adam and Eve failed and in suceeding he can save us from our own temptations. One of the greatest lessons that we can learn from life is that Life is run by Law, not luck. Becuse od this, we sow what we reap. God, who made us, knows us best and cannot be fooled!

Sin, which is going against God, has serious consequences, one of which being death (Romans 6:23)

Jesus paid our debt

Jesus died on the cross for our sins (still feeling kinda guilty about that one) he was taunted "Come down from the cross, if you are the son of God" (Matthew 27: 39-41). But he knwe he couldn't save us and save himself. He gave up everything for us. o many people repay him by going against his laws and his teachings. Our efforts at covering our sins (that is, paying for them ourselves) Can't help us. On Jesus, who lived a perfect life, can cover us.


This Study, for me, backed up everything i previously believe about the world and put it into amazing words, explaining why people do the things they do. I feel as though this study shows me more and more that Jesus is the only saviour I can have in my life!

Bible Study #3 - Where did I come from

My third Bible study, which was studied with Dave and his awesome powerpoint presentations. After covering the basics of faith in my first two studies, questions were starting appear about creation vs. evolution, where things came from, how science compliments and disproves religion so this Study was perfect timing.

Humans search for meaning. in their own personal lives and for life in general.

The prevailing view around most of the world is that life had an impersonal beginning. Evolution suggests that all life came from impersonal matter or energy. That is : Time + Change + Matter = Life. There is nothing else. This is the prevailing view by the world, it is taught in most unis, colleges, high schools, printed in most books and presented by the mass media.

The predicament with Evolution is that we start as blobs, we end up worm food and what we do in between is of no significance what-so-ever. The worms won't care if we're immoral, but somehow we can't live with that.

Human beings are the only animals born with a conscience and the ability to make decisions that go against any insticts that we may have. There is no evidence of our evolution, no middle man, no evidence that we are still evolving(and we certainly aren't perfect). There are primates, human-seeming remains.. but nothing in between those and us to show our evolutionary patterns. Evolution wise, if survival of the fittest is the case, then humans shouldn't be here. We have no means of surviving outside what we create for overselves, no claws or wings and sharp teeth...

"An honest man, armed with all the knowledge available to us now, could only state that, in some sense, the origin of life appears at the moment, to be almost a miracle. So many are the conditions which would have had to have been satisfied to get it going"

Scientists more and more are coming back to creationism theories as things that need exploring more and more. They are, more often, refuting the idea that life was blind chance. A once popular argument with theologians 100 years ago or more was that he world was too perfectly balanced to not have been created by an ultimate designer... image if they knew what we knew now about thhe universe and it's intricate patterns!

"The chances that life jsut occured on earth are about as unlikely as a typhoon blowing through a junkyard and constructing a boeing 747"

Human often ask the questions "where did I come from?" "Why am I here?" "What's the purpose of Life?" all these questions are answered in the story of creation in genesis 1 and 2.


This study proved it purpose and lead me to talk about many things with Dave, things that were painful for me, but things about my past that needed to be aired out, reasons I am like I am. But Dave made me realise.. I am... just that... I just have to be, to exist in harmony with God an I can achieve my eternity in heaven!

"If you want me after this, rotten piece of meat that I am, I will give myself to You" - Barry Mcguire

Bible Study #2 - The Bible, can you trust it?

This was a bible study that I did by myself (I do every second study at home, in my own time) And I found this extremerly relevant to me! I felt as though I had no reason to trust what I was reading, it was so much easier that way, just to ignore it or treat it as a piece of fiction that people took too far, but lately, it has become so much more...

The Bible possesses a power that can actually tranform peopls lives. Whenever people study the Bible and take it seriously, lives are dramatically changed for the better.

The bible is actually a library of 66 books divided into two sections (Old Testament and New Testament.) The Old testament was written before the coming of The Christ because about 1500BC and 400BC and they are largely the history of God's dealings with the Children of Isreal. The books of the New Testament were written after Jesus' time between 50AD and 95AD, written laregly by Disciples, there are letters written to new Christian Churches and to individuals.

The 'Paradise Lost' of genesis becomes the 'Paradise Regained' if Relevelation. Whereas the gate to the tree of life is closed in Genesis, it is opened forever more in Revelation.

The bible, as a whole communicates one message, one grand theme, This revolves around Jesus coming to rescue us from the mess that we're in.

There are so many things that prove the reliability of The Bible. Archeaoligical finds, correct prophecies, there is so much information out there to show that The Bible is telling us the truth and The Word of God.

The Bible needs to be studied carefully and read in cultural and histrical context as well as literary context. People get so carried away with passages when all they're doing is lifting them and using them to prove a point that is out of the context of what is being said.


This Particular study made me more sure about what was being said and preached to me by the various people in my life, it confirmed everything that my heart had been feeling. Ever since finding God my heart is lighter, I find it easier to deal with day to day problems. I live for the time I spend in prayer and with my pastor studying the word of God and the deed of The Christ.
Even when the person I felt was my earth angel deserted me and starting acting in a way that showed me he wasn't following his own advice my faith never wavered because I knew that a humans actions should enver destroy my faith, on Jesus' actions matter. My actions matter so that I may reach the Kingdom of Our Heavenly Father and live and Eternal Life.

Things That I have learnt from this Study:

• That the Bible can be trusted
• That The bible is relevant to me today
• The Bible was written over approx. 1600 years
• It was written over 60 generations
• It was written on three continents: Asia; Africa and Europe
• It was written in three languages: Hebrew; Aramaic and Greeks
• Through all this there is ONE theme: Gods planned rescue of people though Jesus

Things I have found to back up what I have learnt:

1. Truthful lips endure forever, but a lying tongue lasts only a moment (proverbs 12:19)
   

Bible Study #1 - Jesus, who is this man?

On Tuesday July 12, I met Pastor Dave at the Rosny SDA church, this was a first for me and I was feeling kinda nervous! I met him and all was well, he was a warm, open and honest man, with a kindly face. Someone who was very easy to get to know.

My first bible Study was "Jesus - Who is this man?"

It lead me through the basics of Jesus, what he claimed; All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me... And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. (Matthew 28:18,20)

Jesus, unlike other religious leaders actually claimed to be God, there were pretty amazing claims, in fact, there has never been anyone else who has made claims such as these and been considered sane by large portion of the world.

It went through the Character of Jesus, things that were said about him by his friends "...a lamb without blemish or defect" (1 Peter 1:19) and also by his enemies I have betrayed innocent blood (Matthew 27:4) (Just for ther ecord, that was said by Judas)

Interesting Facts I learnt:

1. That Pilate said "I find no basis for a charge against this man"
2. That 600 million bibles and bible portions are printed each year
   
3. The word Gospel means Good news
   

In my lesson I learnt that Jesus died on the cross for my sins (still feeling pretty guilty about that one) and that his love is the love of the trinity.

I feel that this lesson was one of the most positive steps I have taken in my life in a long time, I feel I am closer to being the person I want to be already.

the first post

Unfortunatly, starting a new blog is no-where as satisfying as opening and new journal and smelling the new, untouched pages, it is, however, much more reassuring to know that my old blog can't be found by my parents when they're going through my drawers in my room.

This is a new blog for a new me. The new me who is looking to make positive changes and positive steps in her life towards her lfie goals. A new me who doesn't manipulate and use people, who doesn't degrade herself and her body. A new me who doesn't drink or smoke. A new me who helps people, loves peopel and accept love, who isn't full of fear, guilt, mistrust and hate.

In short, someone who loves god and loves herself.

This blog is going to be used to share my thoughts on life and my new studies. For those of you who read it, please accept what I say as my opinion, please don't degrade my blog by putting unneccesary comments about your beliefs, this isn't the place for it.

SJ