Psalm 145

A psalm of praise of David.

1 I will exalt you, my God and King,
and praise your name forever and ever.
2 I will praise you every day;
yes, I will praise you forever.
3 Great is the LORD! He is most worthy of praise!
No one can measure his greatness.

4 Let each generation tell its children of your mighty acts;
let them proclaim your power.
5 I will meditate* on your majestic, glorious splendor
and your wonderful miracles.
6 Your awe-inspiring deeds will be on every tongue;
I will proclaim your greatness.
7 Everyone will share the story of your wonderful goodness;
they will sing with joy about your righteousness.

8 The LORD is merciful and compassionate,
slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love.
9 The LORD is good to everyone.
He showers compassion on all his creation.
10 All of your works will thank you, LORD,
and your faithful followers will praise you.
11 They will speak of the glory of your kingdom;
they will give examples of your power.
12 They will tell about your mighty deeds
and about the majesty and glory of your reign.
13 For your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom.
You rule throughout all generations.

The LORD always keeps his promises;
he is gracious in all he does.*
14 The LORD helps the fallen
and lifts those bent beneath their loads.
15 The eyes of all look to you in hope;
you give them their food as they need it.
16 When you open your hand,
you satisfy the hunger and thirst of every living thing.
17 The LORD is righteous in everything he does;
he is filled with kindness.
18 The LORD is close to all who call on him,
yes, to all who call on him in truth.
19 He grants the desires of those who fear him;
he hears their cries for help and rescues them.
20 The LORD protects all those who love him,
but he destroys the wicked.

21 I will praise the LORD,
and may everyone on earth bless his holy name
forever and ever.

HARD.

Has God ever asked you to do something that you don’t want to do? Or required something of you that you weren’t sure how to give? This happened and has been happening to me recently.

There have been exciting things happening in my life recently, that have been an answer to years of prayer. I have been amazed at God's faithfulness through this time and have learned so much about him that I either didn’t know, or had forgotten, or had misunderstood. But I am coming to see that as the Matt Redman song says he gives and takes away! Now, I guess I’m blessed in that he isn’t actually taking away what he gave me but rather asking me to give it over to him and there is a difference!

I think about a kite. You know one of those ones with two strings so that you can make it do cool tricks and stuff. I got one of these for Christmas a number of years ago and it was one of the best presents I think I have ever got! But I didn’t automatically know straight away how to make it do all the things it could! I was no child KITING prodigy that's for sure! In fact I remember times when I struggled simply to keep the thing in the air let alone make it do tricks! What I needed was someone to show me how to work it. Someone like my dad. I remember that he would take me down to the park in Murray Bridge where we were holidaying with my Nanna and Grand-dad, and we would fly the kite and he would show me how to do stuff with it and then he would give it to me and I’d crash it! And so he'd show me again this time more slowly and with a little more clarity. Then he'd give it to me and I’d make it do what I wanted then crash it! So the next time, he'd take my hands in his and we'd do it together, his hands around mine, helping me to make the small movements needed to flip the kite over successfully and then flip it back! and eventually he'd let go, after I got the idea and he'd just stand and watch and advise me on the finer points of making kites do flips but he wouldn’t leave.

It’s in this analogy of teaching that I find a picture of God. there are things in life that he gives us for you enjoyment and simply to bless us but if at some point we fail to use what he's given us properly, he will take it away and teach us. Then he gives it back and lets us try again. Once again we blow it, we pull the string too hard or for too long and we become a tangled mess that's plummeting straight for the ground. So what does he do? He gives us another go showing us in a little more detail how to do it well. And he repeats the process until we are proficient enough for him to let go! Now fortunately for us after he has let go he doesn’t just walk away, and leave us, but he stays beside us forever giving us pointers and hints on to use the blessings he's given us "successfully."

But it's our decision whether we want to actually give it over to for him to teach us or to keep it and try to learn by ourselves! We may learn the basics in doing it by ourselves, but we will probably crash so many times in the process that by the time we have mastered one trick, we are bent and broken beyond recognition! If we give it over to him, while we REALLY want to enjoy it, and it will be hard to give it over, we will gain so much more enjoyment out of it in the long term because we know how to effectively use it! And this brings joy not only to US but also to him!!
God wants us to enjoy what he's given us!! he wants us to be able to use it and then bless others through it and though it WILL BE HARD the best way for this to happen is for us to give it back to him so he can teach us!

No where in the Bible does it say that life will be easier as a Christian! In fact to many things we are called to walk a HARDER road (matt 5:17-48)! But the comforting thing to know is that God is right here beside us, never leaving, always guiding, and always helping us up when we stumble.

Now unto Him...

This is a post about worship. Worship that doesn’t hold back, that doesn’t talk about worshipping God, but actually worships him. I have been noticing recently, that many of the songs that are sung in church, especially the newer ones (the not-hymns), talk a lot ABOUT worshipping God, but don’t actually make the next step to saying how great he really is!! It’s about time that those people to whom God has given the talent of song writing, start to tell God what they think of him, HONESTLY with an once of vulnerability!! Now, I’m not gifted in song writing, but God has given me words. And so I am going to worship him with my words.
Firstly let me say that God is eternally faithful. He has never left me, he never will. I look back on my life and am amazed to see that God has been doing huge things in my life, preparing me for the future, in the times when I thought I was furthest from him!! In my darkest days of relationship with him when I wondered where he was and what he was doing that was more important than me, i have come to realize, he wasn't anywhere else, doing something more important, because there is nothing more important to him than me (and you)!! It wasn’t God that had gone anywhere, it was ME!! I’m reminded of the TRUTH found in the poem "Footprints."

One night a man had a dream.
He dreamed he was walking along the beach with the LORD.
Across the sky flashed scenes from his life.
For each scene he noticed two sets of
footprints in the sand: one belonging
to him, and the other to the LORD.

When the last scene of his life flashed before him,
he looked back at the footprints in the sand.
He noticed that many times along the path of
his life there was only one set of footprints.
He also noticed that it happened at the very
lowest and saddest times in his life.
This really bothered him and he
questioned the LORD about it:

"LORD, you said that once I decided to follow
you, you'd walk with me all the way.
But I have noticed that during the most
troublesome times in my life,
there is only one set of footprints.
I don't understand why when
I needed you most you would leave me."

The LORD replied:"My son, my precious child,
I love you and I would never leave you.
During your times of trial and suffering,
when you see only one set of footprints,
it was then that I carried you."

I love this poem because even thought it's old and some might say a little too "Christian" I can relate to it so easily! I look back on the times when I have been struggling, and don’t know what's going on, and I see only one set of prints! And I think to myself, "GOD IS GOOD!!!"

Another thing that amazes me is God's grace!
Actually this doesn’t amaze me as much as it BLOWS MY MIND!! I still struggle to come to grips with the fact that God, the creator of the universe sent his Son to die in my place and I am the one who did the killing!! In fact I think it goes even further than that! God didn’t just say to the SON, "Off you go, do your thing," God created a body for his son! Just like he created us, he CREATED Jesus!! I was thinking about this a while ago and found it hard to get my head around! This was God’s Son, with whom he'd been in relationship for eternity, being sent to earth, to live by the laws of this earth, to die unfairly by the people of this earth, in order that the very people doing the killing would be able to spend eternity with him!! What’s more, Psalm 139 applies to Jesus too!! God poured all of his creativity and imagination into Jesus, creating for him a body like yours or mine, God designed Jesus TOO! Then Isaiah 53 describes what happened to Jesus body! God poured all his love into this particular creation, he watched with intent as he grew in the womb, he laughed and cried as Jesus experienced childhood he shared in Jesus' struggles and in his temptations, he was there to strengthen Jesus. God spent 33 years with Jesus, all so that he could take our sin to the cross! One of the hardest things for me to understand I guess is the depth of his grace! I’m sure you know what I’m talking about, I just cant understand (I KNOW, but don’t understand, cow jai mai?-you get it?) how God is able to allow me to come back to him after I’ve stumbled. How is it that God LOVES me THAT much that, despite my murdering his son at the first chance I got, he still wants me back? By his amazing grace. It’s one of those things that I’ll never fully understand I think. I mean, who could? But I don’t think that lack of understanding is a bad thing when it comes to God and his unendingness. If I fully understood God, then where would be the need for faith? Christianity’s focus would focus from that of faith in a God that can’t be seen, to how can we use this knowledge to create a God we CAN see!

Let me say "I LOVE God!!!!" I don’t know if you can say that or not, but he says that about you everyday! If you think that you're beyond God's love, YOURE NOT!! If you think that you don’t need God's love YOU DO!! I can’t say it enough!! GOD'S LOVE IS MIND BLOWING!! GOD'S FAITHFULNESS IS ETERNAL!! AND GOD'S GRACE IS AMAZING!!!

This post didn’t really turn out to be what I thought it would, but I know that if you are reading it and feeling that any of it relates to you, then God has used it for his kingdom. I wanted to worship God through this post and I think I have! It may not look like worship but anything that proclaims just how good HE is worship!!

How will you worship him today?

Ephesians 3

Paul's (and Servant's) Prayer for Spiritual Growth
14 When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father,*15 the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth.*16 I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit.17 Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God's love and keep you strong.18 And may you have the power to understand, as all God's people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is.19 May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.
20 Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.21 Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen.

Here i go Stealing Posts Again!

Paradox Jesus…

Jesus came into the world… that we may enter into heaven.

Jesus was born in the flesh… that we may be born of the Spirit.

Jesus was born of woman… that we may be born of God.

Jesus became the Son of Man… that we may become sons of God.

Jesus accepted poverty… that we may be made rich.

Jesus became a man of sorrows… that we may rejoice and be glad.

Jesus was made sin for us… that we might be made righteous.

Jesus was put to death… that we may have life.

Jesus was cursed… that we might be blessed.

i got this from my friend MATT's blog. please check him out he has good stuff to say

The KING's PARK

So I got called in to work early this morning on my day off, and I went just for a couple of hours, but by the time I finished, it was too late to get to church, so I thought "I'll just go home and finish my paper work as early as I can, so that I can have a day off!" So I was driving home past Kings Park (those of you who are coming here for visits and visa's we'll have to punish it), not really in the mood to go up there and really more Interested In going home to start my day off!! Something in me said you should go up there and I'm like "nah, can’t be bothered" but as I thought that I thought to myself "I don’t feel like going, but something's telling me I should. So I think I should! I think its God!" So I went. I drove up the hill and found a car park over looking the Narrows and looking sort of towards home (I looked but couldn’t find mine :-D). I just sat in my car listening to the HILLSONG LONDON album (it's good you should punish It!!) and I was praying about stuff and thinking about how much God had spoken to me in the last few months and how he's blessed me SO much and I looked at the trees and how different each of them was from the next but how together they make up a beautiful picture and so I was blessed by God to think that he made each of these trees with such imagination and attention to detail and originality but how much more time he put into us who are created in his image!

So I prayed and looked and blessed and was blessed by God all from the comfort of my car for... I guess it may have been 20-30 minutes, until I felt God saying to me, "Get up and go for a walk." and I knew it was God straight away this time because I SO didn't feel like walking! But I did lock my car and went for a walk. Down the hill along the grassed bit I found an area I never new existed! It was this terraced area with walking paths along the terraces and it was filled with all sorts of native plants and bushes (which are looking STUNNING at the moment (Perth In spring! WOW)) So I walked down along the lowest terrace until I saw a bench seat sitting rather randomly under a big palm tree on the next level up with stairs going up to it! So I thought, well I didn’t really even have to think this time, by now I just knew God wanted me there, so I sat. And I began to pray much the same sort of stuff I'd been praying in the car and while walking, but at some point God said to me "How many times have you been in this park? 20? 50? 100? And you never knew this even existed! HOW MUCH MORE SO WITH ME!!! How many time's have we talked; have I talked? And there is still so much stuff that you don’t know!" this was such an awesome blessing to hear!

(post script)
There are two things that made this whole experience more exciting to be in that I'm sure it is for you to read:
1. I Heard God-- not that this is so amazing in itself but to hear him and recognise his voice I think is the amazing bit! I probably I hear his voice all the time and write it off as my own thoughts or just stupidity but God is always faithful and NEVER stupid!!
2. I Obeyed God-- again in itself, this isn’t so amazing. I have heard and obeyed before, but today I was able to obey with confidence and decisiveness and I know that this is why I was so blessed by my encounter with God walking in his creation, while walking in his creation.

I hate to think how I would have felt about my day if I did not sit with God in the garden.

Patiently Waiting

I know, I stole the title from No-Sacrifice Blog but it just fits! And besides what i have to say is a little different to what No-Sacrifice says!

i have been thinking about and praying for patience this week and god spoke to me on friday about what waiting patienty REALLY is. God said to me that waiting and patiently waiting are two different things!

"waiting," He said, "is not something that honours me; it is like a child whose mum has bought them a lolly pop but has told their kid that they can't have it yet, they have to wait till they get home. so the child thinks to itself, "MAYBE if i plead and annoy mum long enough, then she'll give me what she has for me!!" so the kid says, "Mum can i have it now?! mum can i have it NOW?! MUM can i have it NOW?! MUM can i HAVE it NOW?! MUM CAN I HAVE IT NOW?! MUM CAN I HAVE IT NOW?!" and eventually the mum get SO annoyed, that she said "THAT'S IT!! YOU CANT HAVE IT AT ALL NOW!" and the kid wonders why!!"

"No,"god says, "waiting isnt what honours me. PATIENT WAITING, however, taht is a different story! it is like a child whose mum has bought them a lolly pop but has told their kid that they can't have it yet, they have to wait till they get home. so the child thinks to itself, "Oh, ok then, well, I'd REALLY like it now, but if i can wait just a little bit longer, then when i get it it will seem nicer and i'll be happier for getting it! And mum wont be annoyed at ME for annoying HER!"

"God, I pray for PATIENCE."---YOUR Servant.

... and Jebediahphat begat Epiphany... (Hez.6:7)

I’ve had an epiphany. It’s not one of those things that happen to me everyday, but today I had one. I am quite excited about my epiphany, because it's actually really freeing. Freeing in that I don’t have to think the way I did before I had my epiphany. I have a new thing to think about and a new thing to pray to my wonderful GOD to give me. so here's my epiphany>>> but before I do, for those who are vocabularily challenged, an epiphany is a bolt of lightning thought, one of those thoughts that you get one day while you're roti-ing or mundanely doing some other mundane task. It’s one of those thoughts that changes the way you think and the more you think of it the more your thinking changes. Oh, and Epiphany is not a name, and Jebediahphat was not his father and there is no book in the Bible abbreviated to Hez.!!

Ok so I guess you want to hear about my epiphany then. Well my epiphany is that for us to have the ability to truly trust god, he needs to first build into our lives, humility! I can’t believe it took me as long as it has to work out this simple truth! Of course god needs to build humility into our lives before we can trust him. I mean if I don’t have an amount of humility in my life, then I’m going to start thinking about what I want to do with my life!! Actually let me rephrase that>>> I'M going to start THINKING about what I want to do with MY life!!

You wonder to yourself "What's wrong with having my life planned out? It’s a good thing to do!" but I say that it's not your life!! And who plans and organises something that's not theirs anyway?

So let's get the facts out. My life is not my own. Your life is not your own, your life is not my own, my life is not your own. BUT my life is God's life, your life is God's life, our lives are God's lives. He made us, He loves us, He bought us with Jesus blood, so who are we to plan and prepare something that isn’t ours?

this poses a bit of a problem for us as humans because for the most part, we are the ones who live our lives, and we are the ones who make the decisions about what we do with the lives God has lent us! and i dont know about you but i can say for sure that i dont always make the right decision, or always have the right answer. but i know that my maker knows what i'm good for. he knows the road i should take, and he knows everything about me and my design right down to who i should marry and where i should live to best fit his purpose for my existence.

let me just take a moment to to illustrate my point about design with something REALLY simple. say i'm going to wash the dishes, and i need to fill the sink. the drain hole is circular, but i have a chioce of different shaped plugs. (there was too much choice at Bunnings and i coildnt decide). What do i do? do i select a random plug and hope taht it fits? or do i choose the one that looks like the closest fit to the circular drain hole? it's as simple as that! god wants to put us where we're most efective. just like a square plug wont fit in a round hole, so we wont fit if we arent where god wants us!and one more thing, we arent doing what we were designed for if we are still sitting on the bench and not in the hole.

so i want to be where i'm being used the most effectively. i want to be in the drain that god has chosen for me but to do that i have to let him take control of my life and to trust him with my purpose. and that's an easier thing to say than to do! i know of plenty of instances in "my own" life where i have taken control from god and tried to drive even though i couldnt even see over the wheel! ithought i could run my life better that god could i thought that my way was better and that. does this sound silly to you? it does to me! because to me it sound like i'm a 3yr old who thinks they can beat up thier dad!!

to be able to trust god with my life, i need to realise that 1 it's not my own and 2 that god does it better!! and this takes a certain amount of humility. so i give up my life to god. i give up control to god. i sat to him , "God, you do it better than me, so you can do it and i'll just do what i'm told."
so there you have it. my epiphany.

i cannot trust god to fulfill my purpose while i still think that i'm the one who controls my life.
Miracle AudioAdrenaline

I am free
for the first time
left my fears behind
in front of me is open sky

I'm taller than trees
I can see further than before
everything's different now
now that You've ruined my life

(chorus)
You took my dreams
and stole my schemes
and turned my life upside-down
You took my heart
stole every part
and made it a miracle 

now I can sing, sing a new song
my burden's gone
you gave me all the words and melodies

and now I can be at Your feet
Your place for me
everything's beautiful
now that You've ruined my life

You took my dreams
and stole my schemes
and turned my life upside-down
You took my heart
stole every part
and made it a miracle 

and I'm wide awake
and tonight I'm saved
in Your arms I'm singin' of
how You made me a miracle

I'm taller than trees
I can see further than before
everything's different now

I Am A Beautiful Butterfly

Chrysalis is a stage of the metamorphic cycle of the caterpillar/butterfly. It's the stage of cocoon in which the caterpillar undergoes the amazing change from a caterpillar to a beautiful butterfly.
This weekend has been one of the most amazing | |'s of my life.
I was privileged to be asked to participate on a camp called Chrysalis that is aimed at hitting you where you're at. It's not a camp that you attend for adventure--that comes when you leave. It's not a camp that you attend to be constantly being entertained by "activities." Chrysalis is a camp you attend to see god move in your life. I went for this reason and was not disappointed!

Have you ever been invited to something that you know nothing or just the bare essentials about by a friend and agreed to go only because your friend believed that you should? I thank god for my Friend Aaron because without this man of God, I wouldn’t be able to type this short message bout the character of God.
Here is my TESTimony:
for those of you who know me, I’m a bit of a know-it-all--even if I know I don't. I like to have the answers to your questions. "Where does this come from?" "How does this work?" "What should I do in this aspect of my walk?" answering questions helps me to feel needed, helps me to fell like I have a purpose. And of course so as not to be a hypocrite, I had to know the answers to my own life too! I had to know where I am destined for the future, what was wrong with my life, how to fix it, why I felt this way, why someone felt that way about me. Everything that there was a question to I had to know the answer; despite whether I knew it when it was asked. Sometimes, this is a noble cause. What happens though when there's a question about my own life I don’t know the answer to? What do I do? The answer is simple really and quite obvious, I make it up!
here's some background for you:
recently on my trip to Thailand and in the weeks following I felt god lay upon my heart the desire to go and study a DTS wit a youth missions organisation called YWAM. Around the same time I was approached to possibly be the manager of a DOME cafe (A huge step towards my lifelong dream) and there is also the possibility of a position in youth ministry at my church. Knowing I couldn’t do all three especially since one is in Thailand, I accepted the manager's position, and told them that I was leaving in 5 months. Through all of this, I was praying and giving the decision over to god, but I think that I had handcuffed the outcome to me so that I got to decide in the end. I mean surely DTS is the right answer! It has to be, missions is God's heart for the world!! So I was going to Thailand. That was it. It was final. I had made my decision. I talked about it with my parents, and with my best friend, and I told my pastor. But in between my initial talk with my parent, and with my friends, I sort of forgot that God hadn’t stopped speaking. And when I heard him saying "SLOW DOWN RYAN, YOU'RE MOVING TOO FAST," my reaction was a mild version of get thee behind me Satan!!
God led me to a point where I could say confidently, "I'm not confident about this decision." Through Him speaking through friends and workmates I came to a spot where I didn’t feel His peace about this decision. So on Friday night I nailed it to the cross. I gave the decision back to God, saying I can't do this without your peace. And do you know what I felt??? Nothing. Nothing, at least until the next night. When we were asked to reflect on the night before.

In silence we reflected. In silence I was distracted. But once again I praise god for Aaron who came and rescued me. He listened to the spirit's leading, and asked me the most layered question in the world, "How you doing?" I assumed he wasn’t referring to my visible layer so I told him all that was going on--- I dint know the answer and I was scared and humbled and in a place that I didn’t want to be. I didn’t know if God wanted me to go to Thailand! What a scary thought!! This is something that is going to impact on my life so much between now and then and then forever after, and I don’t know the answer!!! [Remember how I said that I like to know the answers? well this was THE big one in my journey to date] God had hit me where it hurts. He’d humbled me in the area of my life that I take pride in, my knowledge. I was talking to Aaron and it hit me that I was no longer in control of my life, that my life was indeed God’s and that he had control. When I nailed the word Thailand to the cross, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. All I knew was that I didn’t quite fell right about it and that’s it!

I still don’t know if god wants me in Thailand. But I am no longer ill at ease. Why? Because if there is one difference between pre Chrysalis Ryan and post Chrysalis Ryan, it's that my life is back in God's Hands and he's never let anything slip!

Chrysalis is an amazing experience I hope I never forget! To all those in the Emmaus community THANK YOU! You have meant so much to us here at Perth Chrysalis.

I LOVE YOU ALL

FLY WITH CHRIST.

God Almighty!!

It's amazing how and where God works!!

I watched bruce almighty again tonight(for the 2nd or 3rd time)and was again amazed at the themes of Love and Grace (Grayce) and the searching heart that were built into it!! in fact I was so amazed I went searching for the source of these themes; the person involved who influenced the movie in such a profound way.

I came across this interview with TOM SHADYAC, the director, and thought you would like to read it.

Interview with TOM SHADYAC

Who am I?

This week I was thinking about who I am and who I am not when it comes to my faith.
Who am I now that Christ is in me, and who was I or would I have been if Christ wasn’t in me.
I got to thinking about all the people I could have been, and all the things I could have been doing without Christ in my life and I came out the other side thanking god for who I am!!!
Imagine yourself without Christ: lies, profanity, abuse, hopeless, lost, searching, afraid, immorality, pride, slander ….I could go on.
Now think of how Christ has changed you life through his death, through taking your that old life to the ends of the earth and ditching it. LOVE FAITH HOPE.

Christ’s death didn’t just take away our sin, and he doesn’t stop forgiving the first time. Christ’s death, his resurrection and his ascendance changed life as we know it. We no longer have to worry about the future, we don’t have to pretend to be someone we’re not or do good works and hope that’s enough.
We are saved!! Christ has redeemed us from the curse of sin!! he has bought us back with his blood. and now we can look forward to all the blessings he has promised to his children.

As I was writing this I thought of a song that we used to sing in Sunday school and it says:

BORN AGAIN, BORN TO WIN,
I’M A CHILD OF THE MOST HIGH GOD
BORN AGAIN, BORN TO WIN,
I’M A CHILD OF THE KING

I’M A NEW CREATION,
IVE BEEN WASHED IN HIS BLOOD
HAD A TRANSFORMATION
NOW I’M LIVING IN THE POWER OF GOD!!