Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Oops!


Have you ever had an Oops! moment? Well so earlier this year when my housemates were all getting to know each other we realized there were two Morgan's in our house, so to differentiate each of them they asked Morgan, do you have a middle name? Oh yeah it's Jane* but don't call me by that it's such a lame name!... Later to find out one of the girl's mom's name was Jane*, and she was right there in the room when she was saying that! Oops! LoL

Oh, sometimes we should be so careful on what we say before we open our big mouths to speak. Well something of that sort happened to me today. I finally got an opportunity to help out with th
e Monitor's sound board for service today. (To explain what this is, Hillsong Church uses In-Ears for each of the musicians, which are basically a pair of headsets that allow the musicians to hear themselves and the whole band in a personal way. So there's a person who runs this sound board and allows each of the musicians to hear whatever they need to hear, it's a very fun job!) I really love working with sound, and I was very excited, I seriously couldn't stop talking about it. (That's what girls do, we get really excited about things and we talk about them)

So during my conversation I said, "The thing I love most about it it's that you can hear everyone's mess up's..." ... Mh... I wish I could tell you I'm perfect, but that really came out of my mouth. But... God is so funny and he finds the greatest ways to shut us up. As soon as the service started, I wanted to
swallow down my words... I could hear everything, every single detail and instrument, but more than anything I could hear everyone's HEART. And that broke me down... It was so absolutely beautiful. I could hear in their voices and instruments their beautiful hearts and passion for what they were doing, worshipping God with all they had... ah... Oops! It was so beautiful.

"... Tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison." James 3:8

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Uncovering Your Princess Identity


"I'm not worthy enough to be with him", "I always end up with the jerk", "It's o.k, we all have to fall for the bad guy, at least once in our lives" "... I'm just not attracted to the good ones" These are phrases that I've heard my whole life by girls in my life, and even have thought about myslef, but this post is about: DELETING THESE PHRASES IN YOUR LIFE!

For many years I have sat in church listening to "We need to find our identity in Christ" but I didn't know what this really meant or how this could apply to my life, until a few days ago. As I was thinking about my past relationships and the mistakes I have made in my life I thought, "Maybe I'm not worthy enough to find a guy who will love me for who I am"... But then a thought came into my head, "Well, who am I?" I am a daughter of the most high King, Eph 1:5, Jhn 1:12. Therefore, that makes me a Princess! A princess is beautiful, pure, lovely, elegant, wanted, gentle, joyful, captivating, sought after... WANTED.

When a Princess was ready to get married, Princes from all over the world would come to prove they were worthy enough to marry her. They had to go through challenges and obstacles to win her heart. Therefore, if we can capture and understand who we really are in God, if we truly realize that we are princesses in God's eyes then we should deserve THE BEST. We would not conform ourselves with a guy who would treat us bad, who would take advantage of us, who would not respect us, who will not see and HONOR the royalty we have in our lives.

Girls, find yourselves in the arms of the KING, and then you will know your worth! We were called to be princesses, we were called to be beautiful! Embrace it. How much more could we do if we simply understand the WORTH, God himself has given each and everyone of us!

"The king is ENTHRALLED by your beauty; honor him, for he is your lord." Psalm 45:11

Colour Conference 1


How do I even begin to describe my first experience as a volunteer at Colour Conference 2010... Absolutely amazing and out of this world! I don't think I'm gonna be able to put it in all in words... but here's a little summary.

I served by doing catering, helping with college stand, hosts, and new Christians, and I really had he best time in the world. God has really been changing my heart, my attitude, and my motivation to serve. It all started on thursday morning in a bus to the city expectant and excited about all the things that God was about to do in the lives of the women that attended, but I really wasn't expecting for Him to capture my heart.

As I set up to help, I thought to myself, "I'm gonna have the best attitude to everything I do here." And I really did. As I did God worked in my life to see people, to talk to them, to share with them, to really focus on people. So as I saw thousands of women feel valued, cared for, and loved, I couldn't help but to feel the joy of Christ FILL my heart. And so at the last moment of worship I couldn't help but SMILE, I usually try to hide my smile, but this time i just couldn't. I had a huge smile on my face... I, for the first time, experienced the joy of the Lord. It was absolutely amazing!

"You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand." Psalm 16:11

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Generation of Worshippers

Where have I been allocated for Sisterhood (Hillsong Women's Ministry) this semester? Choir, hosting, catering, pamper... etc. "Juliana, you have been allocated to... Kids Ministry!"... "Uhm... excuse me? Are you reading that name right? Me and Kids do not go together! Lady, you don't understand, the kids are taller than me! I CANNOT DO KIDS!" All of these thoughts ran through my head as I wanted to cross out my name out of that list she held in her hands; It was like nails on a chalk board to my ears.

At first I could not understand why God had placed me in a place where I did not want to be. Why had he been challenging me so much? I know I prayed for him to use me, but to use me where I wanted to be. As soon as my friend saw that we had been allocated together, she ran up to me and said, "Let's ask if we can be in the Kids Praise Team!" Surely afterwards, I was allocated in the Kids Praise Team. I was informed that I would be leading worship from Babies to 5 year olds, I was given songs, moves and information about how the services were to be run... I was ready for anything, but not for what was about to happen in my life; I was not ready for the revelation that God was going to give me today.

Our song list was: Good Morning Song, Take It All, How Great is Our God (Surely they will not sing this song with us) and the Good Bye Song. As we started the worship service the kids were so excited to worship with us, they moved, they danced, they sang... and then it came, How Great is Our God, and I could not believe my eyes! The kids were lifting their
hands, closing their eyes and singing their little, innocent hearts out. Kids 5 years and younger praising God for His amazing grace to us! And then it hit me, the lesson I was not ready to hear; this is how we build a generation of worshippers! It has to start from our kids. If the church can focus on building a generation of kids that worship God, then our teens, young adults, adults and finally our leaders will know how to worship. This is how we can teach our church to worship God, create generations of people who will worship God.

What an amazing lesson!

"Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it." Proverbs 22:6