Wonder Woman

We, as girls, grow up with role models like: Cinderella, Snow White, The Little Mermaid, Hanna Montana (Or in my case Lizzie McGuire). Then in our teenage years we look up to Britney Spears, Lady Gaga, Jennifer Aniston, Angelina Jolie, or whatever celebrity is out there. As our education progresses we start looking at women like Oprah, Rosa Parks, Abigail Adams, Mother Theresa, Hilary Clinton and many other women that changed the course of life for millions of women around the world. And it truly just makes me wonder... Can we do it all? Can we all be Wonder Woman? And if we can, what doest it mean to be Wonder Woman?

All these questions started racing through my head as I watched "Mona Lisa Smile" during connect group today. Simply summarized the movie is about a free-thinking art professor who teaches conservative 50's Wellesley University girls to question their traditional societal roles. As I watched this movie I carefully started thinking about my life. When I was a young girl my biggest dream was to someday be rescued by Prince Charming and live happily ever after, then I was taught that the most important thing was to be sexual and attractive to the boys around my life. And after, I was taught to be independent, to have my own mind and ideals, not to conform to this world around me but to change the world on my own! How confusing; now I feel like a girl who wants to be beautiful enough to be rescued by my Prince Charming, sexy enough to attract him, but independent enough to not need a man in my life.

This whole train of thought makes me think, do I even want to get married or is this something I have been brain-washed and sold by ideals of Disney Princesses? Do I want to be sexy or is this something I have been brain-washed by magazines and music videos? Do I want to be independent and have my own career or is this something I have been brain washed by a feminist movement? Or can I be all three, or even none? Can I be a wife, a mom, a sexy girl, a business woman all at the same time? 

God is LOVE!

... Six years ago I gave my life to Christ... It was six years ago that I heard the message of His LOVE for me and I accepted it in my heart, looking for something more I guess... Looking for something bigger than the life I had. But it wasn't until a month ago that I understood; that I comprehended HIS sacrifice for ME! His... LOVE

Yes, a Love that NEVER failed me. A Love that was and is always there. God SO LOVED ME! that he gave, to me, his most precious and beautiful possession for me. He saw him suffer, He saw him beaten, cursed at... and thought of me, and didn't give up. So that he could talk to me... so imperfect, so impure, so insecure, so lost, so scared. It's not about anything I've done, or anything I've said, or intended to do. But what HE did FOR ME.

Maybe, you've heard this message and words 1,000's of times... But think about THE LOVE SACRIFICE. That no matter who you are, or what you've done, all he wants to do is to have a relationship with you... He wants you to get to know Him, so he can walk with you. So he can love you. For such a long time I wondered WHY did God create me!?! Why do I have to go through this earth? Why do I have to walk on these problems, on all of this crap???

But now I can see what a privilege it is to be created by Him, to be LOVED by Him. So now, I can take the eyes OFF myself and LOVE others, and give HOPE to the hopeless, to see the unseen, to hear the unheard, to speak to the unspoken... To Love the unloved.

"For God so LOVED the world (YOU AND ME) that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life." John 3:16

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

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

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

Worship Star?

Lights, adrenaline, music, the rush and people staring at YOU. The life many worship leaders and band musicians live every weekend. The life I have lived since I decided worship was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. But how can we separate the glory that is given to God from the one that we take ourselves?

For many years I served in a worship team thinking that God had called me to be there; to learn songs, play, worship Him and go home.

I ignored the cry of this world for help, the many people that surrounded me daily that needed someone to listen, the many people in my life that maybe just needed a smile.

But I faithfully served at church, playing music, and doing what I loved to do, thinking that it was enough. In some kind of way I found myself falling in love with the attention given to me by all the people who saw me play on the weekend.

As I left to Hillsong College I left thinking that I would find the attention that I had been getting back home. Only to find a big motto in the middle of my journey, "It's NOT about YOU". God started opening my eyes to the necessity in this world, to the people I had ignored because I was too busy thinking about myself, to the work that I could've, and can, do. So I left college to come back home encouraged and READY to change the world around me.

As I arrived home I got involved, and I started working hard for everything that was about to come my way. But days passed by and the fire started dying, my strength and enthusiasm faded away and I found myself in the comfort zone, and in the love for the attention that was given to me. I felt discouraged and angry with myself, "Everything I have learned has gone to WASTE!".

When suddenly the earthquake hit Haiti; and now you may think that I jumped right up and got involved... mhh... no. I sat on my butt as I saw others help out and be a part of the life change.

Until God woke me up from my selfishness, and said "This IS IT! This is what a worship leader looks like! Some who is concerned and acts on other people's needs!" in that moment, I got my lazy butt up and went and helped out. And as I packed away the food and medical needs, I could picture the faces of thousands of people filled with hope, filled

with joy, filled with love as they received their every need. I couldn't help but smile and realize what God has been doing in my life.

"We push DOWN the four walls of our church, to see your name lifted HIGH"- Joel Houston.