Just be!

Just being in God, in His presence, trusting in Him, loving Him. It's so sweet!

Just give me Love

Take away the comfort of familiarity, tear down structures that give security, strip away reputation, place me away from friends and family, but just give me Love! For Love is my ultimate familiarity, the utmost security, the only reputation I desire, and will love me more than any person ever could. All I need is Love. All I desire is Love. Show me Love, give me Love, for all else is worthless without Him. Let Love love me, for His love is greater than any other love one could ever know. Love saves, Love transforms, Love is "the most excellent way". This Love, He is perfect. "Perfect Love drives out fear". Love does not change. He is patient, kind. He does not envy, He does not boast. He is not proud, nor is He rude or self-seeking. He is not easily angered and keeps no record of wrong. He does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. He always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. He never fails. Who is He?

"God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him".

So take away the comfort of familiarity, tear down structures that give security, strip away my reputation, place me away from friends and family. Shake my world if it will show me all that Love is. Without Love, I would not be, cannot be. Let all else go, in order that Love may prevail, and Love may reign. May I be consumed by Love. May I live in Love, may all I do come out of living in that Love. I can only love because I experienced the love of Christ, who is love.
Bring me back to Love, than I may go on with Him. My desire is not His blessings. It is not His plans.
I know that Love will take me wherever I need to be, and provide for me whatever I need.

So just give me Love!

At home

Many posts ago, I think I quoted Keri Jones saying "Your home is in God's will." It's pretty simple and easy to say that when you're in familiar surroundings with familiar people around you. Uproot from that and you can become 'homesick'. The best place that we can possibly be is in God's will, because that is home for us. Sometimes I used to wonder whether Manchester had become my home, or if Aberdeen was still home. Now, in Singapore, after a busy day I still come back to my room and feel like I'm home. Prima facie I don't affiliate the concept of 'home' with a place. It appears just to be wherever my bed is! But 'home' brings to mind comfort, peace, rest, joy, love. We can be at home wherever we are, whatever we're doing, just as long as both those things are in God's will, at His timing. This is the only reason I can think of for my (already) being so at home here, in spite of being half way around the world. Of course, everything is new - everything is different. But feeling at home here has helped me to embrace the new and the different and accept it.

I expected to have culture shock, to miss the comfort of roast vegetables which had so become my staple diet in Manchester, to miss the comfort of my now ex-sofa, my housemates too. But everything here has felt so natural, so normal, even though in my head I know and perceive that it is indeed different.

God is so good. I believe that I am just beginning to what having absolute trust and security in Him means for my life. The last term in Manchester was a difficult one for me - just beginning to learn to trust and obey God absolutely. But learning to trust Him, and learning to trust Him afresh everyday as I believe I need to, has meant that He has become the only thing that I view as completely secure and trustworthy. And so it has led me to tentatively conclude that this is why I feel so settled and at peace here in Singapore - because the only thing I put my trust in has not changed. God has not changed. In Him, all that is around me may change, but I am home.

Hello from Singapore!

Well! In Singapore I am. And I am in Singapore! hehe.

I'm here until May 6th, and so I thought I'd blog a bit while I'm here. I say a bit because I can't promise regular updates. It has already gotten so busy!

Thankfully I had a safe trip over here, Emirates was lovely :-). Singapore has been great so far. What I really love is that it reminds me of Korea, but it's really multi-cultural here. So much more so than in Korea. Love it!

I have registered etc... the only eventful happening was that I went to register at the Law School (which has it's own gym!!! And showers!) and they gave me my mailbox key. In my mailbox was more reading that I have ever seen in my life. Some to do for Monday. I'm sure my face was a sight!

I'm asking God to teach me how to study whilst I'm here. I can't wait for all that He has for me here. I have realised that I'm very much outside the safe 'bubble' in which I lived whilst in Manchester. Whilst embracing that, it leaves me feeling a little apprehensive. I know there is much for me to learn here. I hope I learn it all.

B-e-a-utiful

Today was ace! (This is besides the point, but isn't 'ace' such a 90's word?!)

I met up with my very beautiful and amazing sister Han-Na in Birmingham where we went shopping, ate a Krispy Kreme Doughnut (and now, I can never eat another doughnut again under the pretence that it is a doughnut... it was totally AMAZING! I feel like I'd never tasted doughnuts before!), went shopping again (for about 3 hours) and then went to the sushi bar in Selfridges and ate sushi, drank miso soup, and were generally happy.

It has been so long since I saw Han-Na, it was really great seeing her again. I thank God that our relationship is such that we can pick up where we left off (I guess that you get to know each other pretty well when you share a room for over ten years) but today reminded me of how much better our relationship is when we invest time in each other. As I write, I feel challenged as to the friendships that I almost take forgranted because they have become so 'easy'. I'm going to invest more time into those friendships - I already know that these friends are worth it :-).

A truly b-e-a-utiful friendship is surely one where you know eachother so well that you don't need to invest so much time anymore, but do so because you both want to.

Today was b-e-a-utiful. I love my sister so much!

Five Years on...

Five years ago... on August 11th, I believed in my heart, and confessed with my mouth that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and that He is Lord.

Five years ago, I was an utterly different girl, absolutely miserable, and totally desperate - I turned to Jesus as a last resort. My life today is the opposite to what it was then... Jesus has transformed me, placed me in a wonderful church, surrounded me with amazing people, and I know that He has an incredible plan for my life as part of His purpose for His glory to cover the earth, for His Kingdom to come.

Five years on, I have never regretted the decision I made that day. God has always been faithful - He has never let me down. He has provided for me in abundance. He has been my loving Father, my almighty King, my sovereign Lord, my awesome God. The more I know Him, the more I love Him, and during this next year I want to know Him more, and therefore love Him more. Everyday, I want to be more in love with Him than I the day before. I want God to have His way in my life, I want to fulfil His will for me, knowing that I'm never at home when I'm outside of His will.

If you don't know Jesus, I want you to know that giving my heart to Jesus was and is the best decision I have ever made in my life, and I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that it's the best decision I will have ever made, or could ever make. Should you make that decision, if you choose life, then it will be the best decision you ever make, and it will lead to the best life you could ever have.

Living a Life of Seeing Above and Beyond

I actually started to write a really long post... but I decided just to declare this:

Having returned from an incredible week in Staffordshire, having seen above and beyond, having had half of a beautiful kebab with my ex-housemate Becky (who has now returned from Canada and y'all have no idea how happy that makes me) and having slept in a bed, inside (although, I loved camping)...

I am ready to live the life that God planned for me, seeing above and beyond what the natural eye sees, doing above and beyond what I could do in my own strength, and living a life in which I I continually see and live above and beyond what the world expects of me, and in doing so live the life that God purposed for me...

... and guess what? I can't wait! So... quite simply, I won't.