how to be made new

1. Soak, immerse, saturate yourself in worship music.

Queue up Jesus Culture or Hillsong United on YouTube if you don't have it on your iPod. Let the music flood your room, or better yet your entire house. Swim in the beautiful truth of Jesus' love for you. Enjoy Him and soak.

2. Open the Word.

Read through a whole chapter, out loud. There is something very powerful about speaking out and proclaiming the truth to yourself. If the Holy Spirit illuminates anything, write it out on a piece of paper and blu-tack it on your wall, make it your memory verse for the next few days. If you journal, write it out in BIG font in your journal. Note down all the fresh revelations the Holy Spirit gives you.

Life Application Bibles, concordances, Bible dictionaries and internet resources are especially helpful during study. As a visual person I have found watching YouTube Bible movies of the Old Testament extremely helpful, as I can lack imagination simply reading! That said, know yourself and your learning style well, then plunge into deep studies of the Word of God. Sharpen that sword!

3. Treasure community.

Your church home is precious. It is the Body of Christ. Jesus is in love with her, read Song of Songs. Make the most of every morsel of time you spend with her. If you are having coffee with another believer, love on them with all you've got. If you feel comfortable sharing openly and honestly, praise God! There is nothing more beautiful than fellowship where you can do life together.

I have recently joined a new church home and am refreshed by how in love she is with the presence of God. Everyone there is open to talking about, basking in, walking in the Spirit. They live lifestyles of praise and worship and delight in deep study of the Word. We regularly sharpen each other with testimonies, and there is a culture of 'worship jamming' which I have a soft spot for! The people of God are your body as they are Christ's. You cannot do life without them, as messy as human relationships may become. Open, honest communication standing on a foundation of love for each other, as we are drenched in our Father's love for us is how we should roll!

4. Journal

According to D. Whitney, author of 'Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life', journalling is a spiritual discipline! And I completely agree. It is important to record every testimony, revelation, learning curve, inspirational meeting with another believer, vision, dream, prophecy, prayer meeting event, lyric --- for the sake of building up your own faith, which was credited to Abraham as righteousness! As your faith grows, and you pray for bigger mountains to move, you will stand on those testimonies confident in your God. You will remember the day when He gave you the words to say as you loved on your non-believing friend, and they asked you about Jesus. Or, the night you were delivered from the spirit of unforgiveness and how free your heart is now!!

A few believers have shared with me their anxiety with journalling - buying a beautiful leather bound notebook and feeling their handwriting to be unworthy of filling its pages. Nonsense! Your journal is for YOU. It's purpose is to serve the Lord through your writing in it. If one day drawing a picture does perfect justice to how you are feeling, by all means draw that picture! Or if you just want to mind map the contents of your mind then go ahead! The only rules in your journal are the ones you set, so it's just a matter of re-setting the rules for yourself!

I learned how best to journal when I was at university and would scribble in the backs of exercise books. When I didn't need them anymore I ripped out the subject pages and used the rest as my scribble journal. I learned a freedom like no other! I even wrote some of my best poetry doing that. Even as I continue to write songs, lyrical composition is never in my neatest handwriting, it is usually illegible scribble as my hand cannot keep up with what my brain is thinking, saying and eventually singing.

On a final note with journalling, it is for your eyes only, and you would want it to have a raw and brutal honesty. The aesthetic of that kind of accuracy is unpredictable.

5. Ask for prayer when you need it.

Don't be ashamed to ask for it. Be specific, and be strategic with whom you ask. I always ask people who are like-minded, stand on a foundation of all-or-nothing, and whom I am comfortable pouring my heart towards.

The body of Christ is just for this. Let your family help you up when you feel you're about to fall.

Finally,

I will not stop praying for you since I first heard about you. I will ask God to give you complete knowledge of His will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding. Then the way you live will always honour and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while you will grow as you get to know God better and better.

- Colossians 1:9-10

"The goal is not even fruitfulness, the goal is His face - the intimacy cultivated with Abba Father."

- Heidi Baker.

travelling.

I am leaving for Phnom Penh, the Cambodian capital, on Monday night. First time travelling alone.

Check out http://www.daughtersofcambodia.org to see a little of what I'll be doing there.

In preparation for this trip, the events in my life that have led up to this have produced such revelations from Father:

• Australia, UK, Cambodia, China, Kenya - wherever you are, you will always be part of an International picture. Your work in this life and world does not start until you realise this.
• There is no better place to be than in His will. It is privilege to sit here and talk about going. I am not necessary at Daughters and probably never will be, but that's just it, I am there to learn about poverty and why the sex trade exists, and what it has done to humanity. I can't think of a better way to spend my post-degree November!
• You have a university degree. Good on you. You may not think it's a huge deal, but from a global perspective, many kids can't even afford primary school.
• Having held this view for a long time, and waiting for someone to prove me wrong, I am going to share it boldly: Travelling overseas when you are spiritually in the "build" stages of your faith, as opposed to being "sent" to share the gospel, is highly dangerous. E.g. A second year uni student who is actively involved in the spiritual movement on campus, decides she wants to do exchange in Germany. She does not prioritise the setting up of spiritual supports - a church, a Bible study, godly people who will be there with her and walking with her. In fact, thinking you need less support than more is always an opportunity for the devil to prey on you. There is no one to catch you when you fall. No one to tell you to not get involved with that really cute German guy who just asked you out at the cafe! for example.
• Physical environment does dramatically change, and yes, you set up new routine molding oneself around your place. However, your friends back home are only an internet connection away. They are still involved in your life if you let them, and you are still involved in theirs if you invite yourself in!
• Mission trips are funny things. Many Christians go on about the work they do, which is great. But who is your first love again? The point is - what does Father want to teach you about Him in this new space? Why has He brought you here? The world is His, He created everything in it. The 'work' that 'you do' does not stop when you hop on a plane back home, it keeps going, wherever you are! Because, the reality is, you are in a forever-relationship with Father, transcending all barriers of location and time. He is with you wherever you are.

My food - is every word that comes out of the Father's mouth, and to do His will, because He sent me.

stand up for yourself.

Had a male patient at work, 42 years, with mental health issues, stand over the front desk staring at me. He had no reason to. As an avid ex-feminist, human rights activist and pro-assertion person (especially in regards to women standing up for themselves), I let him get away with intimidating me. I knew he loved the power he had, the power I let him have over me. I hate myself for it. Why didn't I assert myself and say "No, it's not ok with me that you stand and lean over the desk like that. Maybe you could go and stand elsewhere, like over there, perhaps?"

I guess as it was my last day, I thought it a battle not worth fighting. Also, there was a mum with her bub in the waiting room and I didn't want him to cause a scene. I am still brooding though. I need to pray about this.

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My whole life I have blamed other people who have hurt me. Yes, for that time it was their fault. They were meant to raise me to become an independent, confident woman in her own right, and instead they allowed great suffering to come my way. A few years on, after thousands of reflective conversations, journal entries, and songs written, I realise their inherent fallibility.

A survivor-in-life friend of mine had said, "how can you expect people to see your wound when they can't even see their own?". Pertinent and perfectly articulate of this.

As women, we need to:

- Run to Jesus as our only authority and truth. He is perfection, no one else is. For years I had been living a lie, thinking that I needed to say yes to all people's requests and demands, or else they would not love me, or I would be a failure of a daughter and friend. When I learned that this was not the Father's will, it set me free.

- Fall in the loving arms of Father. Cultivate a beautiful dependency on Him. It was what you were made for. He is completely trustworthy and holds all the wisdom in the universe. Ask Him for it.

- Practice assertion and boundary setting. Once you know what is true and what is a lie, you can be confident in your "no" and in your "yes". Practice on people who are growing with you. If you are a personal friend of mine, practice saying 'no' to me! You are also not responsible for their response to you. You are only responsible for yourself.

- Surround yourself with all types of godly people. I used to have a really distorted view of men and relationships. It wasn't until I joined Student Life, a Christian movement on campus that I met amazing godly guys who showed me how a woman should be treated. I am now dating a really great guy who put much thought and prayer into pursuing me. He is so great that I now understand and embrace all those passages about submission!

Pauls, Barnabases and Timothies.

P - Do you have a spiritual mentor? Seek one out at your church. I did, and now we are about to launch a whole mentoring program!

B - Who is walking with you spiritually and on the same journey as you are? The lens which you look at the world should be Jesus's. You will share these experiences together, talking about how you both dealt with them, and how you can continue to be the aroma of Christ to the world.

T - Who are you spiritually influencing? This is hard sometimes, I know. But never think you are not influencing anybody. Younger Christians are always watching you.

- Protect your time with God. I should have started with this, but empty yourself before Him, before receiving what He has to say to you. At some points in time I feel so busy but an attitude of "I'm too busy NOT to pray" reminds you that apart from Him you really can do nothing.

Without quality time with God, we end up merely existing and not living. If our relationship with Jesus is eternal, then He is the reality. Prayer and the Word is a reminder of our belonging to Him and our eternity in Heaven.

Functionality, the god.

[fuhn-zchion]

Jaw is sore.
Doctor diagnoses as "...cause of stress, fatigue"
Teeth gritted to finish the job
A job well done
Job = done well.

Three people:
Leader. Follower. Slacker.
Enmass, machination
Teeth gritted (right down) to complete the job.
A job well done.
Job = done really well.

You will take the phones
While I, the banking
And you(th) to scan out the back there is a problem?
Problem. Problem.
We solve it, and then it's a
job well done.
Job = done brilliantly well.

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Enough of you do not deal with the wound.
There is a problem. You ignore it. You smile and you are polite and you make small talk but you do not deal with the problem.
This is incredibly, desperately, damaging.
Pick your battles. Be assertive and not aggressive. Anger is a valid emotion, but (with)in your anger do not sin. This is difficult, but we'll get there.

Too many of you worship Functionality, the god.
The god who lets someone continue in ignorance for the sake of not stepping on toes.
The god who smiles politely to mask deep, gaping wounds.
The god who has become so great at putting on a mask you are the social link-up.

Functionality has made you a fake.

This is not life. This is bondage to your own ideas of self preservation, when Christ came and died and was resurrected so you could live your life filled with non-agenda'd, love-for-the-sake-of-love for others.

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My best friends and I are going to spend a weekend away crying.
It is the best idea we've had all year.
Then one of us will get married.

Three confident, gorgeous, highly functional women in the eyes of the world:
A first class honours graduate in a corporate job.
A high school dux, multi-lingual, highly versed bride-to-be.
And me, the indie muso and soon to be social work graduate.

What do you say, that the Lord sees only sleet and His justification,

The resume blows away like chaff
And what is left?

Delight.

This dress, it was my mother's. She must have been a size 7 at twenty years of age. Her tiny waist slipped comfortably into the zipper stage, where my own thighs struggle.

A rip, and a seamstress's brilliance later - a hug for a greeting. His hand enters mine. Surprise.

I say, are we? now?
He says, if you are fond? and then
I don't say. I shrug.

I adore his eye. Attention to minute detail, every subtlety well surpassed by onlookers rushed, rushing, ransacking treasure with the mind. But he is the one who stops. And looks long.

And confusion
imminent . Be spoken of!
I am withdrawing words, eating each echelon concept because, because

Belief: He will speak of it on his own accord.

I say, I am not ready yet,
that was silenced to me.
He says, our pace?
I say, is your decision.

He asks (like he is seventeen and I, sixteen and
this is 1954 and
we are yet to be acquainted with technicolour films)
if I would be his girl.

I would be his girl.

Take aways

Speak slowly, clearly, and respectfully to everyone. Sorting out miscommunication is such a waste of time.

Nothing says 'community' like walking through your old primary school, working for the AEC in your local suburb, chatting to the Korean retailers, asking the librarian for good old fashioned find-a-book help, and strolling home after dark, feeling perfectly safe. It's taken me ten years at least.

Singing to Father is good for the soul.

If a boy asks you to have coffee with him, he is not asking you to overanalyse his every text message into insanity. He is just asking you to have coffee with him!

You are only responsible for so much. (Psalm 16)

Card making is not only therapeutic, it's cheaper and more personal to the card-makee.

Some people really are destroyed from lack of knowledge.

Journalling over coffee is always a good idea, so find your favourite cafes in at least four suburbs and enjoy!

Relax about the future. Seek first the Kingdom. Trust God.

Every person, no matter what age, ethnicity, gender or sexuality (whether you agree with their lifestyle choices or not), were made in the image and likeness of God.

We all have opinions. It's not always appropriate to air them.

Be quick to listen and slow to speak. When words are many, sin is not absent.

Persevere with the contexts God has put you in. If you aren't sure that Father has placed you there, consult with an older and wiser Christian who walks with you.

Make sure you are constantly, always, continually, daily walking with fierce gospel carriers, fat with the love of Christ in them...

Criticisms bother us because we think they might be true, but not nice. We weren't called to be people of nice, but people of Truth (in love).

I am no longer ashamed to admit that given the opportunity, I would happily give up everything to be a full time Mum! (Yet I really have no idea what this entails).

We are called to love everybody. This doesn't mean we have to like them, become their best friend, say 'yes' to every ridiculous request they make, or listen to their potentially poisonous words. Regretfully, the uniqueness of every person means a personalised treatment of love to each.
[P.S. He, Jesus, was pierced for OUR transgressions, and bruised for OUR iniquities, suffering death on a cross for US! So LOOK directly towards Him.]

Everyone is often in their own fantasy land, their own dream. Some exceptional people are not essentially self interested and so have trained themselves to see things from another point of view. Aim to be one of these people.

the ransacker's rip

Red ones with gold characters
Discovered
By the un-oriental, and who knew our culture but us?
Amount you gave me that year, Cousin, we won't know.
And it's too rude to ask.
Recover the love letters
Entitled with all your names, all of them
And I stopped writing them only because
They were (no longer)
between us.