On Christ the Solid-Rock I stand...

The day my ex-husband left I did not think it was to be forever. Initially he stormed out of our home over an incident that wasn’t even ‘us’ based…to be blunt, it seemed like all of a sudden, he simply wanted out and didn’t want to talk about it or work anything through…he’d made up his mind all on his own.

I never blamed God.

I wasn’t angry at God, I had unanswered questions but just laid low for quite some time and loved my kids.

I remember one day when the reality really sunk in that he wasn’t coming home, I broke down in such tremendous grief, a close relative insisted on taking me to see a doctor.

A pointless activity; I only needed LOVE not the prescribed prescription for anti-anxiety medication which I didn’t use or need to use.

The point was my grief was real and people wanted a quick fix for me...but I am glad I chose to let God heal me.

I prayed, read my Bible, went to church and cried.

I don’t remember asking God why very much…I just let Him love me and love me He did!

He began to show me a side of myself I didn’t know…or perhaps more so, a side of myself that had been not allowed to grow before. The buds of talent that had emerged as a girl but had not blossomed, begun to bloom and people also began to notice, saying things like, ‘You’re amazing blah blah…’ but I would shake my head and say, ‘Ah no, it’s not me…I couldn’t do this alone…I’d be a mess without Jesus…’.  To which many would respond with a confused look upon their face.

I began to get to know myself anew as a beloved, treasured daughter of The King!

Because God is truth He brings all things into the light, and after time when things came to be known, He continued to heal me even though separation wasn’t what I wanted and when my ex divorced me, I continued to trust The LORD even though I didn’t have a clear view of the future.

So I sit here today, having just turned 38 this week, and a decade (almost to the day) since I was born again (praise Jesus) about to enter a new decade and season. I have almost completed my ministry degree and am watching as things begin to unfold around me…for He has said to me that He has opened a door no-one can shut.

But I will be honest, I shed some tears today, after my ex-husband told me about his wedding next week (so that I could have our children organised for the day)…Tears for the loss of family. I do know God hates divorce.

Yet I also have come to a place in my Christian life where I am completely accepting God’s sovereignty over me. For me, this has meant I’ve had to contemplate God’s ability to have softened and changed my ex-husband’s heart toward me, also knowing He let my ex choose his own path.

It means that I have shed tears due to the loss but continue to TRUST God anyway…!

It means I am looking at things in a new light. I am looking at things around me that I honestly don’t know if they would have been possible had my ex stayed…maybe, maybe not and I am okay about it.

I do not believe tears mean someone is weak, lacking faith, or that they are not grateful for things in their life from God. I believe tears with God are HEALING tears!

I read the other day a single person said because they had both cold and hot water they would be grateful…and while it’s true we should be grateful for clean water because without it we can’t survive…I believe the desire and human need for loving, meaningful, significant and real relationships with others is also just as important.

I believe God wants us to lead peaceful lives in relationship with Him and others…and I don’t want to just exist because I have clean water! I want to LIVE a life of meaning and purpose and this is one of peace with God and others.

So no matter what The LORD allows or removes from my life, I will choose to bless His Holy Name and live for Him. For He gives me what no man can! I will choose to focus upon the truth that I have eternal life through Jesus Christ, such a precious gift that nothing here can come close to. I choose to remember scriptural truths that I am beloved and He has good plans for me, for His Kingdom and glory, to combat the enemy and his arrows of negativity and rejection.

I stand on Christ the solid rock, for indeed it is only by Him that I stand at all and cannot be shaken! Melanie.

Blessed Be Your Name, Matt Redman:

Will You Leave It All Behind?

Will we leave it all behind?

Do we even know what this means anymore?

Where are the Christian soldiers waging war with the enemy; 

striving to be pure lights?

We are now a remnant…

God’s true people!

Will you leave it all behind?

Do you know what this means?

Do you know what it means to count the cost;

to be Yeshua’s disciple?

Are you willing to be a part of the remnant…

God’s true people?

I have chosen to leave it all behind…

I live my life with the purpose of telling the world about Him…

All this world offers cannot compare to Him; 

so I will not give in to compromise…

I am a part of the remnant…

God’s true people!

Do you hear Him calling you to leave it all behind?

Do you want true healing for the broken?

Do you want to help your fallen brother; 

to receive eternal life?

Do you believe He alone is enough for the remnant...

God's true people to impact this world?

Will you too leave it all behind?

Will you join me in looking beyond the temporary?

Will you too choose Him over your flesh; 

over your next breath?

Will you become a part of the remnant…

God’s true people and leave your life behind?

In the Name of the only One who can save, Yeshua (Jesus Christ)!

Melanie.

"To Know You" By Casting Crowns from Album, 'Until the whole world hears'.

Bruce Jenner had plastic surgery…But so did I!

There once was a woman broken; she was so broken she couldn’t hide it anymore…everybody knew her lot in life!

Everyone knew who she was; just like the women we know who go from one relationship to the next…who get a little too tipsy at our town festivities…the women no decent blokes would consider marrying…the women others don’t invite to their party-plan parties, because they've never any cash…

Yet one day, this woman was in their face telling them… ‘I’ve met someone who told me EVERYTHING I’ve ever done…I think He’s the One I’ve been searching for all my life...’

Suddenly, the woman who was a loser starts to speak the most sense in her whole life and people begin to think, ‘Could this woman have actually met the Messiah…Could she have actually encountered God's chosen one?’

The woman whose PROBLEMS were too much for everyone else to handle was now sane and well and all the others with their problems, just better hidden began to think, ‘Maybe we can find healing and wellness too…’. Read it here; John 4: 1-42.

I know exactly how this woman felt because this is how I felt and still feel today from encountering Jesus!

As human beings we like to portray to others we have it all together; keeping our junk all well hidden…I’m sure you know what I mean…

WE ALL HAVE PROBLEMS and I am here to testify that Bruce Jenner or Michael Jackson or Brittney Spears or Justin Bieber are no different to anyone else.

I grew up with heartache.

I grew up a child of divorce from adultery.

A teenager who had damaging words spoken to them.

A teenager who had less than appropriate role modelling portrayed to them in relation to the role and value of women in society.

A teen lacking someone to mentor them down a better path.

I made poor choices all on my own.

I was a beautiful young woman like any other, yet inside was hurt and broken and desperate to fill the empty hole…

So in my own instability and mental unwellness I began to imagine solutions  because surely I could fix myself, right?

I would think, ‘If only…’

I would look in the mirror and think I was seeing my reflection. I became obsessed with my body and thought, ‘If only I was perfect all would be well…’

I did not realise my vision was perverted by my brokenness.

Sadly I was not helped by others with my problem and it was very easy for me to obtain plastic surgery. I had unnecessary liposuction – and if I was able to speak to the medical practitioners today, who were irresponsible to not see this outward action masking the true brokenness inside, I would have to say; ‘Shame on you…yet it must be because you’ve never encountered Christ that you were so blind…’

Let me set the record straight, I was not overweight; if that is anyone's valid reason for liposuction. I did not need plastic surgery at all…Yet I was able to convince everyone I spoke to I did and because they just wanted me and my brokenness to go away and be well they gave me what I wanted.

My brokenness was no different to Bruce Jenner’s…and the reaction to this brokenness from our western society is no different…"Just give broken people what they want and they’ll be happy!"

Plastic surgery had no effect on my wellbeing.

Man in all his conceited self-beliefs could not heal me or my empty vacuum inside that was made to be filled by God Himself.

Today when I see so many people applauding Bruce Jenner’s exterior, I am so sad because I see us as a people, unwilling to walk the hard miles with others and lead them to the true source of healing and wellness; who is Jesus Christ.

I see people broken addicted to drugs and alcohol.

I see people broken with eating disorders.

I see people broken with perverted sexual problems.

I see people broken with gambling addictions.

I could go on and on, as I simply see brokenness for what it is; brokenness.  Is one any better than the other?

I also see people who just want it all to go away and because THEY are not the solution begin to both question and redefine what is sane and what is not.

In our rebellion to God WE WANT TO BE PEOPLE’S SOLUTION, furthermore due to us not wanting to seek deliverance from our own sins, we begin to say others are okay in their brokenness…

What a depraved people we are becoming here in the West as we continue to strive against Jesus Christ.

Yet there is still HOPE for those who respond to Christ – who come to the realisation that HE IS THE ANSWER.

Like the demon possessed man living in the cave…too big a problem for everyone else, yet one encounter with Jesus was healed forever. He then told his whole community about the healing and wellness Christ provided him. You can read it here.

I say to you today, yes Bruce Jenner has had plastic surgery but so did I.

Once I was lost and broken but now I am sane and well because of Jesus Christ. Once I was obsessed with my exterior, now I see myself as my loving Father sees me, beautiful and loved just as I am. And like the woman at the well, and the man in the cave, I will tell EVERYONE of the healing and wellness to fill the empty hole inside, that is available to all from Jesus Christ!

Melanie.

Creative Worship!

Sewn fabric cross; text from hymn Vexilla Regis.

The last week has been a break between my theology assignments and approaching exams, so I decided to once again connect with my Lord and King through creative worship; being inspired by another creative Christian in my new church family and having not done much art for some time.

Being a creative person I NEED to express myself and this could be through WORDS, POETRY, ART, MUSIC, PHOTOGRAPHY, DIGITAL IMAGING…and expressing myself creatively to WORSHIP Jesus is just wonderful!

You may not know but the art and photos on this blog are mine…not that it matters really; but I hope it inspires you to have a go expressing yourself creatively to worship our awesome creator God!  I took some art classes for a term at the beginning of 2013 and it gave me the confidence to keep experimenting at home…and I love it…so much better than sitting watching TV in my opinion!

Here’s some of my recent pieces I’ve made and some of the meanings behind them…I hope it inspires you to just sit with Him, have a go and connect!

JEWELS FOR MY KING:

When I think of the Cross in my mind, I picture a rough and heavy, wooden structure made for death. I also picture it empty because I know death could not hold my King! Yet pain and suffering is not what I'm depicting in this cross, you see, because it is MINE... 

Jesus said we are to take up our cross, in effect dying to ourselves, (our own passionate fleshly desires) and walking onwards upon the road He sets before us as His disciples...to do the good deeds He prepared for us to do before the foundation of the world. How amazing is that? This is why we are told to take upon us, His yolk which is light and easy. Our cross, though at times may be a challenge, is not one of shame and agony like His, for through His Cross we pass from death to LIFE for eternity. He also gives us His family to help us bear our burdens. In His death upon the cross, He took upon Himself the death we were going to inherit for our sinful nature...He then offers us freely the gift of a new inheritance, one as His family...A New Royal Inheritance! 

This is why this cross...My Cross...is one of beauty. Even if it is just plastic buttons and cheap metal brooches; I offer it all as a sacrifice of praise to my King. I give Him my best...which although could never be good enough, or worthy enough, I know He will transform into something beautiful because of who He is.

EASTER RESURRECTION CROSS:

A RESURRECTED LIFE: Butterfly using beads, jewellery, buttons and brooches! 

BIRDS ON A WIRE:

‘Birds on a wire’
1 Corinthians 12: 12-31 was upon my heart because God had spoken this passage to me in relation to a certain church becoming my new church home more than once over the past few months.

I had been in a long season of isolation and while it was not easy, I was and am still grateful, seeing God’s sovereignty and accept it as a part of His loving refining. To come to a place of NOT just thinking, but truly KNOWING through experience that Jesus + Nothing really equals EVERYTHING, is amazing and liberating…and this is the place I’m at right now.

Through my wilderness I have been able to experience and learn afresh how important Church LIFE is. And by this, I mean of doing life together…walking out my life of faith alongside God’s genuine, sold-out people…not just doing religious activities no matter how ‘good’ they may make us feel. I have been BLESSED to come to a fuller and tangible realisation of the importance of the body as Christ’s bride.

Like ‘Birds On A Wire’ the path for us as Christ’s disciples is narrow and sometimes we are subject to all the elements the enemy will shoot. We Need Each Other. ‘Birds On A Wire’ depicts 3 unique, small birds, who although they resemble one another, for they are family, are still uniquely their own and this is how we as the Church fit together…just like 1 Corinthians 12:12-31 says. I believe 3 represents church family well, as two is a ‘couple’ and our love runs deeper than romantic love and our precious God is a trinity. WE NEED EACH OTHER. We were created for relationship and this is with God and each other…May we perch on the wire together; chatting and laughing; talking and crying; praying and seeking; singing and praising…while we look up with expectant hearts!

BEAUTY OF YOUR PRESENCE: He takes my breath away!

I hope you've enjoyed this post and are inspired to simply spend time with Him and express your love for Him creatively.

Melanie :)