Friendship

I think God is speaking...

With "friendship" so heavy on my heart these words are just the confirmation of just how vitally important it is to choose the right friends.

Rick Warren, today tweeted this: "Your friends define your world. Choose them carefully. Bad friends will destroy you." 1 Cor.15:33 (CEV)

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Friendship

"A true friend never gets in your way unless you happen to be going down." -Arnold Glasow

I was thinking about my friends. The friends that have been in my life for a very long time, others that come in and out as the seasons change and the ones that well... frankly, just didn't stick around.

I am so grateful for loyal friends that have decided that, whatever it takes... I am with you.

You know the ones? The ones that take the time to send you a txt/give you a call or invite you around for a cuppa. Not because they want to borrow something or need to know the latest "goss" but friends who are actually, genuinely concerned about you or just want to say "hi!" These are the friends that take time out of their life to be involved in yours.

Selfless, willing, loving and so so beautiful.

"Show me your friends and I will be able to tell you the person you will be in 10 yrs from now." Someone once said this to me and at the time, I was all of 12 and let's face it... I knew best and so I was... a bit? NO! VERY sceptical and cynical. But, in my old age (HA!) these words are beginning to resound in my heart like never before.

Friendship is such a powerful thing. The friendships that you forge should be something that you protect and guard. Who are you allowing to speak into your life? Are your friends building you up or doing quite the opposite?

I am learning that life has it's seasons, and they can (and quite often) abruptly change.

Sometimes it's windy and somewhat unsteady, at times you can't see the wind but you can feel it's affect. Autumn comes and brings new growth with a season of change. Winter brings storms and you feel like you have the thickest, darkest rain cloud overhead.

Then there are days when everything is gorgeous, just like Spring, birds singing, flowers blooming.

Summer's turn with the sun shining brighter than ever before...

Whatever the season, life is a whole lot brighter with good friends.

When Did Christianity Become All About Me?

When did Christianity become all about me? That's easy: When I gave MY life to God and decided that I was going to live for him.

When did Christianity become all about others? That's easy too: The next day. After my mind was blown away with the truth and I had to share it with everyone. When I realised I wasn't put on this earth to live for me but to live for something GREATER than me with a divine purpose to reach others and be Jesus to them.

Someone once said: "The only bible someone may ever read is you."

What a thought... When did Christianity stop being about us and start to be about others?For some of us, I think never. I was chatting to one of my beautiful friends the other day about why we do what we do? Why we serve in church/youth? Why it is that we feel so discouraged when others aren't giving their all?

I have seen too many friends decide that life is all about them. Church is all about them. EVERYTHING is all about them. Sadly, there are too many "fat christians" in church life. I will come if I feel like it. If the preacher I like is preaching. If they sing the music I like... If it fits in with me, me... ME!

What a revelation. It's hard work. Juggling life, family, work & friends... The pressures of life get to me at times. But, in all of that I am at my happiest... my most fulfilled when I am busy doing life with God at the centre. I am at my best, my happiest, my most powerful and influential when I am aligned with the will of God. If I do it in HIS strength and take the ME out of it, something extraordinary happens... It just works.

Harmony to my Heartbeat

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{harmony}

1. The combination of simultaneously sounded musical notes to producechords and chord progressionshaving a pleasing effect.

2. Agreement or concord : man and machine in perfect harmony.

I want my heartbeat to be beating to things of God, in time with him, my life source, the thing that pumps my love for him through my veins. Yes! I likewise, want to be the melody to the heartbeat of the God.

I love the words in the definition of Harmony! Simultaneously, having a pleasing affect and in agreement! WOW! As a singer you learn that the harmony isn't there to drown out the lead, but to compliment and make a fuller sound.

God wants us to be in time with him, simultaneously. He wants us to be in agreement with him.Not louder than him that we miss what he is saying. Running with the things of God. So often, we think we have got it, we know what we are doing, that we have "arrived". We stray away, or do it on our own, in our own strength. He longs for our hearts to beat with his:: Simultaneously! He also longs for us to be the melody to his heartbeat, I also think he wants to be the melody to our heartbeat at times too.

Jeremiah 32:38

...and they shall be my people, and I will be their God and I will give them one heart and one way,that they may fear me for ever,for the good of them,and of their children after them and I will make an everlasting covenant with them,that I will not turn away from following them,to do them good;and I will put my fear in their hearts,that they may not depart from me.Yea,I will rejoice over them to do them good,and I will plant them in this land assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul.

Sally Seltmann - Harmony to My Heartbeat

Collision Course To Greatness

collision |kəˈli zh ən| course

to greatness

[twitter]RT::I love how two separate lives collide - this demonstrated 2day by Oni & Jaz who r moments from their vows! They deserve the most perfect day.

collide |kəˈlīd|noun

1 an instance of one moving object or person striking violently against another : a midair collision between two aircraft | the device increases the chances of collision.

• an instance of conflict between opposing ideas, interests, or factions : a collision between experience and theory | cultures in collision.

2 Computing an event of two or more records being assigned the same location in memory.

• an instance of simultaneous transmission by more than one node of a network.

PHRASES

on ( a)collision course going in a direction that will lead to a collision with another moving object or person. • adopting an approach that is certain to lead to conflict with another person or group : the strikers are on a collision course with the government.

DERIVATIVES

collisional |- zh ənl| adjective

ORIGIN late Middle English : from late Latin collisio(n-), from Latin collidere ‘strike together’ (see collide ).

6 Phases of Faith- Abraham:1. Dream 2.Decision 3.Delay 4.Difficulty 5. Deadend 6.Deliverance.

suddenly |ˈsədn-lē|adverb

quickly and unexpectedly : the ambassador died suddenly | [ sentence adverb ] suddenly I heard a loud scream.

All this probably means, well... not much to you. For me... it's a promise. One that I am holding fast to and believing for. One day... one day....my life will collide with another and it will be bliss. X

The Culture Of My Life

{CULTURE}

• Culture refers to the cumulative deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religion, notions of time, roles, spatial relations, concepts of the universe, and material objects and possessions acquired by a group of people in the course ofgenerations through individual and group striving.
• Culture is communication, communication is culture.
• Culture in its broadest sense is cultivated behavior; that is the totality of a person's learned, accumulated experience which is socially transmitted, or more briefly, behavior through social learning.
• A culture is a way of life of a group of people--the behaviors, beliefs, values, and symbols that they accept, generally without thinking about them, and that are passed along by communication and imitation from one generation to the next.
• Culture is a collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of one group or category of people from another.

What is the culture of my life? What do I stand for? What are the things that I am striving to do? The things I am trying to put in my life to be a better friend, person, daughter, worshipper, sister and woman... Are they becoming habit? What distinguishes me from others? What sets me apart??

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