books. and hillsong.

books. can i tell you how thankful i am that i came to australia? i have had so much time to do reading...i composed a list last night and i have read 14 books since i have been here. wow. so much time to do so much reading. lovely. and tanya just recommended 6 more books for me to read while i am here. wow. i have some reading to do before i leave! do i have enough time? ah! time to get crack-a-lackin!
so far. i have read...
the sacred romance by brent curtis and john eldredge. loved it!
discipline: the glad surrender by elisabeth elliot. loved it as well.
the celebration of discipline by richard j. foster. loved that one.
redeeming love by francine rivers. oh my goodness did i ever love that one!
a lineage of grace by francine rivers. oh let me tell you...read it! loved it!
sons of encouragement by francine rivers. just as well...i recommend this one too.
the irresistible revolution by shane claiborne. changed my life.
the mark of the lion series: a voice in the wind
an echo in the darkness
as sure as the dawn...all by francine rivers. AMAZING!
the scarlet thread by francine rivers. uh. it was good, had a good ending.
and i have been working on the bible study: having a mary heart in a martha world by joanna weaver. it doesn't really apply to my life right now...but! who says you can't be prepared for the future?
and i am in the middle of the answers book by ken ham, jonathan sarfati, and carl wieland. totally just beating up my brain.
and i have when i don't desire God by john piper to read. but right now...i'm desiring God. so i am going to save it for later i believe.
and then the books that tanya gave me to read were:
into the wild by jon krakauer
religion is for fools by bill medley
more than a carpenter by josh mcdowell
the screwtape letters by c.s. lewis
tuesdays with morrie by mitch albom
and daughter of china by c. hope flinchbauge
and i have been reading my bible as well. so don't you worry folks. i still have time for my God time.
and 2 more books that tanya gave me to do while i am here are bible study books both by beth moore: believing God: experiencing a fresh explosion of faith and breaking free. i am loving the time i have out here. GOD TIME!

hillsong today!
i had the attitude of not wanting to go because i woke up and was not excited to do my hour of quiet time with God today. friends, i struggled this morning with wanting to spend time with Him this morning. i laid in bed and just wrestled with it, giving up my sleeping and happy worldly dreams to spend time with Him. and on my way to church i still struggled with it, so going into hillsong to go worship our Creator, the One who deserves all our praise...i was really being selfish and not wanting to be there. so how hillsong usually goes for me....(for me...yes. selfish moment here)...worship just rocks my socks off. i love! i LOVE feeling the passion in everyone and God moving in everyone's hearts and i love the time where we all come together as believers and praise our Father! how wonderful it is. and then the sermon comes...and it's not pastor kevin or pastor robert preaching. it's more of evangelical preaching where they preach to unbelievers...which is still awesome. it is great to hear because then it helps me when i talk to unbelievers...so it's still good. i just miss holladay. anyways. enough of my complaining....today...the worship was just as great, my heart was just not in it. the whole morning i am praying, God just change my heart. change my heart. make my heart on fire for You! change my heart. and so the song right before the sermon, i knew it! and when i come across songs that i don't know...i have a hard time because i can't sing from the heart, but i get the chance to let the words speak to me. so it was a learning morning. anyways, the last song...i was able to give back to God and just worship Him. huh, God was speaking to me all morning....and just feeding my soul. aww. thanks God! so today the sermon was preached by Robert Morris from dallas, texas! yea! an american! BUT! it was video cam! COOL! he was so funny and preached on luke 9:12-17.
the principles of multiplication.
God doesn't bless giving, He blesses the giver with the RIGHT heart.
finances go through addition, subtraction, division, and multiplication: God will do it to bless His kingdom to bless you!
in luke 9:12-17, it says there were 5 thousand men...well. that means 5 thousand families...so around 20 thousand people! woah baby!
Jesus is God...He knows everything, so why were there 12 baskets leftover? party sacks for the disciples?
pretend to be one of the disciples...and we're on the "Messiah Search Committee", and Jesus looks like He could be a good candidate. He can walk on water, heal the sick...so we invite everyone to come to hear Him preach and we will see how that goes. He talks, and talks and talks and talks and talks....and we, the disciples start to get hungry...v. 12: day began to wear away (means it was late! like dinner time and we had all missed morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea...we were starting to get famished!). and so we go up to Jesus and tell Him that the people are hungry (because we know He cares about the people, and the "people" are hungry) and He replies (v.13) then you give them something to eat. oh. well we only have the 2 fish and 5 loaves that we snatched from a little boy. (v. 14) He then tells us to have the people sit in groups of 50. that is a miracle in itself...people don't do things without asking questions. so we bring Jesus the food, and He blessed them and broke them and gave them to us (the disciples).
the bread didn't multiply like how we all think it would....it didn't just grow in front of us like the story of elisha feeding 100 men with 12 loaves of bread. No. Jesus just blessed it. He broke it and blessed it. the miracle happened in our hands. that's where the bread grew. not in the Master's, but in ours. He just blessed it.
so for the principles of multiplication:
1. it has to be blessed before it can multiply (hebrews 7)
it has to be given to Jesus before it can multiply
give the FIRST 10% to Him
tithing is the ONLY thing you can test God with
SHUT UP AND TRY IT!
  tithers say: "God has so blessed me"
  non-tithers say: "i can't afford to tithe"
Jesus is the only One that can bless it.
2. it has to be given away before it can be multiplied and blessed
don't try to manipulate things...just TRUST God.
"God is about to teach you about giving so you can bless the body of Christ"
over here are HURTING and over here are RESOURCES....and for them to connect,
                       PEOPLE
we are in placed in the middle.
God doesn't care if you have stuff, but if the stuff has you.
God gave us everything (John 3:16), will we give everything back to Him?
you can't trust selfish people, "ASK" is spoken to (by God) to giving people (story of king solomon...he sacrificed 1000 bulls instead of the required one when he became king...and look at him...God asked him what he wanted...and he asked for wisdom).
God would love to bless you.

that was the sermon today. it was nice. i really enjoyed it. and today someone came up to me and talked to me and so that was nice. and i stepped out of my comfort zone and talked to people. and today we were all praying for people...they will read out prayer requests and praises and i think this is a powerful time. i don't know anyone....but hey...i can pray for them. and when we all stood up and prayed for mona, this lady who got hit by a car and the doctors have told the family that they should probably pull the plug....when the church stood up and just started praying and ooo still gives me goosebumps! we are all just crying out to God, the Healer, and uplifting our prayers for mona and her family. wow. to hear everyone just cry out to God. makes me think of the time when we were in mozambique at the orphanage and we were all praying to God...we were all speaking in english, portuguese, macua...it was a beautiful thing.

i love God.