:: love ::

apaiser :: to soothe

Simon :: Lifehouse

Catch your breath
Hit the wall
Scream out loud
As you start to crawl
Back in your cage
The only place
Where they will
Leave you alone

‘Cause the weak will
Seek the weaker
Until they’ve broken them
Could you get it back again
Would it be the same

Fulfilment to their lack of strength
At your expense
Left you with no defence
They tore it down

And I have felt the same
As you, I’ve felt the same
As you I’ve felt the same

Locked inside
The only place
Where you feel sheltered
Where you feel safe
You lost yourself
In your search to find
Something else
To hide behind

The fearful always preyed
Upon your confidence
Did they see the consequence
When they pushed you around
The arrogant build kingdoms
Made of the different ones
Breaking them ‘til
They’ve become
Just another crown

Refuse to feel
Anything at all
Refuse to slip
Refuse to fall

Can’t be weak
Can’t stand still
Watch your back
‘Cause no one will

You don’t know
Why they had to go this far
Traded your worth for these scars
For your only company

Don’t believe the lies that they told to you
Not one word was true
You’re alright
You’re alright
You’re alright

hoffen :: to hope

“God said, “And who do you think made the human mouth? And who makes some mute, some deaf, some sighted, some blind? Isn’t it I, GOD? So, get going. I’ll be right there with you – with your mouth! I’ll be right there to teach you what to say.”
~ Exodus 4:11-12

“The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still."
~ Exodus 14:14

“So let God work his will in you. Yell a loud no to the Devil and watch him scamper. Say a quiet yes to God and he’ll be there in no time. Quit dabbling in sin. Purify your inner life. Quit playing the field. Hit bottom, and cry your eyes out. The fun and games are over. Get serious, really serious. Get down on your knees before the Master; it’s the only way you’ll get on your feet.”
~ James 4:7-10

“Let the Word of Christ--the Message--have the run of the house. Give it plenty of room in your lives. Instruct and direct one another using good common sense. And sing, sing your hearts out to God! Let every detail in your lives--words, actions, whatever--be done in the name of the Master, Jesus, thanking God the Father every step of the way.”
~ Colossians 3:16-17

“But now you have arrived at your destination: By faith in Christ you are in direct relationship with God. Your baptism in Christ was not just washing you up for a fresh start. It also involved dressing you in an adult faith wardrobe--Christ's life, the fulfillment of God's original promise.”
~ Galatians 3:25-27

“Then he was told, "Go, stand on the mountain at attention before GOD. GOD will pass by." A hurricane wind ripped through the mountains and shattered the rocks before GOD, but GOD wasn't to be found in the wind; after the wind an earthquake, but GOD wasn't in the earthquake; and after the earthquake fire, but GOD wasn't in the fire; and after the fire a gentle and quiet whisper.”
~ 1 Kings 19:11-12

“Don't think that just because you live in the king's house you're the one Jew who will get out of this alive. If you persist in staying silent at a time like this, help and deliverance will arrive for the Jews from someplace else; but you and your family will be wiped out. Who knows? Maybe you were made queen for just such a time as this.”
~ Esther 4:13-14

“Why are you down in the dumps, dear soul? Why are you crying the blues? Fix my eyes on God-- soon I'll be praising again. He puts a smile on my face. He's my God.”
~ Psalm 42:11

“Wait passionately for GOD, don't leave the path. He'll give you your place in the sun”
~ Psalm 37:34

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”
~ Matthew 11:28

“I've found the recipe for being happy whether full or hungry, hands full or hands empty. Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am. I don't mean that your help didn't mean a lot to me--it did. It was a beautiful thing that you came alongside me in my troubles.”
~ Philippians 4:12-14

“You never saw him, yet you love him. You still don't see him, yet you trust him--with laughter and singing. Because you kept on believing, you'll get what you're looking forward to: total salvation.”
~ 1 Peter 1:8-9

“May Jesus himself and God our Father, who reached out in love and surprised you with gifts of unending help and confidence, put a fresh heart in you, invigorate your work, enliven your speech.”
~ 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17

“ Compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, firsthand, everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant--dog dung.”
~ Philippians 3:8
I want you to think about how all this makes you more significant, not less. A body isn't just a single part blown up into something huge. It's all the different-but-similar parts arranged and functioning together. If Foot said, "I'm not elegant like Hand, embellished with rings; I guess I don't belong to this body," would that make it so? If Ear said, "I'm not beautiful like Eye, limpid and expressive; I don't deserve a place on the head," would you want to remove it from the body? If the body was all eye, how could it hear? If all ear, how could it smell? As it is, we see that God has carefully placed each part of the body right where he wanted it.

But I also want you to think about how this keeps your significance from getting blown up into self-importance. For no matter how significant you are, it is only because of what you are a part of. An enormous eye or a gigantic hand wouldn't be a body, but a monster. What we have is one body with many parts, each its proper size and in its proper place. No part is important on its own. Can you imagine Eye telling Hand, "Get lost; I don't need you"? Or, Head telling Foot, "You're fired; your job has been phased out"? As a matter of fact, in practice it works the other way--the "lower" the part, the more basic, and therefore necessary. You can live without an eye, for instance, but not without a stomach. When it's a part of your own body you are concerned with, it makes no difference whether the part is visible or clothed, higher or lower. You give it dignity and honour just as it is, without comparisons. If anything, you have more concern for the lower parts than the higher. If you had to choose, wouldn't you prefer good digestion to full-bodied hair?

The way God designed our bodies is a model for understanding our lives together as a church: every part dependent on every other part, the parts we mention and the parts we don't, the parts we see and the parts we don't. If one part hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt, and in the healing. If one part flourishes, every other part enters into the exuberance.

You are Christ's body--that's who you are! You must never forget this. Only as you accept your part of that body does your "part" mean anything.

~ 1 Corinthians 12:14-27

If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing. If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love.

Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn't want what it doesn't have. Love doesn't strut, doesn't have a swelled head, doesn't force itself on others, isn't always "me first," doesn't fly off the handle, doesn't keep score of the sins of others, doesn't revel when others grovel, takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, puts up with anything, trusts God always, always looks for the best, never looks back, but keeps going to the end.

Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be cancelled.

When I was an infant at my mother's breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant. When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good. We don't yet see things clearly. We're squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won't be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We'll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!

But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.

~ 1 Corinthians 13

erzählen :: to tell

i have promised a post before saturday, so here i am.

wednesday was good… seeing people that i haven’t seen for close to 3 months was extremely good. and we did the comparing timetables thing they do in movies and it turns out, i have no frees (or “study periods” as they want us to call them) with rachel. feels so weird. i’m so used to sitting with her and plodding through my work (or attempting to, anyway). ness was still in mexico, so was a bit weird, but mostly ok cos we’re all in a big bunch now. (another thing i like about college – everyone unites. it’s great!). classes were ok. didn’t get much homework, except from maths last period. sooooo hoooooot. anyway, was late to maths because year 7’s and other new people kept asking me for directions (ok, so only 3 times, but enough to make me sufficiently late because i actually went to show them the room). mr joyce wasn’t too happy. *sigh* well… what can i do, really?

walked home from school and pretty much melted on the way home. yuck yuck yuck. too hot this summer. I don’t remember it being this hot last summer... then i did my maths homework and went to bed (and talked to people, but you don’t have to know that)

thursday was good. had choir and gate duty (we have to watch the gate and pull up people with wrong uniform. dot: “you know… everyone hates gate duty chicks”), so had to leave choir early and promise mrs tatchell that we’d arrange for a swap before the next choir practice. but we’re singing at the commencement service on tuesday so she was pretty desperate for us to learn the song (or at least revise it). gate duty was pretty boring. we had the wrong gate so halfway through had to walk across the school to empire cct. yay…

read email and found out that i had to be waitress at some school function for new parents – “Drinks in the Garden”. we weren’t allowed to touch the alcohol (haha), so they got bartenders (i think). but we served the food and were allowed to eat it (but not all of it!). got all hot and sweaty again, even though it was like 5 in the arvo. *sigh* get cooler, please…

they promised our diaries today, but when tutor group time came, they still weren’t here. so we got quite pissed off… they’re never on time and they don’t let us use our own diaries (or at least, we’re not supposed to). but they came. second last period and we had to go down and collect them ourselves. slackers. :P

we had our first SC meeting today. and kanya brought banana bread with banana butter! yummy! (trust me to talk about food first). sat back and watched, basically. didn’t have much to say. brought up the idea of sponsoring a child, but i don’t think the others are too keen about it. apparently some of the houses are already sponsoring one…

then we had photos (for id cards and also SC photo) and i forgot my blazer, so dad had to send it in. *feel bad* at least this year's photo is a heap less demented than last year's (i hope). weight loss should help... but would never know.

and that was my week. and i’m really tired, but i’ve got to make sure my diary’s in a nice organised, filled state before i go to bed tonight.