Rocket Ship Rapture

Rocket ship rapture

Over the intercom

Captain Jesus

Points out universe wonders

We soar high, shooting past

Planets, stars and galaxies

Pulsating and huge

Suspended, reflecting His glory

Heard throughout are gasps of delight,

Amazement, excitement and awe

As the Captain calls out each star by name

Rocket ship landing

In this space and place called heaven

Super dense and intense joy

So alive

An angel leads the way

Astonishment moves

Through the crowd

This is home

Buzzing excitement

Abruptly stops as

The angel opens wide

Throne Room Doors

All that I have seen

All that I have heard

All that I have felt…

Nothing compares

To the raw power

And beauty

Of His holiness

Of Him

Woe, woe,

Woe is me

I’m not worthy

Trembling from head to toe

Head bowed

Clothed in dirty rags

Stained beyond recognition

Realization

I come with nothing

Am nothing

Silence

He comes off the throne

And comes to me

A tender touch

Lifts my face

Our eyes connect

Mine spill over with tears of shame

His overflow with forgiving tenderness

With a gentle kiss on my cheek

My rags are transformed

Into a wedding dress....

____________________________________________

What stands out to me above all else in Kizzie’s beautiful vision is that He stepped off His throne for me, for you, for us.

The Creator of all, King of kings, put aside His crown, removed His royal robe, stepped off His throne, stepped outside of eternity and came and touched someone as filthy, and lowly as me. Was it only for rocket ship raptures? Universe tours? Dense and intense heavenly joys?

A stunning one-of-kind wedding dress?

This I-long-for-relationship-with-you God stepped down in order to call me His Daughter, Sister, Friend, Apple of His eye, Beloved. He stepped down to walk with me and talk with me and tell me that I am His own. He stepped down that I may know Him and make Him known.

~Rose Escudero

The Vision

So this guy comes up to me and says:
“What’s the vision? What’s the big idea?”
I open my mouth and words come out like this:
The vision?

The vision is JESUS – obsessively, dangerously, undeniably Jesus.

The vision is an army of young people.
You see bones? I see an army.
And they are FREE from materialism.

They laugh at 9-5 little prisons.
They could eat caviar on Monday and crusts on Tuesday.
They wouldn’t even notice.
They know the meaning of the Matrix, the way the west was won.

They are mobile like the wind, they belong to the nations.
They need no passport.
People write their addresses in pencil and wonder at their strange existence.
They are free yet they are slaves of the hurting and dirty and dying.

What is the vision ?

The vision is holiness that hurts the eyes.
It makes children laugh and adults angry.
It gave up the game of minimum integrity long ago to reach for the stars.
It scorns the good and strains for the best.
It is dangerously pure.

Light flickers from every secret motive, every private conversation.
It loves people away from their suicide leaps, their Satan games.
This is an army that will lay down its life for the cause.
A million times a day its soldiers choose to loose,
that they might one day win
the great ‘Well done’ of faithful sons and daughters.

Such heroes are as radical on Monday morning as Sunday night. They don’t need fame from names. Instead they grin quietly upwards and hear the crowds chanting again and again: “COME ON!”

And this is the sound of the underground
The whisper of history in the making
Foundations shaking
Revolutionaries dreaming once again
Mystery is scheming in whispers
Conspiracy is breathing…
This is the sound of the underground

And the army is discipl(in)ed.
Young people who beat their bodies into submission.
Every soldier would take a bullet for his comrade at arms.
The tattoo on their back boasts “for me to live is Christ and to die is gain”.

Sacrifice fuels the fire of victory in their upward eyes.
Winners. Martyrs.
Who can stop them?
Can hormones hold them back?
Can failure succeed?
Can fear scare them or death kill them ?

And the generation prays...

like a dying man
with groans beyond talking,
with warrior cries, sulphuric tears and
with great barrow loads of laughter!
Waiting. Watching: 24 – 7 – 365.

Whatever it takes they will give: Breaking the rules. Shaking mediocrity from its cosy little hide. Laying down their rights and their precious little wrongs, laughing at labels, fasting essentials. The advertisers cannot mould them. Hollywood cannot hold them. Peer-pressure is powerless to shake their resolve at late night parties before the cockerel cries.

They are incredibly cool, dangerously attractive

Inside.

On the outside? They hardly care.
They wear clothes like costumes to communicate and celebrate but never to hide.
Would they surrender their image or their popularity?
They would lay down their very lives - swap seats with the man on death row - guilty as hell. A throne for an electric chair.

With blood and sweat and many tears, with sleepless nights and fruitless days,
they pray as if it all depends on God and live as if it all depends on them.

Their DNA chooses JESUS. (He breathes out, they breathe in)
Their subconscious sings. They had a blood transfusion with Jesus.
Their words make demons scream in shopping centres.

Don’t you hear them coming?

Herald the weirdo’s! Summon the losers and the freaks.
Here come the frightened and forgotten with fire in their eyes.
They walk tall and trees applaud, skyscrapers bow, mountains are dwarfed by these children of another dimension.
Their prayers summon the hounds of heaven and invoke the ancient dream of Eden.

And this vision will be.
It will come to pass;
it will come easily;
it will come soon.

How do I know?

Because this is the longing of creation itself,
the groaning of the Spirit,
the very dream of God.

My tomorrow is his today.
My distant hope is his 3D.
And my feeble, whispered, faithless prayer invokes a thunderous, resounding, bone-shaking great ‘Amen!’ from countless angels, from hero’s of the faith, from Christ himself. And he is the original dreamer, the ultimate winner.

Guaranteed.

By Pete Greig

New Year, New Possibilities...

Well, 2010 is here. The world didn't end, our computers still compute and God is still on the throne! I hope each of you had a wonderful break and that you feel rejuvenated to finish the last half of the school year strong! This Friday is our first Sisters meeting of 2010. It will be an opportunity for you to get a glimpse into the upcoming year and hear from your leadership team. The team will share where they feel the Lord is leading this group in 2010...don't miss the chance to be poured into so that you in turn can pour out into friends, teachers, family and your community!

Here's a little something from my heart to yours...

With the New Year always come the thought, or for the disciplined ones, the action, of a New Year's resolution. There's quite a bit of pressure that can come with publicly declaring your year's resolutions...statistically, only 10% of those who make resolutions are able to stick with them. Now, let me quickly get to my point because the last thing I want to do is discourage anyone! I've been pondering this blog entry for the past 2 days now...going back and forth about what direction to take this...and here's what I feel like the Lord would say to you:

"In Me [Jesus], every day is a "New Year"."

I'm sure you've heard this verse before, but read it again and apply it to the way you feel when a new year comes around...

"The STEADFAST love of the Lord never ceases, His mercies never come to an end. They are NEW every morning; great is Your faithfulness. "The Lord is my portion," says my soul, "therefore I will HOPE in Him!" Lamentations 3:22-24 (ESV)

I think sometimes we wait with great anticipation and expectation for the new year to roll around. We decide what needs fixing in our lives and we muster up the determination to do something about it. And while those intentions aren't wrong, I just want to encourage you that if you find yourself slipping away from your diet plan or find it tough to get up early and do your devotions, just know that tomorrow...and the next day...and the next...the Lord's grace is there to pick us up and help us "resolve" to get back on track!

Persevere dear sisters, because the Lord cares deeply about every area of your lives--no matter what your New Year's resolution may be!

God in Us - A Masterpiece

I have to be completely honest with you all...I have read over the notes I took from last week's meeting a few times now, and EVERYTHING I wrote is worth repeating. Miss Wendy spoke and if you would have been sitting next to me at the meeting you probably would have been annoyed by the clicking of the keys as I frantically tried to type so I wouldn't miss a thing she said! Yeah, it was that good! I don't want to cop-out though, so my prayer after finishing this entry (which will be more of a recap, because it will be Miss Wendy's words, not mine) will be that the Lord would give me a fresh revelation in my life so that I could share something more on this topic with you all. So without further babbling on my part, here are some of the highlights of what she shared:

• You are a masterpiece-you are whether you believe it or not. Being a masterpiece is about learning how to live extravagantly loved. Eph. 2 - "God saved you because He loves you."
• God created you in His image, then you had to decide if you wanted that. You may be saying, "I have no idea how to live like a masterpiece." A masterpiece in God's eyes is what He does in us the minute we decide to choose Jesus. In that minute, the masterpiece comes forth. The masterpiece is: To be able to say to the world, "Look what I can do with: pain, a crisis, a divorce, conflict, etc." And the world takes notice and asks, "Why can she react that way? How can she handle that?"
• Beauty from ashes...(Does anyone remember that Crystal Lewis song...? -Em)
• Being a masterpiece is about showing the world God.
• Matt. 5:14 (Message) "Here's another way to put it: You're here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We're going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don't think I'm going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I'm putting you on a light stand. Now that I've put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine!"
• We spend a lot of our life covering up our masterpiece (with our insecurities, self-righteousness, gossiping...) The more you live there [insecurities, etc.], the more you are covering up your masterpiece. Then we begin to wonder, "why me?"
• How can we stop covering up our masterpiece?

1. The more you trust, the more faithful you'll see that He's been to you!
2. Be careful what comes out of your mouth!
3. Be the one that encourages someone else!
4. When you live a radical life of gratitude and gratefulness, all of a sudden, one (or more!) of the covers comes off.
5. Even if you don't feel like it, if you start walking in the way Jesus asks you to, even more covers fall off.

• "When we turn our face to God, He removes our coverings...and we are shining."
• From glory to glory, He will let you take off a covering at a time or, if He thinks you can take off more at a time, He will allow that.
• "Keep company with me and you will live freely and lightly." - Matt. 11:30

Carried To The Table

Did you know that you are not defined by your choices; by your sins? You may not think so, seeing as the world is so quick to judge us by our actions and appearances. But God chooses a different way to define you...simply put, you are His. His creation, His child, created in His image. Scripture says in Romans 8:1, "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." Are you "in Christ Jesus"? *Pretty sure you are now nodding your head answering "Yes"!* Good, that's what I thought! So since you love Him and have a relationship with Him, He desires to define you on His terms, without condemnation. I'd like to share with you some definitions of condemnation (or condemn). I found them to be quite enlightening and I think you will too:

1) To express unfavorable judgement on - yikes! (Not part of the definition, just my opinion!)

2) To pronounce to be guilty - bigger yikes!

3) To judge or pronounce to be unfit for use or service - oh boy...

Take a moment to think about these definitions...depressing, huh?! But the last one really jumps out at me... Unfit for God's service? I would never want to be labeled as "unfit for God's use or service"! And I know you wouldn't either. So aren't you glad that the Lord declares to us through His Word that, "there is therefore now no condemnation..."! (Now, don't get me wrong, this doesn't mean we get to do whatever we want whenever we want. God does discipline us, but instead of getting bogged-down when we make a bad decision, God's desire for us is that we make the situation right before Him, and anyone else necessary, and move forward in freedom-without condemnation!) Thank You, Jesus! Thank you that You died on the Cross for each and every one of our many, many sins-all so that there would be no condemnation for us! Instead, you give us freedom and liberty!

Despite what this verse promises us, we all still struggle to some degree with feeling unsure of how God feels about us. At our October meeting, we heard the phrase "carried to the table". We saw a drama depict various girls in situations where they were left feeling hurt and unloved. Emotions such as rejection from friends to arguing with parents, a poor self-image or divorce. And like a knight in shinning armor, Jesus came to their rescue and carried each one-broken and hurting-to His table. In this story, His "table" refers to a relationship with Him. He sat each girl down at the table, talking to them, encouraging them, telling them how much they are loved. This story isn't a fairy-tale, it's very real. And it can be a part of your life's story.

Don't be uncertain of how God feels about you...be confident that even amidst a trial or just plain feeling crummy, God is inviting you, yes YOU, to come and sit down at His table, a table filled with love.