Women Of God

This is the post mentioned in the previous post. 

The thing with this.. 'Women Of God' stuff, is that it normally makes me cringe. Any time I hear that there is a service where a woman is preaching, I immediately think 'oh no..'. Because, it seems that when ever they preach, how ever good the message actually is (and it can be very good!!), I feel like I should be on standby with a tissue because they seem to be bursting into tears very very very soon and very suddenly. I could not think of a worse pastime than a women's conference where women tell other women that it's okay to be in charge and take responsibilities. BORK. I'd rather wash our entire apartment building inside and out with my toothbrush. "Let's have a girls only prayer and sharing night." There's always that tone to it, isn't there - let's share our problems and concerns. Shivers down my spine, could we go to a men's only prayer night instead? I can't deal with so many emotions. I'd honestly rather dress up as a man for the rest of my life and go to one of those than endure this gooey candle-lit sharing let's-hold-hands and discuss-our-biggest-problems-as-we-cry-our-eyes-out nights. 

BUT

It turns out that women of God are actually absolutely amazing. While I still do not see myself enjoying a women's conference (seriously, been there, bork) and I would choose to listen to male preachers rather than female ones, women are awesome. God's people, no matter the gender, the race, the age, the status, the disability, the what ever, can do amazing things when we want to. The reason why this 'women stuff' bothers me so much, is because it always seems to be set in a tone where women actually feel inferior and it takes a lot of guts for them to organise some God things without men's permission. Like super quietly and timidly and ugh, emotionally, we just gather ourselves together for prayer, not like men. Men announce it from like the radio and all corners of the earth, WE ARE HAVING A "FREE WILLY" / SAUNA / PRAYER NIGHT, EVERYONE COME, UNLESS YOU'RE A WOMAN, BRING BEER!!! Girls are like... well we are having a prayer and sharing night, if everyone could bake something or bring a snack, that would be great. We can do great things and great things might come out of those quiet little evenings, but I think we need to change our attitude towards ourselves. (I couldn't sound more like a feminist if I tried..) Seriously though, what originally inspired this post was Tina who really rallied me to pray with her for her husband to become a Christian. And you know what, I was really fired up, I said OF COURSE and I got straight down to business, I prayed for him and her and I was absolutely positive that he will become a Christian in no time. I am still positive that he can become a Christian, but the original excitement to make sure it happens, is gone somewhere. But soon after Tina asked me to pray, Kinna told me her amazing story about how her and Vicky met that girl and I was like woooooooooowwwwwww that's amazing. And I still think that's amazing. I KNOW that girls, women of God, have been called to do great things, I just think that we too often think we're not good enough. For what ever reason, or, more often, for no reason at all. Let's take pride in the fact that we are women that God is using and let's just let him use us in the ways we know he can. 

I have to start with myself and start believing in my amazing God, but if you think there's anything that's stopping you from healing the sick or getting someone to church, say get lost devil and get cracking. Right? 

By the way - I absolutely don't mind these girls' evenings, actually. Especially with the select bunch that is reading my blog, can't wait for the next one! :) 

Oh nooooo

So, this thing happened where I had a cool blog post idea and I was really excited about the topic and I even wrote the title and saved the draft and said I will write it very very soon and then.... I didn't ... and now I've lost the excitement over that topic...

So.. to be continued. I will write it, but I have to get excited about it again.

Bye!

Walking with Jesus

I was on a walk today. I figured that aimless walking can be fun, but annoying so I decided to try and see if I can manage to walk from home to Thorntree church by memory. I've been driven there many times, but never have I walked there before. So I set off and walked and along the way some places looked super familiar and I knew where to go, but some places left me doubtful... should I go straight or should I turn left. So I went by my gut feeling and did what I thought was right and turned left (I was right). But as I was walking down that road and was almost convinced I was going the right way I had moments of doubt when the road or the surrounding buildings didn't really ring a bell so I was doubtful whether or not I'd made the right decision. I contemplated turning back, but then decided to trust the instinct and keep going (I was right). And as I had those thoughts on that walk, I thought that this might be very similar to my faith journey. I'll be on my way, convinced that I'm on the right path, making decisions abut where to go next and even though I'm pretty sure I'm going where Jesus has told me to go, I'm full of doubt as soon as the first stumbling block comes on my path. As soon as there's something unfamiliar that I wasn't expecting, I say, 'ummmm Jesus...? Are you suuuure that's where I'm supposed to be going??' And He just pats me on the back and says 'trust me, honey, you'll get there soon, just keep going.' So I keep going... :)

Psalm 63:3

"Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you!"

If I had the choice between living and loving God - the obvious better choice for a regular person would be living. But for a Christian, it's not that, is it? If I got to live, but couldn't be with God and would be separated from His love, my life might still be awesome, but utterly meaningless.

If anyone ever came up to me and pointed a gun at my head and said "Jesus or life?", I pray that I would have the courage and the conviction to say JESUS any time of day.

Jesus totally won that one already! :D

Silencio

So this is what Liisu as a blogger has always been like - post post post SILENCE ......................... and one more post, saying that I'll post something else soon and then silence. That's just how I roll and there's nothing I can do about it, really. You can't hold this against me. You can't. Well, you can. But don't. Or do, I don't mind. Oh well. 

What has Liisu been thinking about lately (third person, yepyepyep!)...? 

Liisu is happy. I am happy and it's because everything around me is wonderful. The weather is super, the people are super, the events so far have been super and just... Jesus is super. That's news to no one here reading these words (right, Kinna, Jo, Siku and Krissu? :D ).

I also have had some thoughts to scare myself. Because what is life if it isn't at least a little bit scary - and I mean scary in a good way, if that can be possible - scary in the sense that I don't know what life is going to be like, and there's really no way to know what life is going to be like, except if I keep on living and seeing what it's like. I mean next week, I mean the summer, I mean this autumn and I mean the rest of my life. It's scary, isn't it? But still - good scary!

I wish saying "God knows" and "just trust God" would make everything super easy, but I'm still learning how to do that, so that, too, is in the scary part of life. 

Anywhoooo. 

I have to go - last day at work, I can't be blogging it away ;)

Matthew 5:33-37

³³ You know that God expects us to abide by the oaths we swear and the promises we make. ³⁴ But I tell you this: do not ever swear an oath. What is an oath? You cannot say, “I swear by heaven”—for heaven is not yours to swear by; it is God’s throne. ³⁵ And you cannot say, “I swear by this good earth,” for the earth is not yours to swear by; it is God’s footstool. And you cannot say, “I swear by the holy city Jerusalem,” for it is not yours to swear by; it is the city of God, the capitalof the King of kings. ³⁶ You cannot even say that you swear by your own head, for God has dominion over your hands, your lips, your head. It is He who determines if your hair be straight or curly, white or black; it is He who rules over even this small scrap of creation. ³⁷ You need not swear an oath—any impulse to do so is of evil. Simply let your “yes” be “yes,” and let your “no” be “no.”

Da Finger

We have an interesting painting hanging in the university where I work.

I have walked past it probably close to a million times. 

The first few times I saw it, I thought that it was quite offensive. 

Then I saw it as a bit funny. 

Today was the first time when I looked at it and thought... hey, this is actually quite truthful. And that made me sad. Also, it made me climb back down some stairs to take this picture. 

But isn't this true... God is reaching down, trying and wanting, longing even, to get in contact with His children. Us. And all most of us do is flip Him the finger and say 'Get lost, God, I got this...' 

When I thought about this, I was initially grateful that I'm not one of those finger flippers. 

Then I thought... Maybe that's exactly what I am. Perhaps even worse... maybe I'm the "teaser". I stretch out my hand and right before I get close enough to almost touch, I pull back and tell God to get lost and mind His own business. 

That's... dumb.

To be somebody is longing for God

-above everything else

Longing for God is not longing for an experience

It is longing for a true relationship

It is not about having some knowledge of God

But it is about knowing him

-as a person

-as a friend

-as a confidant

-as a companion

Not to become high on him

But to be conformed to his image

Not to learn more, to increase knowledge

But to love him more

I am somebody when I realise

-I am created to be a God-lover

I am somebody when the very purpose of my life

-is to love God

I am somebody when I am longing for God

-only because of love.

Ah, I don't know... this is one of those times when I have a thought... and when I try to write it down, it becomes a confusing pile of... shtuff.

That's all.