Jeff Lucas is funny. FACT

Tonight by random choice my friend, Lee-Anne, and I ended up going to CFC's service and when we got there discovered it was the end of some weekend conference and the place was bunged. I'll be honest and say that I was just like "oh lee-anne it'll go on forever let's just go get a coffee!" I am glad that she wasn't listening because when we got a seat and the guy started talking he said that Jeff Lucas was speaking. Now at first I was like, that's funny coz mum and dad have books that I have read by a guy with the same name, and his books are hilarious but it won't be him. Someone who writes BOOKS doesn't come to church in Belfast, why that would be ridiculous! So much to my surprise and delight, it was the actual Jeff Lucas!

One word. Hilarious.

.....or Gifted, that could be another one. Either way I was captivated by him speaking from the very start. I even took notes! I haven't  taken notes during a talk in a long time. Just thought I'd share what I got from it.

People are often led to believe that the will of God is going to be something you don't want to do......I guess people are thinking well there was Jonah, he didn't want to go to Nineveh where God wanted him to go and look what happened. This is not true at all! We need to unlearn the bad ideas of God. His will is not necessarily going to be all the stuff we don't want to do! In fact, when we ponder and pray over things we learn about what God does want and wills for us to do. We are allowed to like God's will for us! To be fair He can give us a choice, ie free will, and He will use us whatever choice we make and providing we pray about it, we hopefully go in the direction he wants us to go. For example, He will bring people into our lives perhaps unexpectedly, answer our prayers and reveal His will for our lives. Trust me, I know that one. Prayer puts a shield of divine protection around us, so providing we pray we are less likely to be tempted in the wrong direction.

Anyway so Jeff was talking about Abraham and about how if you look in the book of Hebrews chapter 11, there is no mention of Abraham being remembered for the one who made mistakes. We should not define ourselves by our mistakes then we just get caught up on looking back instead of looking ahead. You are never going to get anywhere in life if you keep thinking to yourself  "I have fallen down, and I can't get back up." Change your motto if that's what you think!
Jeff made 5 points about God's generosity from Abraham's story:
1) God gives Himself to us  Whereever your life takes you, God is with you on the journey and He will be there regardless of the outcome
2) God wants to bless us - We need to ask him and believe that He can still do the humanly impossible because we know He is mighty and if we have the faith, all things are possible.
3) God gives us the blessing of character
4) God makes us a blessing - we should therefore go and be "fixers" and not consumers just taking everything but  instead take the blessing and share it in our community and the world
5) God gives us grace for the journey - God doesn't taunt us with our failures but celebrates the good things that have happened.

Of course, the above points were all illustrated wonderfully with hilarious stories. If you have never read any of Jeff's books I would highly recommend you do and you'll see his humour.
Afterwards Lee-Anne and I were talking and I had been telling her about some stuff I'd been thinking about and had happened in the past and still concerned me. She read this quote from Helen Keller to me "When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us"
 "STOP LOOKING AT THE CLOSED DOOR! Focus on the open door that is giving you the happiness, this door has opened to you for a reason" said Lee-Anne. She is right and I am thankful for friends who can remind me of that and keep me accountable.

Anyway, that is all. I just wanted to write it all down from tonight because I really enjoyed it and if you are reading this, I hope you got something from it. I love talking about God stuff mainly because I love God. I should do it more often with those whom I don't talk about it often enough with.

Jeff Lucas is my friend on Facebook now. I feel quite cool to have such a funny friend. Enough from me,

Night all

Quelle Surprise!

The subject for today is....

Surprises.

Good or bad?

Well that all depends really because people may see the same surprise in an opposite way. Like emmm for example, someone surprising you by jumping out from behind the curtains with a long-lost relative you've not seen in YEARS. Good for some because they really wanted to see that person. Bad for others because now they think "what the crap am I meant to say to them.....*sits in awkward silence*"

I myself like surprises. Which is weird because I've been brought up in an environment where surprises aren't really the done thing, except for Dad's surprise 60th party but that was different because my mum was the one organising it. My mum HATES surprises. Hence why Dad doesn't ever create them. Therefore when seeing them in movies or hearing of other people's stories I find surprises to be a lovely thing. I surprised one of my best friends once by jumping out from behind the sofa when she thought I was staying in America for Christmas. She screamed and then burst into tears. It was an amazing feeling to make someone cry, and by cry I mean cry tears of happiness. It was a moment that the two of us will never forget because I couldn't stop laughing as she cried on.
I miss moments like that whether they are my surprises or being surprised. I like the feeling of knowing that just by doing even a little something for someone else, it can really brighten their day. For that reason, I am going to make an aim for this week. And that aim is to surprise someone......hmmm thinking cap on....


That is all.

p.s. Mumford and Sons are rocking my eardrums at the moment. Their song The Cave is deep and meaningful. I love it. Check it out.

I am so smart, s-m-r-t....I mean s-m-A-r-t

....Homer Simpson quotes are some of the most hilarious around that I've read recently! Another one was: "Dear Homer, IOU one emergency donut. Signed Homer. Bastard! He's always one step ahead..."

Life thoughts

This week I managed to get my photography exam and all my coursework finished and it is funny how when you are so focused on completing something you actually don't think about the world around you. It was only on Wednesday night after I had handed everything in, and felt good about it, did I think I'd love to share this stress-free time and moment of joy with someone but of course no-one is ever available last minute, except Mr Tesco and his aisle of sweets....

So the following night I had decided that it was my chance to escape the house and finally get to the cinema (still need to see Ironman 2 flip sake) and Dawn chose for us to see The Back-Up Plan. This movie was pretty good, I tend to like most Rom Com's with Jennifer Lopez in them mainly because she always chooses a co-star who is pretty easy on the eye. The only thing that bugged me about the movie was that when J-Lo was in labour she decided she needed to go back to her Ex and tell him that she loved him and wanted him back after just breaking his heart a few months before. She broke this guys heart, she wasn't even having his babies but he STILL took her back.... fair play to him, that guy has guts and I'm sure there'd be very few men out there who would accept the offer of a crazy woman in labour yelling at him in the middle of the street with many passers-by watching. Pretty unrealistic I thought.

This movie however did inspire me. I needed a back-up plan, what to do if life didn't quite work out how I expected it to. I now have a back-up plan. Happy days.

Spiritual thoughts

I found this devotional this week and it has made me think a lot about a lot of things.. ...DO THE HARD WORK OF GETTING ALONG WITH EACH OTHER... JAMES 3:18

If you are serious about building great relationships, do the following. 1) Put others first. Listen: 'Serve [others] wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men' (Ephesians 6:7 NIV). If you take that mindset into all your dealings with others, you cannot go wrong. 2) Do not carry emotional baggage. If someone has hurt you and you need to address it, do so right away. Forgive them, resolve it and get beyond it. If it is not worth bringing up, forget it and move on. 3) Invest in your most valuable relationships. Do not give away your time on a first-come-first-served basis. Do not let the squeaky wheels take so much that you have nothing left for those who matter most. 4) Serve others gladly. One airline executive explained how difficult it is to hire and train people for his industry: 'Service is the only thing we have to sell, but it's the toughest thing to teach because nobody wants to be thought of as a servant.' 5) Constantly express your appreciation. Tell your loved ones how much you love them - and do it often! Too many of us think that the best way to help people is to criticise them or give them 'the benefit of our wisdom.' Wrong! The best way to help others is to see the best in them. Practice the 101 percent principle: look for one thing to admire, then give them 100 percent encouragement for it. That will help you to like them, and them to like you. What could be better for a relationship?

There's a lot to be learnt from this. It's actually doing it that is the hardest part.

I will try.