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Showing posts from August, 2011

Being a Woman - Who Sits at Jesus Feet

Mary and Martha are two well known women in the Bible.  Martha is known for being too busy and Mary is known as the sister who pleased Jesus. In today’s busy world, most of us fall into the Martha category, so I thought it would be good to find a way to be more like Mary. Luke 10:38-42 Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His word. But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.”  And Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.” Like Martha, I am sure many of us welcome Jesus into our house and into our life. I am sure too, that few of us simply

Free to Forgive

My Friend’s Story I got married young and had the usual fairy tale notion of marriage in my head of skipping away together into the sunset and living happily ever after. The man I married, Jason, had a son from a previous relationship, which was a bit of a thorn in my flesh as he obviously kept in contact with his son’s mother and it didn’t help that his ex was not over him and used their child fully to her advantage. There was nothing I could do about it however, my husband assured me that he loved me and would never cheat on me so there was pretty much nothing I could do.  I became pregnant and life was going rather well. Rumours started to circulate about my husband being unfaithful to me with his ex. Of course he denied it. By now I was paranoid about him picking up or dropping off his son. We had fights for months about this issue. I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. The rumours didn’t stop. And by this point the rumour was that his ex had had another baby – his baby.

Being a Woman - Who is Silent

I can’t tell you how much I DIDN’T want to write this section! What, me silent! Um.... I don’t think so. Yet, the prompting of the Holy Spirit wouldn’t go away so here I am writing about one of the things that I struggle with the most – being silent. I have mentioned before that I deeply desire to have a quiet and gentle spirit because this is pleasing to God . In fact, if it is precious to God then it is definitely something that I want. And so in my quest to cultivate this quiet and gentle spirit, I came across other verses in the Bible that mentions the importance of a woman being silent. The best way to begin this theme is to look at the antonym of silent, which is noisy. Noisy can also mean boisterous, unrestrained, noisy or talkative. Let us take it one step further, noisy can also mean loud, ear-splitting or deafening. Now picture a woman who tends to be ‘noisy’. Consider all these words and picture her. I know women like this; I can even be a woman like this at

God Said:

Dear Father God, I am so sorry to cause you pain I didn't mean to let you down again I hoped to be more than this and to glorify your name No matter how hard I try and do No matter how I let go and rest in You No matter how I strive, I can't seem to push through You are God, amazing, awesome You are truly the strong and mighty one You rescued me, saved me through your precious Son Please forgive me this day Please show me how to live Your way Please lead me and help me not to go astray God said, "My precious child You please me more than you know I will never, ever let you go In the good times and the bad I will always be your loving dad Never will I give up on you I know you are going to pull through Stay strong my little doe Hold on tight, don't let Me go I promise we will stay together each day, now and forever I love you with all my heart I always did, right from the start Now get up, dust off and try again Today was hard but not

Ethical Shopping

After being totally inspired by Anna's recent posts on Ethical Fashion and Jazmine's story , I hit the charity shops to do some 'ethical shopping'!  I tried of loads of dresses as I really need something summery for the last bit of summer.  Nothing really suited me but I found one skirt and one top which I absolutely love! Fun floral skirt from Sue Ryder , Winchcombe, £4.95 with strap top from Tesco, £3 White top from Sue Ryder, £1.25. I mixed the white top with a cream top I already had so that I covered any cleavage that might have shown, to make sure the outfit was modest . Photos by Lorah-Kelly with thanks. And then, much to my delight, I discovered that my favourite cardigan matched the colours of my new skirt perfectly!  All in all a really fun day of shopping and playing with clothes while keeping it totally ethical :)  So how about you? Do you want to share your finds?  Send me an email with the photos, price and a little bit of

Jazmine Rocks

I have been TOTALLY inspired by Jazmine Rocks, a nineteen year old art student and charity shop volunteer from London.  Actually, I knew Jazmine and her mum, Barrina, from quite some time ago when she was still a little girl having sleep overs at our home with Lorah !  I am so proud of the woman she has become and am totally inspired by what she is doing with her life!   Jazmine loves second hand shopping, in fact she has taken something that many people turn their noses up at, and turned it into something quite trendy!  I was never sure about the whole charity shopping thing but since discovering what Jazmine is doing I have become a fan.  Today I plan to hit the charity shops and see what I can see and I hope I can put a decent outfit together as well as Jazmine does.  This is a fantastic part of our Wardrobe Tips series and fits in really nicely with our Ethical Fashion convictions too.  If you have done any ethical shopping lately or put together a nice outfit from the charity

Free from Fear

I had an interesting conversation with a friend at church a while ago. She said that she longed to be free from fear. I asked her what she feared and she said, “Everything!” Her answer took me by surprise as it was so honest and so real. It was then that I realised that most people live in fear of just about everything. They fear not having enough money, they fear illness, they fears germs, public toilets, strange people, disabled people, homosexuals, public speaking, dying, flying, failure, intimacy, rejection, spiders, dogs, dentists, snakes, being alone, being in crowds and a long list of all sorts of other things! Fear seems to define us in many ways and determines how we live our lives.  Where did it all begin? It began where most things began, in the Garden of Eden. The very first account of fear was after Adam and Eve sinned. It says that God came to walk with them as He usually did but when God couldn’t find them, He called to them. Adam replied, “I heard Your voice

The Blessing

Every human needs the gift of "the blessing"—the unconditional love and approval that comes from a healthy relationship with one's parents. So many of us don't even realise that we have missed out on one of God's greatest gifts to us.  The blessing is a life changing book that will help you deal with the lack of blessing in your past, help you gain a new perspective on how God views you which will help you to give the blessing to your loved ones.   I have found this book tremendously practical both in how it communicates the blessing and also in giving ideas for how we can apply the blessing to our life.  If everything that is suggested in this book is applied then I am sure that your life will be dramatically changed, especially in families where words are used without any thought or purpose.  I found myself looking back over my childhood and considered both the positive and negatives that were spoken over me, I was greatly encouraged by what I saw and have fo

Random Thought on Church Unity

Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 'Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labour: If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up.' I have had this silly thought running around my head for ages but am not sure if it is even a remote possibility! What if a group of churches got together, agreed on each churches strength and weakness, and supported each other based on that. We could do more than we can all do on our own by trying to be good at everything all the time? Perhaps that didn't make sense, here are some examples? If a particular church is strong in leadership training and another in women's ministry and another in music, then all of the churches involved would agree to support the strength of the other church. If your church had leadership classes and a leadership conference and our church wasn't strong in this area then we would send our people to yo

Ethical Fashion II

Hi girls, In my previous blog , I wanted to highlight just a few of the issues involved in ‘ethical fashion’. This time I want to make some suggestions of how we can find clothes that won’t have caused suffering or death to the people who make them. So here goes: Plan your wardrobe (more on this in the next blog ). Be aware that retailers do take notice of YOU. Every £ spent is a vote cast for a particular way of production. Retailers look at sales figures and ask if people cared about conditions of production, would they keep buying these items. So tell them and show them you do care. According to Katharine Hamnett, we really do have influence. She recommends that you write to shops you like and ask them about their ethical policies, tell them where you stand and how you will not be able to continue shopping at their stores if you don’t see them caring about workers and the planet. She says they will definitely listen and take notice the more they are challenged. Resea

Brand New

Here is a little sneak preview of our new album, In The Stillness , listen to track one -  Brand New  

Being a Woman - Who is Spirit Filled

We were chatting about how tough Christian life can be at times. Girl’s Nights had been very insightful for all of us but the challenges have also made life a bit difficult at times. Tamara looked across the table at me thoughtfully and said with a pained expression on her face, “So you are saying that it doesn’t get any easier? Why does everything seem so hard all the time? I thought becoming a Christian would make things better but I still have this weight on me. No matter how hard I try and no matter what I do, it just won’t go away.” She looked around the table at us girls with what I perceived to be the question, “You’ve got to be joking! I can’t possibly endure any more than I already am!” I sensed her desperation and I knew that she had been working really hard on all the challenges that have come her way since she had become a Christian. I have never know anyone to be so passionate about doing things God’s way and every time she had learned something about God’s way

Ethical Fashion

Hi girls, I’m back for another guest wardrobe tips blog and this time I wanted to highlight a subject that I think is very important to us as King’s daughters: ‘ethical fashion’. When I say to you… “I don’t want people to suffer or die to produce clothes for me to wear” …perhaps it sounds like I’m just trying to shock you and get your attention. But the awful thing is that although we don’t know it, that’s exactly what we’re responsible for when we buy a lot of the clothes that are for sale today. The reality is that much of what we wear is made by women in ‘sweat shops’. This means they work in unsafe conditions with no proper toilet facilites in oppressive temperatures. They are often sexually assaulted, forced to have abortions and take contraceptives and abused and threatened by managers. They work for long hours, get low pay (not enough for proper food), are not allowed to join a union or any organisation that would represent their interests, have no career development an

Being a Woman - Who Dresses Modestly

I have recently been doing a series on wardrobe tips , to help us girls get the most out of our clothing.  It's had been a lot of fun looking into this and there is much more to come from both Anna and I and hopefully some other lovely ladies from the fashion world too.  The Wheelie Case has also been doing the rounds and we have been having loads of fun with that too.  Dressing up is fun and so is finding our personal style - we are girls and we love to play around with clothes and makeup. There is nothing wrong with feeling beautiful in your own skin and in the clothes you wear. What is not healthy though is when we get our identity from what we wear.  Clothes should not define us at all.   1 Timothy 2:9-10 In like manner also, that the women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with propriety and moderation, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly clothing, but, which is proper for women professing godliness, with good works. Braided hair, or gold or pearls ref