I'll Choose To Sing

Who can hold the stars And my weary heart? Who can see everything? Whatever's in front of me Help me to sing hallelujah Whatever's in front of me I'll choose to sing hallelujah The same sun that Rises over castles And welcomes the day Spills over buildings Into the streets Where orphans play And only you can see the good In broken things You took my heart of stone And you made it home And set this prisoner free - Bethany Dillon. Deliver me out of the sadness Deliver me from all the madness Deliver me courage to guide me Deliver me Your strength inside me CHORUS: All of my life I've been in hiding Wishing there was someone just like You Now that You're here Now that I've found You I know that You're the One to pull me through Deliver me loving and caring Deliver me giving and sharing Deliver me this cross that I'm bearing Oh, deliver me Jesus, Jesus how I trust You How I've proved You o'er and o'er Jesus, Jesus precious Jesus Deliver me Come and pull me through Come pull me through

Come and See

Come and see the Rock that has withstood the winds of time. Come and see the flame that tyrants and despots have not extinguished. Come and see the passion that oppression has not squelched. Come and see the hospitals and the orphanages rising beside the crumbling ruins of humanism and atheism. Come and see the great drama threading through twenty centuries of history and art. Come and see the changed lives, the alcoholic now dry, now embittered soul now joyful, the shamed now forgiven. Come and see the marriages rebuilt, the orphans embraced, the imprisoned inspired. Journey into the jungles and hear the drums beating in praise. Sneak into the corners of Communism and find believers worshiping under threat of death. Walk of death row and witness the prisoner condemned by man and yet liberated by God. Venture into the gulags and dungeons of this world and hear the songs of the saved refusing to be silent. Come and see the pieced hand of God touch the most common heart, wipe the tear from the wrinkled face and forgive the ugliest sin. Come and see the tomb, the tomb once occupied, now vacant; the grave once sealed, now empty. Come and see! He avoids no seeker, he ignores no probe, he fears no search. Come and see. - Excerpt from Wayne's sermon a couple of weeks ago.

Advent

O Holy Night! the stars are brightly shining It is the night of the dear Savior's birth Long lay the world in sin and error pining Till He appeared and the Spirit felt its worth A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn Fall on your knees Oh hear the angel voices O night divine the night when Christ was born O night O Holy Night O night divine O night O Holy Night O night divine Led by the light of faith serenely beaming, With glowing hearts by His cradle we stand. O'er the world a star is sweetly gleaming, Now come the wisemen from out of the Orient land. The King of kings lay thus lowly manger; In all our trials born to be our friends. He knows our need, our weakness is no stranger, Behold your King! Before him lowly bend! Behold your King! Before him lowly bend! Truly He taught us to love one another, His law is love and His gospel is peace. Chains he shall break, for the slave is our brother. And in his name all oppression shall cease. Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we, With all our hearts we praise His holy name. Christ is the Lord! Then ever, ever praise we, His power and glory ever more proclaim! His power and glory ever more proclaim!

A moment to catch up and catch my breath!

First of all, I've been tagged by Emily (this happened a wee while ago, so I'm going to go ahead and do this before I forget, then move on to other things in the same post - is that ok?!) which means that I get to tell you 7 random things about me. 1. Since moving away from home 5 years ago, I have had 13 official flatmates and 6 homes. 2. One of my favorite things to do is walk. Besides the exercise, I find it to be relaxing and a great time to think things through and process recent information, pray through things and just have "alone time". 3. My memory is pretty terrible. 4. I love lists. I could make lists of things to do and things I like and things I want to do before I die and things I remember about being five (due to number 4, this list is not usually very long), and lists of places I have been and lists of countries I want to visit... all day long! 5. I enjoy brushing my teeth and clipping my nails. These things feel fantastic. 6. As much as I love Christmas and like to have all things Christmas set apart for that season, I adore Christmas lights all year round. 7. When it comes to the thought of growing up, I am scared, impatient and excited at the same time. All of these I feel equally and it makes for a strange balance. OK. Onto the next thing! The past couple of weeks have been a bit of an emotional roller coaster. Two weeks ago, I was offered a job in a special needs school as a learning assistant, which I will start once all police/reference/health checks are carried out. What an answer to prayer - this is the exact job I have been hoping and praying for. As much as I have enjoyed the time and freedom being unemployed has given me, it is a relief to see some form of stable income in the near future. This happened the day after Derek graduated from his masters. Aren't we a clever pair? Yeah, I know, thanks! So that was a very up week. All this happened while Derek's parents and sister were visiting too, which was a lot of fun. This past week, Derek found out that his post study work visa has been denied. There are options. Two of them really that he is considering, but both of those will affect a lot of people - some very directly and concretely, like his flatmate, the cafe (where he works), his family, and myself. Others not quite so noticeably but still will affect them to a degree, like the other ministries he's involved in, his home group, the young writers group he writes with and all the people who know him in Edinburgh. It's been a very emotional week for me, in large part because of this. A trip home for the holidays has come at a fantastic time. It's given me the chance to rest (I've caught up on a lot of sleep), think things through and have lots of non-rushed time reading the Bible and other books I've been meaning to read for ages - better get them finished before Christmas when I'll more than likely get given new ones!

Jesus, I my cross have taken

This song is one we have sung in church a few times recently. It is one that takes guts to sing and really mean, but is so beautiful and shows us where we need to get to be living totally and utterly for God, that this would sincerely be the cry of our hearts.