Deeper Than Music

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It's a Friday morning, a much-needed day off, and I would love to be told: "Open your eyes, it's the weekend, and great things are going to happen". But unless I scroll endlessly through Facebook memes and 'cute text quotes' to find my motivation, there's very little chance someone is going to know exactly what I want to hear. Except... this Friday I woke up with a song in my head: 
'Wake up it's a beautiful morning, the sun shining for your eyes... so wake up boo, there's so many things for us to do, things that we can do-o-o'
Surely, in other words, I'm waking up hearing 'open your eyes, it's the weekend, great things are going to happen' and more than that... 'it's a beautiful day for doing things together!' So recently I stumbled across this new way that God likes to communicate with me! And it's a way that I love; He definitely knows how to talk to me during the day when I'm tired and just not up for conversation. And He talks (sings) to me in a way I love to listen.

Image Source: Quote Fancy

M U S I C The thing with these moments is that they can't be forced. A song just pops into my head and then I notice it. A couple of weeks ago, I was hearing...
'Girl put your love on me, and I won't let you down, and we will be singing'
 ...over and over and over again in my head until I noticed the lyrics. It was in the lyrics that I could take this message even deeper. Deeper than the music. A quick Google search of the Bible led me to these words 'Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you' and 'the Lord your God is with you... He... Rejoice(s) over you with singing'. So, it's biblically sound - If I put my love on God, He won't let me down and He loves to sing with me. So I can forget these fancy words like 'forsake' and 'rejoice' and remember God's promise to a catchy tune: 'Girl put your love on me, and I won't let you down, and we will be singing'. So maybe your thing isn't music, maybe it's TV, art, or nature. Seek motivation in those things because they're in your language, you notice them every day naturally. As a tree goes through seasons, so do we - sometimes we need to let go of our leaves and after that we blossom. As a paint brush splashes colour onto a blank canvas, so can we - splashing colour into the lives of people who feel bare and empty. If TV is your thing, find motivation in those scenes you love! 

Image Source: Pinterest

Find your thing and explore it! Discover what keeps you going, what motivates you, and what your language is! If you want to hear from God, ask Him to reveal things to you in your own language, and then forget about it! Things will just pop out at you in the middle of your weekly shop, during your drive to work, or any other time of day (or night). Roll with it and enjoy the ride. Okay, that's me done rambling for today...
"You are the music in me... To hear your voice, above the noise, and no, I'm not alone. Oh, you're singing to me"
Amy xo
(Who doesn't love a Disney finish!)

What Do You Call An Alligator In A Vest?

An Investigator. Children were born to wonder, to discover, and to be passionate.

w o n d e r,   d i s c o v e r y   a n d   p a s s i o n. What are the children you are ministering to going to give their heart to? When they walk away, what do you want to be in them? When Jesus was asked: Of all the commandments, which is the greatest? He answered: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. He then added: Love your neighbour as yourself. Everything is pointing to loving God and loving others, and understanding enough to have a known identity in Christ. Lead with an end in mind. That children will... Have a relationship with God. Love others. Know their identity in Christ.  Wonder

Wonder aids faith in a God that can't be seen. A God who is bigger than anything we can face. He is uncontainable. Allow children to know how big He is and how much they can trust Him, without putting Him into an explainable box.

Wonder - Bethel Music Discovery

Treasure hunt. Children discovering who God is and how He is relevant to them and knowing who they are in Him. Investigating.

Good, Good Father - HouseFiresII Passion

Links with purpose. They know who they are, what they can do with God and now they want to find purpose in making a difference in the lives of others.

Going On A Journey - Vineyard Records There is some style of formula that goes with this. A different combination of wonder, discovery, and passion for each age group. Pre-schoolers: Wonder.  They need to know that God loves them and wants to be their friend. They need to know that they are significant and that God has a plan for them. Children's ministry: Turn up discovery and add a bit of passion.  Primary school aged children are discovering for the first time what it means to be a Christian through studying stories in the Bible. They are searching deeper for a relationship with God from the wonder they've had since they were small. They are exploring their identity, and we want that identity to be in Christ. Student ministry: Turn up the passion. Enabling students to discover their own gifts helps them to grasp their passion to serve and help others. Students won't feel significant unless they have something significant to do: becoming involved in the lives of others, not just knowing the Bible stories well. Everybody is going to give their hearts to something. If we don't establish giving their hearts to serving Jesus then they will give their hearts to something else. We can strive to encourage Jesus-centred worship.  Everyone is searching for a hero. Children and adults alike. That hero is Jesus, the creator. We long to know our creator and, as a human race, we find earthly heroes to step in. These earthly heroes don't even begin to satisfy our hunger for Jesus. Read more here. We're wired for adventure. It is up to us as leaders, to look to scripture and God's principles to help children discover their identity in Christ, instead of searching for it in other adventures. Lots of people believe:

But the bible says:

We long for romance.

The key to satisfying a longing for romance is a relationship with God. Once we have a relationship with God then we have the capacity to love others. Wonder, discovery, and passion. When we have these leading our children's ministry we impact the message and the way we teach. When we see children moving in the right direction, not using a bounded model but a centred model, we know we're on the right track. Pushing every child and teenager to a similar destination: insight wonder provoke discovery fuel passion God the Father | Wonder God the Spirit | Invading Hearts - Discover God the Son | Give His Life For All People - We Should Do The Same Challenge: How much wonder, discovery, and passion is in your heart as a leader? Do the children see you pursuing the truth? Do they see your passion? Do they see you serve out of duty or relationship with God? Your relationship with God is linked to how you connect with the children in their lives. What about having a vision for each children's ministry age group in a church? What would your vision statements be? - Helps all ministries to know how they are working together - w o n d e r,   d i s c o v e r y   a n d   p a s s i o n. Podcast Information: OrangeBlog - Orange Leaders - Wonder Discovery Passion Amy xo

A little Disney always helps...

Of course Disney isn't my number one priority in life but helping to encourage and empower people comes high on my list. What better way to do this than with God and Disney?! Power couple right there.  The Bible tells us to become like children (see Matthew 18:3) and one sure way of doing this is with a sprinkle of Disney. So in true child-heart fashion, here are a few quotes for you. Some are not entirely Disney, but most are.

"Life doesn't give us purpose. We give life purpose." - The Flash (DC Universe) What does God say to purpose in our lives? Proverbs 16:9 hits the nail on the head with the fact that 'the heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps'. The Lord gives a purpose to those steps. Recently, in a worship service, Steffany Gretzinger exclaimed "you are most yourself when you are wrapped up in your purpose and not your position". We cannot forget Jeremiah 29:11, one of my favourite verses, because God knows the plans He has for us 'plans to prosper and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future'.

"I'm ready! I'm ready! I'm ready!" - Spongebob Squarepants. This can always be our cry in response to the next place in life that God is calling us to. We need to remember that these two words are spoken to us over 80 times in the Bible: FEAR NOT.

"Some people are worth melting for" - Olaf (Frozen). l.o.v.e. Love. To me, this is the most important thing about being a Christian. It was through love that we have received grace when Jesus died on the cross. He would certainly say you are worth melting for.

"The things that make me different are the things that make me" - Winnie the Pooh. You are unique, you are different. Through God you are not the same as anyone else, you are even different from the person you used to be before you knew God. That's a good thing. We were all made in God's image (Genesis 1:27) and we were all made to be different.

"I can't go back to yesterday - because I was a different person then" - Alice (Alice in Wonderland).

Like in the last quote, we are reminded that we are not the same as we used to be. Because of this we can be free. The lyrics that came to my head were ones that I heard at a Christian Youth Equipping Day in Watford not that long ago. "Oh no, nothing's gonna hold me back. No, nothing's gonna hold me back. No, nothing's gonna hold me back" - sung by Tom Smith. Some other encouraging lyrics that I'm reminded of are:

"I am chosen, I am free, I am living for eternity, free now forever. You washed me sin and shame away, the slate is clean, a brand new day, I'm yours now forever." - Tim Hughes (Holding Nothing Back), and "take the shackles off my feet so I can dance, I just wanna praise you, I just wanna praise you. You broke my chains" - Mary Mary (Shackles).

Alice felt lonely and isolated in an entirely new world which she wasn't used to and didn't fit into. The glorious truth of God's world is that everyone belongs there, no matter who they are today and who they were yesterday.

These are just a few of my interpretations. Below is the entire list of the 50 quotes which I found here.

Please comment or message me if you think you have any thoughts on these or others of the quotes!

I had a lot of fun writing this post for you all, I hope you enjoyed reading it.

I do not claim rights to any graphics or quotes.

These interpretations are just my opinion, I am open to other thoughts. 

God bless,

Where the Spirit of the Lord is...

'Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom' - 2 Corinthians 3:17 (NIV) Many people spend their time searching for some sense of freedom. Whether that is freedom from an old habit that dies hard, like saying like, like, way too many, like, times, or freedom from something more serious, such as domestic abuse, we all crave it. Even the celebrities among us can't hide their craving for freedom: From Ariana Grande's need to Break Free and Elsa's wish to Let It Go to Queen's Want To Break Free.   The one question that hovers closely in all of these songs and situations is 'How can I get that freedom?'. Does it come from 'running away'? Does it come from 'drowning your sorrows'? Does it come from 'allowing yourself to feel the pain'? All of these suggestions might well give you a sense of temporary release but they're far from being a permanent fix. What good does it do to run to no place in particular, drink with no intention of stopping, feel hurt for the sake of feeling hurt? There is an easy answer, a short term struggle might just be your road to a secure, free future: God. Jesus. Saviour. Awesome. Healer. Hope. Our one true route to freedom is God. We can't take all matters into our own hands, in fact despite how much human nature wills for us to fix things ourselves, God wants just the opposite: for us to rely fully on Him. F.R.O.G. Fully Rely On God. Every issue we face, 'every step [we] take', 'every move [we] make' God is watching us. All He is waiting for us to do is ask Him for help and after receiving His grace, thank Him! That's the hard part, the small struggle, to ask God for help and trust Him. Doesn't sound too bad? It's not, just remember that He loves you, take a deep breath and ask. I pray that each of you reading this will feel a sense of freedom. A feeling of flexibility and movement, a feeling of peace and understanding, a feeling of love. I was listening to a pastor of a local church preaching about the parable of the Good Samaritan recently, he gave me an insight into a new way, well new to me, of interpreting the story. He was explaining that the man laid on the floor, beaten and bruised represents our spiritual beings after The Fall. The priest who walks past represents the earthly 'men of God' who may seem as though they are the bridge to God on the outside but they may not be so on the inside. The second passer by, one who was supposed to be all about 'being nice to humankind', did exactly that and passed by. This represents the people who mean to do good in the world but how they fail to satisfy our every need, especially spiritually. The third man, the Samaritan, represents Jesus, a man who came to save us. The oil He poured over the beaten body represents a flow of the Holy Spirit and the wine: the Blood of Christ. When the Samaritan pays the inn keeper to look after the beaten man He says 'until I return' which is exactly what Jesus promised to do: return. Thanks to His death we can be free.

Forever - Kari Jobe The moon and stars they wept The morning sun was dead The saviour of the world was fallen His body on the cross His blood poured out for us The weight of every curse upon Him One final breath He gave As Heaven looked away The Son of God was laid in darkness A battle in the grave The war on death was waged The power of hell forever broken The ground began to shake The stone was rolled away His perfect love would not be overcome Now death where is your sting? Our resurrected King Has rendered you defeated Forever He is glorified Forever He is lifted high Forever His is risen He is alive, He is alive We sing Hallelujah, we sing Hallelujah We sing Hallelujah The Lamb has overcome