The Face of our Heart

“For they have turned their back to Me, and not their face.”(Jeremiah 2:27b) I pondered this verse over the past week in the prayer room. I can’t seem to get past it. It keeps drawing me back, like a magnet. It’s gripping my heart, tightly. It’s threatening to shatter that dark corner of my heart…

The Monastery is Burning

I am always drawn to anything that mentions monasteries. I read about them in the writings of Christians throughout the centuries and have a special love and admiration for these mysteriously beautiful places. The beautiful mystery of a monastery, where God divinely gathers a community of people who voluntarily come to live simply and uncelebrated,…

The Unfolding of the Snail’s Journey

Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains.(James 5:7) Do you ever feel like your idea of timing and seasons and God's idea of timing and seasons are…

The Intoxication of God Within a Human Body

[Disclaimer: This is a very vulnerable, raw, honest piece of writing. I am compelled to share this. I am not sharing this to boast or defend myself or get any recognition. I share simply to invite you into the realm of personally encountering God, believing that this is our inheritance.] I am currently writing this…

Speaking to the Around the World DTS on “The Cross”

I’m writing from my home in Tauranga once again. I had the smoothest flight back from Christchurch to Tauranga last Friday night, only to find out upon my arrival, that Japan had been hit by a huge earthquake and tsunami around the time I was flying. So surreal, how we can have smooth sailing on…

Strong Love has Captured a Weak Heart

I sit here late at night, back in the little town of Oxford, here on the south island of New Zealand, as the rain pounds upon the roof of my little guest home. It has been about one year since I first left this town that I love, to venture up to the north island,…

Christchurch Earthquake Update

To my concerned friends and family, Yesterday, Tuesday 22nd February 2011, at 12:51pm, Christchurch was hit with a 6.3 magnitude earthquake. The epicentre was just 10km south of the city in the town of Lyttelton, and was only 5km in depth, so it was shallower and felt with much more severity on the surface. Many…

The Labour Pains of Life

I was reading a friend's blog the other day as she shared of some painful experiences she was walking through. You know when something just pierces your heart and you finally UNDERSTAND? You GET sudden clarity as if you could hold onto it with your own two hands? She wrote with such beautiful clarity what…

Learning the Rhythm of Patience

My lovely mother sent me this advent devotional in the mail over the Christmas holiday. Learning the rhythm of patience has more often been a very bumpy road for me, filled with many impatient gusts forward, only to hit a wall, having to then fall back in step (reluctantly) with the rhythm of "the patient…

Are You Sure, God?

For the next year, I will be doing a deep study of the book of Isaiah. I am calling it 'One Year with Isaiah'. My heart's desire for this year has many sides to it, but the key goals are: To discover the promise of the Person of Christ, To deeply consume the promises of…