Poem: Her Face

This is a poem about girls whose insecurity causes them to cover themselves up with make-up. It's not a judgement on girls who wear make-up but it is a challenge to why make-up is worn and an encouragement for all of us to see ourselves as God does. Please enjoy and leave your comments. If you're a girl/woman I'd particularly like to hear your thoughts on this. I'm aware that I'm a guy and have no experience in the area and so all I have said, I say from my perspective as a man of God wanting to see young people live in the fulness and freedom of their identity.

Her Face

The very concept of make-up is a tragedy

An idea that in some ways can border on blasphemy
The audacity that we human beings think we can "make-up" for what we perceive to be God's mistakes is a fallacy.

In not all but some cases a compact mirror becomes a reflective prison for the true identity of the young woman.

She's locked in a cell staring at the ones on her face
Everyday the jailer opens the gates to paint her with insecurity before slamming them shut again.

Her foundation was once on Christ the Rock, who freely gave her grace when He bled for her and died

But now her foundation is on a dusty brush and it's manually applied.
On this foundation she builds a fortress, an impenetrable disguise
Her natural skin gives way to an outer wall of lies.

“Concealer” lacks the subtlety to require exposure making onlookers blind

While lipstick can do its job of sticking lips together to keep her from speaking her mind
No one cares that she doesn't know who she is as long as she can paint on a new face everyday and decide.
She sleeps at night hoping to keep the identity she stuck to her face
But the stained pillow of the morning-after brings her back to reality.

The role of the models on the TV is to make her wonder why she doesn't look as good as them.

"Maybe she's born with it, maybe she can develop it... maybe it's" ...maybe it's make-up!
Maybe it's something else but one thing's for sure, there's no self-esteem being sold at that shop.

She just wants someone to tell her she's pretty.

She met a girl who told her she once had the same desire

But she found a book that made her set her standards even higher
As she dropped the Compact she found this book was an Impact mirror, transforming the way she saw herself
Seeing through the flaming eyes of Deity her blemishes melted away in the intensity of His love
His purpose spun her perspective

He looked past the prison bars of her ma-scarred eyelashes and she came out to meet Him

A chokehold was broken along with the Alabaster
Face to face with her Creator for the first time in the pages of a book!
The staring contest continued on, the make-up bag? Forsook.

She still wears make-up to this day but there's nothing to hide

Her face now bears the outward grace of the beauty that is inside.

Poem: Yours for Mine

Your eyes, my mirror

Your words, my bread

Your love, my air

Your peace, my bed

Your voice, my music

Your side, my throne

Your hand, my shield

Your heart, my home

Your face, my treasure

Your Spirit, my breath

Your hope, my assurance

Your life, my death

Your joy, my strength

Your mission, my labour

Your image, my person

Your Son, my Saviour

Thank you Father for the words to love and thank you with.

Worship and Packed Lunches

     Been thinking a bit about corporate worship in church gatherings. I joined the worship team last year as a singer and have been on a pretty crazy and exciting journey exploring the dynamics of ministering to God and encountering Him through music in a corporate setting. I've noticed a few things and so I'll try to share them.

     I LOVE worshipping God and I love worshipping God with other people! I think there's something very powerful about worshipping God with others that goes way beyond the power of mass hysteria! (I've been in very small gatherings that were far more powerful than larger ones!) I think that there's real significance in the fact that we're doing it together. We could all just worship God at home by ourselves but instead we come together sometimes. I reckon we should all be more mindful of this as there must be a reason behind it beyond vain tradition. While I fully believe corporate worship is about God, I do think there is a factor of "us" in there as well. We are there after all! It just seems a bit odd to me sometimes when a load of people gather together but don't engage each other at all. We sing songs about Jesus and how great He is and what He's done for us but often we never even look at each other! Not all of our worship songs are directed towards God and so maybe sometimes it wouldn't be so weird to look at each other... Some might not like songs that aren't about God but I think that rejoicing in what He's done for us and who He is together as a family is just as much worship as telling Him how great He is!

     A lot of people follow the idea and practice that the worship team and worship leader are supposed to be in control of everything. We kinda come in and the band plugs us in to Jesus. Sorted right? NOOOOOOOOOO!!!! Our gathered worship times are supposed to be an overflow of our personal ones. It's a time for us to come together having walked with God and explode with praise and adoration for Him together and expect Him to show us more of just how flippin great He is! It's a journey that we go on and we have to travel together. God has graciously given us people to lead in the journey (i.e. the worship team) but it's a journey we're all supposed to go on. Imagine setting out on a walk with a group and some people stand at the start and allow the leaders to do the entire walk without them. They cannot claim that they've been on the walk. I think that's why a lot of people sit bored through worship meetings and then leave uninterested and unchanged. We don't really understand what's required of us. This is the point in the blog where I realise I've just opened a pocket in my brain that will make this blog huge so I'm going to stop here for now and do a short one for once!

Thanks for reading :-)