Hope

A few Sunday’s ago I got to be part of a team sermon – it was a lot of fun working with two of the other Pastors from our church and blending a sermon together. It turned out to be a great way to do a sermon online.

My part was about God’s love for us. I had actually done a full teaching on it a few weeks back at our Sunday night discipleship class. So I had all the material, all I had to do was go from a 40 minute teaching to a 7 minute sermon – no problem! 😉

But as I read, studied and prayed over the words and scriptures again, something happened. It was like Jesus took something that had been head knowledge and turned it into deeply embedded and life changing heart knowledge.

Let me try and explain…

In Ephesians 1:4 (MSG) we read

Long before he laid down earth’s foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love.

And in Jeremiah 1:5 (NLT)

“I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb…”

These two scriptures reveal something completely profound and actually way outside of our capacity to really understand.

God the eternal God, has always known us and always loved us!

Before the foundations of the earth were laid he had us in his thoughts and had settled on us as the focus of his perfect love – each of us individually!

You probably just read that quickly and didn’t really think too much of it, or maybe thought, ‘wow, that’s cool.’

But let’s take a minute to try and grasp the enormity of what those two scriptures are telling us, because it really is the most phenomenal thing!

BEFORE God spoke the earth into existence, before he said, ‘Let there be light…’ he was thinking about me and he was thinking about you and he loved us!

BEFORE I was formed, before I was conceived, I was known by God!

BEFORE I had done anything, BEFORE I could do anything, God, the eternal God knew me, loved me and chose me.

And this applies to every single person who has been or is yet to be!

Truly and utterly incredible!

I would love to ask you to go back and read over the scriptures and following sentences slowly, read them a couple of times, ponder this over the next few days, and pray for God to help you grasp even the smallest bit of this incredible truth!!

I promise you that it will be so worth it because as I have meditated on these scriptures over the last week something in me has changed. Some understanding has gripped me and there is a real peace and joy that honestly wasn’t there before.

Hi everyone!

If we’re not friends on Facebook and you didn’t hear – I was fully funded for my outreach!!! Thank you again to everyone who helped make this possible. I am beyond grateful. God is such a faithful provider and your generosity showed me this. THANK YOU!!

I am writing to you from Ireland!

I am absolutely loving it here.

We have jumped straight into it and started plugging into churches, homeless ministries, doing projects to help different christian ministries with the renovation of their buildings and, street evangelism.

There are so many homeless people in this city, at almost every corner there is a homeless person sitting and begging but we are finding that they are super open to talking – they’re just lonely. We talked to a guy that opened up about having depression and just feeling totally hopeless. We got to tell him that there is a God who loves him and we got to pray for him! It was so awesome. His name is Kevin – send up quick prayer for his salvation!

Praying for people on the streets in Dublin

We also get to help out at this amazing homeless ministry called Lighthouse.

It is such a blessed ministry and sees so much fruit – it is so cool we get the opportunity to serve there. I got to hang out with a homeless couple, Dan and Jenny for about an hour and a half. They opened up to me that they were both heroin addicts and I just got to sit and listen and chat with them. It was so amazing. They told me that at all the other food shelters they’ve been to, they always felt judged and like no one valued them or even wanted to talk to them. They said that at Lighthouse they always feel loved and valued – so in other words, they can see Jesus in us! I so believe that God is moving in their lives and I am excited to get to know them more.

PLEASE pray for them as Jenny is starting Teen Challenge, a Christian rehabilitation center and Dan is going to a different treatment center in about a week. Pray for the power of God to move in their lives and that they would be healed from all addiction and more importantly, know that God loves them and has a plan for them.

Feeding the homeless , and looking fab in a hair net.

It is seriously such a blessing to be here. I have found it pretty stretching as a leader but I feel the Lord guiding me all throughout the day, which is such a beautiful thing. I have never done something so challenging and rewarding. I feel so close to Him and it gives me strength and courage as a leader when things get hectic. God is teaching me to have grace with my students as they are still learning and growing so much and this is a whole new thing for them.

My prayer is that God’s word would be so engraved on my heart that I would live and love out of a place of truly understanding the way God lives and loves.

I just want to be the woman that God wants me to be and in every stretching moment, I feel refinement happening – taking steps closer to understanding what it means to be a woman of peace and love. Praise God for the strength that truly only comes from Him. He is way too good.

PRAYER POINTS:

– Pray for unity in my team – that we would show Christ by the way we love one another.

– Pray for me – for wisdom, humility and the Lord’s guidance. I want to lead like Jesus would.

– Pray that we would see tremendous fruit in the relationships we are building.

Thank you all for taking the time to read my updates – it means so much to me.

Please let me know how I can be praying for you.

God bless!

Jasmine