Thursday, October 29, 2009

Chinese Church Retreat

This last weekend I traveled about an hour and a half north & gave four talks for a Chinese Church retreat of 70+ college students and a few post grads. It was such an honor to be able to speak into these people's lives and impart what the Lord has given me over the years.

The Lord was faithful to sustain me as I fought off sickness all weekend; however, it gave me a new appreciation of 2 Corinthians 12:9 when Paul says that God's grace is sufficient for us, for His power is made perfect in weakness. It was amazing, as each time I went to speak, the power of God filled me and removed the sickness for the 30 to 40 minutes I talked...praise the Lord! The topic of the retreat was "Freedom in Christ" and the title of the four talks were:

Session # 1: The truth: you are free in Christ
Session # 2: The battle is won & lost in the mind
Session # 3: Do you know who you are?
Session # 4: The kingdom of God is offensive, not defensive

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

24-7 Prayer

One of the things I (Holly) am the most passionate about is prayer... and for so many different reasons...
1. I love that prayer is simply coming before our Lord and communing with the heart of God
2. I love that prayer changes things & God hears our prayers & moves on behalf of them
3. I believe that prayer is the key to seeing Isla Vista reached and redeemed for the King
4. I love that prayer changes US, and gets us stirred up more about God & who He is, and how He wants to move in people's lives

So, for these reasons as well as several others, I am so stoked that 24-7 prayer is happening this week in IV in the prayer shed behind the Del Playa houses!

I got to have the blessing of helping my dear friend, Annalisa, who is in charge of the prayer ministry for Real Life (Campus Crusade), set up the prayer shed for this "event", and I even got to go spend an hour or so in prayer there last night. It is so awesome that day and night prayers are being lifted up to the Father on behalf of this city right now! Praise the Lord for the gift that prayer is -- that we get to participate with God in bringing about change on the earth!




Monday, October 19, 2009

Article on Jesus Burgers

A UCSB newspaper, The Bottom Line, interviewed our good friend Derika and I for a feature article on Jesus Burgers:

http://thebottomline.as.ucsb.edu/2009/10/saturday-night-d-p-sustenance-jesus-burgers

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

The House of the Lord

"God, let Your Presence be made manifest here in this home in such a real and tangible way." This is one of my frequent prayers recently as the Lord has been speaking to me so much lately about our home and the various purposes He wants to use it for. There is of course the obvious role this home plays in being a place of dwelling for our family, but there is also the role of it being a sanctuary for us, especially for Jason, to come in from the busyness of work and life and find rest and peace here. But beyond these things, our home has become a sanctuary in an even broader sense now that we are having our Sunday gathering for IVC here!

It has been a blessing for me to have my world becoming more cohesive, that as I focus on helping our family life and home life run well, Isla Vista and the students that come in here will be blessed.

We have been in "operation simplification" for awhile now, working towards getting things in order in several difference senses of the word -- having our physical surroundings simple and in order (getting rid of excess, having places for everything and keeping those things in their place!), having our schedules simple and in order, getting organized and simple with meals and food, cleaning, and many of the other things that come into running a home well.

God has been speaking to me every since we started praying about having the Sunday gatherings in our home about the house and the tent of the Lord. So I have been growing in my understanding of what being a homemaker is, with the added blessing of getting to steward a house used for God's Kingdom to be advanced in this city, and in which we can invite others into!

This last Sunday a guy my good friend Lindsay whom I disciple had met at Jesus Burgers last year came, and he was overwhelmed by what he called a "really big energy" and the love in the place! I laughed, thinking, yeah, the Holy Spirit is in fact quite a really big energy! Praise God that this guy was able to sense God's presence in our home and to be touched by Him!

I would love prayer to continue to be able to simplify and bring things into order in our home life, with the vision of being a blessing in this community!

Monday, October 5, 2009

You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free - Jesus

Jesus makes this profound statement in John 8:32, "You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

This last weekend Neil Anderson, my favorite author on the subject of spiritual warfare, was in town doing a seminar. The only problem was I was out of town. However, a few of my friends attended the 2-day seminar through the IVSOD and reported back excellent things to me!
http://www.ivsod.com/discipleship_counseling.html

Neil Anderson has a gift in teaching people how to walk in freedom by knowing the truth of who you are in Christ. Throughout my years following the Lord, especially my early years in the faith, I experienced radical freedom/deliverance from understanding my identity in Him. The book "Victory Over the Darkness" written by Neil Anderson has helped me more than any other book I have ever read in understanding who God says I am. Over the years now I have given out countless copies and have seen similar results.

People sometimes forget that when the devil came to Christ in the wilderness, the first thing he said to Him before any temptation was, "if you're the Son of God..." We must not be foolish and think if the enemy tried to get Christ to question His identity that he will not try to get us to question our own.

Here is a list of a few 'Who I am in Christ' truths:

http://www.ficm.org/whoiam.htm