God's always there!!!!

haven't blogged in a while,
and sooooo much has been happening!
man!

i'm surprised how God will still use people, even if they're not 100% for him.
and also, his forgiveness is powerful!

who has ever felt like they're 100% alone?
that's how i've been feeling for a month.
only recently have i started to accept that God forgives and that there is still hope for a sinner.
the past month i've felt like the devil has had control over me and that i've just been a puppet, trying, but unable, to escape.
so many times i've come to God, but not whole-heartedly, always doubting him.
man, i've messed my life up.
but hey, wat i'm trying to say is don't get to the point that i got to.
it's not a happy place.
God is good, and he does forgive!
and through all this month of me doubting God and being so stupid and messing everything up God has stuck by me, he hasn't abandoned me, but he's continued to use me, whether i acknowledge it or not.

just a few things that he's done through me:
-my little brother gave his life to God!
-he gave me a chance to preach!
-he's put a roof over my head!
-he sent me to a leadership camp and blessed me with a way to get there!
-he's given me countless opportunities to talk to people about him and Christmas and wat the Salvos are doing!
-he's put me there when friends have needed to talk.
-he gave me a much higher enter score than i expected: 65.8 (i was expecting 40 or something)
-he's blessed me with the perfect course for next year!
-God has blessed our jnr. youth group and kid's biz and wen i've worked @ Nicely Saved.
-he's gotten me through each day!
-he used me in our church nativity set!
-and there's so much more, even the small things like getting my smoke alarm fixed so fast and stopping a friend from dying from an OD has been 100% God's work!

i want to praise God for all that he has done and let each of you know that even through the bad times, when you think that God is no longer there or doesn't care, HE DOES!
he will never leave you nor forsake you and his love is eternal!
he is faithful, even when we're not, because that is who he is!
all i ask is that you pray for me and let me know if God has put any message on ur heart for me.
i can't believe i'm being so open. lol.
may God bless you and keep you, for God is love and love is the greatest of all!
love in Christ, alana

Hey There!

I'm not exactly sure wat to talk about, so much has been happening and i haven't blogged in ages! well for 1, i'm going to get baptised! i've been thinking about it for over a year and God has finally answered my prayers and shown me that it's what he wants me to do! yay, can't wait!
Also, God is such an amazing God! the ONLY God! he has been answering my prayers all over the place! even ones that i have long given up on! when i want something i like to have it straight away, i can be a very impatient person, but God has shown me how to be patient. for ages i've been praying about my family coming to know God and for a long time it seemed like nothing was happening. But for a while now i've been trying to tell them bout God and they've actually been listening! WOW! my little brother has been wanting to pray with me and my sister and i spent ages talking about God and christianity!
Also the other day my friend sent me a message that one of our friend's grandmothers was having a stroke and could die, so i prayed, and so did some other wonderful people, and that nite my friend sent me another message to let me know that our friend's grandma was absolutely fine! she had come out of the stroke and was 100% fine, healed!
i have been so confused and stressed by sooooooo much lately, but God has just kept on answering prayers and clearing the path. The devil stands no chance! lol.
well hope y'all have a blessed and God filled week,
Alana;P

Baptised in the Holy Spirit!

Monday night was AWESOME! i went to Strike, which is the Macleod Salvo bible study and we were baptised in the Holy Spirit. my definition of being baptised in the Holy Spirit would be when you once again confess all your sin to God and ask the Holy Spirit to come into you, once again, and renew his presence in your life and body.

I think that we can focus a lot on God the father and Jesus the son but kind of forget about God's Holy Spirit, which is the part of God that lives inside of you and brings about your spiritual gifts and fruits of the spirit. for a complete relationship with God we need the whole Trinity to be active in our lives.

back to monday night, i'm just too excited! lol. when we started i was kind of nervous and i could feel that my heart was slightly closed to God. but then we did this awesome activity where we wrote down all of our unforgiven sin on a balloon and then prayed that God would forgive us and popped the balloons. i got a shock every time someone popped a balloon! lol.

i volunteered to go first and it was strange. me and Sarah were standing in the middle of the circle and every1 was praying over us. At first i felt like there was something stopping the Holy Spirit from entering me and realised that i still had a bit of doubt in my heart and so i prayed that God would get rid of this doubt and enter me. after a while of praying i felt this slight presence pushing me back. it wasn't strong but it was enough to make me start to lean back. it kept on pushing and i tried to stop myself from going backwards. it got to the point where i just fell down and got on my knees and started praising God. HE IS SOOOOOOO GOOD!

while i was there, on the ground lol, a friend told me that they could see the Holy Spirit surrounding me like a tornado and someone else said that they saw God and the angels welcoming me into their family and celebrating. to know that God was welcoming me into his family was wonderful, as my own family has started to grow closer emotionally but is growing more distant physically each day as some of my family members are moving houses and states.

one of the main things that i was praying for that night was that this wouldn't just last that night, that i wouldn't just experience the Holy Spirit and then tuck him away in a corner and go about my everyday life, but that i would continue to live for him and that he would give me the strength that i couldn't find in myself. the next day, which was yesterday, tuesday, was pretty cool! i spent the day fasting, praising God, praying out loud and in silence and reading the bible pretty much all day!

one bible passage i read was were Jesus went into the desert for 40 days and fasted. 40 DAYS! what! i was completely wrecked after just one day of fasting but Jesus did it for 40! man he was definitely relying wholley on God. God didn't just call me to fast but he also helped me to stay away from the television and computer all day and even give up going near my fone for a few hours! i know God was with me giving me strength because i actually survived not talking for a whole hour, twice during the day, which i have never been able to do before. if you know me you'll know how VERY VERY HORRIBLY PAINFUL it is for me to stay quiet! but God does work in mysterious ways! lol.

this is a massive blog and i have so much more to talk about but i will leave it here. lol. just wanted to add that God has been doing some amazing things in my life, like getting non-christian friends to WANT to come to church! yay! GOD IS SOOOOOO GOOD AND GREAT AND WONDERFUL AND DON'T YOU EVER FORGET IT! yours in Christ, alana;P

Stand Firm!

i came across this awesome verse in the bible the other day:

Isaiah 7:9 '...if you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all'.

it made me think that if we continue to water down our faith then we'll be left with nothing at all. who likes REALLY watery cordial? you know the stuff that is just plain gross? that's what i reckon our faith can become if we don't stand firm in it. i've been told plenty of times that people will respect me if i show that i'm strong in what i believe, does that mean that people will think less of God if i let myself and my faith be stepped on by everyone? it can be hard but don't forget that you've got nothing to lose, stand up for God! it says in the bible that we should not let what we believe to be good spoken of as evil. well i believe that God is good so i won't let people speak about him as if he's evil or nothing at all.

hope you all have a great, God blessed day, week, month, year, etc. alana

Tagged?

i'm so confused! I was just 'tagged' by Simon Mapleback, so watch out Talia, Sarah McIver, Naomi, Rhiannon & Liam your tagged too! mwahahahahahah! lol.

The rules of this crazy game: grab the book closest to you. Turn to page 161. Print the 5th complete sentence on your blog. Tag 5 others!

here's mine: 'Jose, too, had worries about his health: he had stomach pains and was eventually sent for some tests.' ('And You Visited Me' by Penny M Wheat)

HOW DARE THEY! :(

i am nearly on the verge of tears. i'm that angry and upset! iwas looking thru people's blogs and found a link to www.blasphemychallenge.com . these people are trying to bribe people to sin! they are trying to get people to denounce their religion and deny the Holy Spirit! and what do you get if you do this? A STUPID WORTHLESS DVD THAT IS FULL OF THEIR PATHETIC ARGUMENTS THAT GOD DOES NOT EXIST!

They're doing this because of the verse from Mark 3:29 'But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; he is guilty of an eternal sin'. are they not aware of how powerful God is? are we as christians so shy and meek that they think that God is like that too?

GOD MADE THIS WORLD! He's brought fire down from the sky to INCINERATE those who have tried to rise against him! He has FLOODED this world! he has sent countless plagues! he has WIPED OUT nations! He is ALL POWERFUL and MIGHTY! and most importantly of all he is the GOD OF LOVE! so why on earth are these people trying to mess with him! Jesus died for us so why on earth are they trying to hurt what God loves most? us?

i've read their websites and they're asking for sientific proof of God's existence! you can't prove or DISPROVE God with science! God Made science! i'd go on but i have to leave it here.

please i beg of anyone who reads this do not fall for the devil's trap, do not give up your faith for a piece of pathetic plastic that will oneday waste away!

yours in God, love alana

what's important

it really is when we draw closer to God that the devil will try to bring us down. i've lately had to come to terms with the fact that what may be important to me isn't as important to those around me, eg. God, honesty, love, soldiership, etc. it's funny when you find out that what you might hold close to your heart others hold as far away from theirs as possible. recently i've found out that a decision that i am making for God hasn't really got all of my friends enthusiam. it hurts, but it's helped me to realise that as i'm drawing closer to God the devil is trying to attack me and the weapons that he is using are my friendships and in the end the only thing that matters is Gopd. i can't wait until all my friends are interested in God and me becoming a soldier to do it, because i'm making this choice for God. so i just thought that i would say that instead of being defeated by the devil's attacks i've grown closer to God! and it's awesome! sorry to blab on. lol.

i'm gonna b a soldier!

hey there everyone!
just thought that i would a blog on ME BECOMING A SOLDIER!
i'm so excited! i can't wait! it's happening on the 3rd of june @ greensy salvos @ 11am!
be the or be a.............rectangle? lol. square! i was talking to a friend the other day and we were just talking about what it means to be a soldier etc, etc. ani feel as if i'm more excited now than when i first decided to be a soldier! if u come on sunday then you'll hear my testimony, if not then here's a little sneak peak: God has put the salvos in my life and the only thing that i'm sure of concerning my future is that they're always gonna b in my life! just like God! becoming a soldier means sharing the news of God to this world, it means holding true to the beliefs of early salvationists! it means that i get 2 wear a uniform, but it also means that when people see me in that uniform then they will hopefully know that they have found someone who will help them the best that they can, that will lead them to God, that will be there for them, that will not judge but openly accept them. i can't wait for this part of my journey with God to unfold, so whoever reads this if u want to come then please do. ither way plz pray that God will use me in the salvos.
thanks all.
love alana;-P

GOD ANSWERS PRAYER! YES HE DOES!

God is amazing.
just thought i'd start off with something we can all agree on. lol. for those who aren't aware that i went to the salvo easter camp...i went 2 easter camp! it was absolutely amazing! although it took a little while for it to get that way. at the start of camp i was in a major rut. i wanted to go home and never speak to anyone ever again. mainly because every where i turned there were friends fighting and i just couldn't find the love of God present. i was even starting to question my future with the salvos. and so i decided to give it to God and see what he could do with my life and present situation. on the first night i wrote down a prayer to God. i forgot about it and found the prayer a day or two later. i was so shocked when i read my prayer. even though it wasn't that long ago so much had changed! it was as if i had fallen asleep carrying a whole lot of burdens and woke up completely free! pretty much everything that i prayed for God has given to me. i prayed for certain relationships to be healed and the other night i found out that they pretty much all are! i prayed that god would help me not to feel so depressed at camp and now that i look back i can see that i came out of my shell in a big way! i can't think of a better way to celebrate easter than to spend it with a whole bunch of christians at camp. i will admit that i am a camp nut. hope u've enjoyed me blabbing on. lol. god bless and never be afraid to bring even the smallest things before god in prayer.
alana.
ps. remember, if you give a problem to God you have to leave it with him. worrying about it constantly is just showing that you don't trust God.

Emotions of the cross

yesterday i was reading the book of John, particularly near the end where it talks about Jesus' death. i was using a devotional book and it had some amazing questions in it that really made u think. after i read the passages, i read the questions, they were like: 'where do think Jesus's desciples were?', 'what do you think was going through Jesus' mother's head?', and a whole lot of other ones that really made you think. too often i read the bible, but all i'm doing is taking in the words. when i did this i was looking deeper into what was going on and it brought to life the fact that the people back then actually had emotions. i urge you to find a good devo book to read WITH the bible, not instead! it helps u to understand and think about things that you may never have considered. well just thought i'd say that.

the reason that i was reading that passage in particular was because i didn't want to get to easter camp and realise that i was only really caring about easter because of camp, i wanted to show God that easter meant more to me than eggs and camp and that i was thankful for what he had done and that i wasn't just a camp christian. try reading the passages about Jesus' crucifixion and ressurection and question what each person would have been feeling at each point of time and what you would do in their situations. how would you deal with watching Jesus die? what would you have done if God told you to go through what Jesus went through? i think that we can take easter for granted, sometimes we need to stop and think about what really happened.

just thought i'd blab on for a bit.
c y'all @ camp!
love alana

what gives u the right?

i'm not in a very happy mood.
lately all i ever seem to hear is people talking of taking other people's lives or hurting other people or friends being threatened by other people.
what on earth is going on here?
where do we get the right to even think about hurting someone else?
God puts it quite clearly when he says 'it's mine to avenge, i will repay' (kinda rephrased?)
and where it says in matthew chapter 5 or 6 about how even thinking evil thoughts about ur brother isn't good.
so what's going on?
r people saying that they want to hurt someone, but they think that if they don't think about it then it's ok?
Romans 6:23: for the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 3:23: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God!
and i'm pretty sure that there's a commandment saying 'Don't murder!' and 'Love Your Neighbor!'
so before u even start to think about hurting someone maybe think about the fact that ur not perfect and that God is the only one who has the right to give life and take it away.
because each time that a non-christain sees a christian act in this way they get the impression that God is just a God of hate.
ps. will admit that i'm not perfect and get angry to, but u mst remember not to let the sun go down on ur anger! (oh look, another part of the bible! fancy that. lol)

i think i've made my point. lol.
love y'all,
alana
ps. i'm happy now.lol:P