HEALING OF THE HEART -- Whose Valentine are you?

Will and Madeleine Walker
Ministry Centre Managers

"Be My Valentine" is a phrase that conjures up a lot of different images associated with the celebration of Valentine's Day; cards with hearts and little poems on them, candy and flowers given to someone we love. Both young and old alike expressing their affection for their sweethearts, February 14th, for our culture, means cards, candy and flowers.

But who was St Valentine? Does he have anything to say to us today amidst our crass, commercialized celebration of love?

St. Valentine was a priest near Rome in about the year 270 A.D., a time when the church was enduring great persecution.  His ministry was to help the Christians to escape this persecution, and to provide them the sacraments, which was outlawed by the Roman Empire at that time.  For his belief and practice, St. Valentine was arrested and imprisoned for his refusal to deny our Lord and embrace the Roman gods.

While in prison, St. Valentine continued to minister, even witnessing to those who guarded him. One of the guards was a good man who had adopted a blind girl.  He asked St. Valentine if his God could help his daughter.  Valentine prayed and the girl was miraculously given her sight, demonstrating the power of the One True God.  The guard and his whole family, 46 people in all, believed in Christ and were baptized.  The emperor was furious about this, so he had St. Valentine beheaded.

St. Valentine’s love for the Lord cost him his life.  He knew he could be arrested for his belief and ministry.  He knew that refusal to recognize the Roman gods would result in imprisonment. And he knew that if he continued to witness to Christ in the prison he would make his captors angry, which would probably result in his death.  So why did he do it?  Because of love – it’s that simple.  After all, his valentine, his ultimate lover, Jesus, laid down His life for him!

I really don’t know if the story of Valentine is true.  I believe it is.  What I do know is this: "No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends." (John 15:13)  Am I there?  Are you?  I’d like to think I am and yet …   1 John 4:12 reminds me: "Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.  No man has seen God at any time.  If we love one another, God dwells in us, and his love is perfected in us." (1 John 4:12)

The world doesn’t know this kind of love.  Even we believers have diluted the essence and message of Christ’s love.  The cute cards with cupids and hearts and eye pleasing candies are a far cry from the blood stained wood of the cross that has become the ultimate symbol of love.
Will you be my valentine?  Will you love me with the love of my ultimate lover?  Will I be your valentine and love you even as Mother Teresa says, “Until it hurts, otherwise, there is no true love in me and I bring injustice, not peace, to those around me?”  The life and message of Saint Valentine speaks powerfully to us today.

So rather than dismiss Valentine’s day as a cute but irrelevant season for we who call ourselves “Christ’s-ones”,  maybe we need to remind ourselves of the life and message that St Valentine lived,  (and that of our ultimate lover, Jesus) and make it a time to re-commit our lives to the Lord, to commit to being strong enough to stand up for the truth;  to proclaim the Gospel of God's love, regardless of the consequences; to remind ourselves that we must die to self for the sake of another. "This is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you…" (Jesus)
"Be my Valentine."  We all want to hear that phrase.  It simply means "you are loved." I am here to tell you that you are loved.  God loves you and wants you to be his Valentine.

Question.  Will you be God's Valentine?  It’s your choice.

Will Walker

In the first dream she found herself holding a bunch of balloons.  They had all different shades and colours and they represented good things: all her dreams, her gifts, and talents.  The balloons made her happy when she looked at them.

Then she noticed Father God standing in front of her.  He asked her to give the balloons to Him.  ‘Why would He want these things back?’ she wondered at first.  ‘Didn’t He give them to me?  Aren’t these good things?’  Yet in His loving way He insisted that it was better for her to give Him the balloons.  And so in full trust, she did.

-Have you ever been there?  You probably have.  We all are aware of the truth of giving our bad stuff to God.  However, in our journey with God we learn to give Him everything, even our good things, even giving back control of the things that He has given to us.

While she gave the balloons to Father she had the reassuring thought in the back of her mind: ‘Surely He will give them back to me.’

But then... He let the balloons go!  Not just one, but ALL of them!  Up and away they went!

Jessica was stunned. ‘What did He do that for?!  Why?’  As she looked at Him in a puzzled manner, He turned to her, spread out His arms and said, “I couldn’t give you a proper hug with our hands filled, now could I?”  And as He hugged her, she melted in His arms.

-The foundation of any real breakthrough is intimacy.  We cannot ask Father for His hand if we are not seeking His face first.  Like Moses, our prayer should be: ‘Show me Your ways (Heart) oh Lord and show me Your face.’  That’s when God starts moving because He made us to be close to Him.  Not to do stuff for us...

For the longest time she melted in His arms and really let go of her questions.  While she gave in to His love, she opened her eyes and as she looked over His shoulder it was as if she saw her whole life like a roadmap ahead of her.  Along the road she saw that al her balloons had landed and were anchored in exactly the right places and right times.

-You see, our dreams are no bad.  Psalm 37:4 says, ‘He gives us the desires of our heart’.  Not that we get whatever we want; no, of course not.  This verse starts off with, ‘Delight yourselves in the Lord!  And then He will give you the desires of your heart.’ When we delight ourselves in Him.  When we give everything to Him.  When we seek His face as we delight in Him and who He is; then His desires will automatically become our desires and they will be fulfilled since we are in alignment with His heart.

So, give it a try.  Give your balloons to Father and drown in His love!

Bart & Jessica de Krijger

CHINESE NEW 2010 @ SINGING WATERS

Each year we are fortunate to participate in Chinese New Years with our team and guests.  This year was no exception.  On the evening of Sat. Feb. 13th we had a traditional Chinese New Year’s eve dinner.

A team, led by Gloria, cooked the meal and the young people served it.  Faith Liu shared before dinner the significance of the Chinese New Year.  She shared about the importance of this time and how all family members come together to celebrate and look forward to the coming year.  She explained how excited the children are to receive their ‘red envelopes’ which contain a financial gift.  We placed red envelopes at each place on the dinner table containing a chocolate gold coin and a Bible verse as a blessing.

It was a wonderful time of enjoying great food, warm fellowship and sharing blessings.

ODE TO MY LOVER

To walk through the mirror glass,
To be with You, my Love, at last,
As crystal light dances before my eyes,
And eternal timelessness sheds the disguise,
I see throne room and glass sea.

To hear what is beyond sound,
To be with You, my Love, unbound,
As angels fall prostrate to You, oh King,
And welcome me as I come and kiss Your ring,
I will know love and be free.

To feel what is truly real,
To be free of this world conceal,
The heaven’s paths lying before me run,
An adventure at each turn with the Son,
I will run and not grow faint.

To smell the ethereal air,
To be free and be without a care,
The woodlands breathe my true Love’s name,
A romance from which I’ll ne’er be the same,
And I’ll see each friend a saint.

To faith that first stepping dare,
To be with You, my Lover, not a care,
This dreamlike ode becomes what is true,
And surrender is all I need to do,
I am Yours, Lord, and You are mine.

By Jason Knox

A MAGIC CARPET RIDE

[What, what would have become of me] had I not believed that I would see the Lord’s goodness in the land of the living!  (Psalms 27:13 AMP)

I can show you the world
Shining, shimmering, splendid…
I can open your eyes
Take you wonder by wonder
Over, sideways and under
On a magic carpet ride
A whole new world
A new fantastic point of view…
Unbelievable sights
Indescribable feeling
Soaring, tumbling, freewheeling
Through an endless diamond sky…
Every turn a surprise
With new horizons to pursue
Every moment red-letter
I'll chase them anywhere
There's time to spare
Let me share this whole new world with you

Ten years ago, I (Faith) had sensed the Holy Spirit’s most amusing invitation to embark upon a journey of faith as my heart resounded with the words above.  Our visit back to Taiwan over this last period of holidays has proved itself another episode of the same theme!

As some of you might have recognized, they are excerpts of a duet from the Disney Production, Aladdin.  Among all other theme songs of Disney’s classics in an album I purchased then, this song was somehow very fascinating to me, even more than on the level of entertainment it brought me.  Little did I know that the lyrics served as a prophetic picture to our life in the next 10 years… a magic carpet ride on which we had nothing to hold unto but to simply place our trust in the Holy Spirit!

The key started with a child-like yes to the Lord upon His invitation to let Him steer our lives wherever He takes us to, whatever He leads us to do, and however jobs are to be done.  Honestly speaking, I was simply attracted to the thrills rather than the unfriendly surprises the ride could have brought us.  Yet, somehow, there has been a promise underlain in the message from the Lord that He would be with us and that He would be taking us to higher grounds to share His point of view.   And such promise has brought us back to focus, time and time again, when we found ourselves in unexpected turbulences or waves along the way.

An unexpected delay of our return back to Singing Waters after the holidays was our latest inconvenient surprise that turned into a thrilling blessing.  Having been greeted by such unexpectedness, Joseph had to ask Abba right away what He had in mind for this suddenness.  Immediately, the face of a pastor friend appeared in his heart.  Yet, he did not know what God was exactly up to with this revelation.  We believed, though, that such a turn would not have been a mere coincidence but one carrying our Father's will of peace and hope.  We simply emailed and asked our intercessors to join us in prayer that His will be done in our lives and on those whom He would bless through this seeming setback.

We also knew that we were to practice what we would preach.  That is to strive to enter into the rest under the wings of Abba and seek to know what He is up to instead of asking why in the midst of storms.  There was a huge temptation to worry, to complain, and to resent anyone who would have caused all this.  Yet, we are thankful to find that we both had tremendous peace and stillness at that moment after decisions of letting go.  It was a triumphant moment to celebrate such growth in us that we were so aware of His love and faithfulness and all the rest of who He really was to us; that we knew where to park our eyes and allow Father, who loved us so very much, to accomplish His will.  We are very thankful to find that we have come a long way.

We had reached Taipei, the starting point of that trip, a quarter after midnight.  About 10 o’clock in the morning, we received a phone call from the pastor friend who had by then heard of what happened.  And the next morning Joseph was reminded of Father’s specific mission for the trip, spoken to him before we left Canada:  We were to speak of His faithfulness and love to whomever we would meet.  To make the long story short, the magic carpet ride had eventually taken us into the privilege of ministering to a group of leaders, approximately over 110 people from a large church which our friend and her husband pastor, before we returned to Canada.  It was at least four times more than the group to which we were told to minister during that first phone invitation!  We were and still are in awe!

After 10 years of riding on the magic carpet, we are confident that God will continue opening our eyes and show us wonder by wonder in His Kingdom.  Though the future soaring, tumbling and freewheeling would still seem a bit unfriendly to us at any moment; we are now so addicted to the promise of seeing the unbelievable sights with a new fantastic point of view as Abba’s.  After all, it’s an endless diamond sky!  Wouldn’t you like to join us?  He is also inviting you!

Joseph & Faith Liu

GOD'S HEART TO HEAL

Suzie and I had the opportunity to go to Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship.  We went to listen to Bill Johnson as we have heard a lot of his ministry.  Bill had a word of knowledge for some people with pain in their bodies and asked people around them to pray for them.

I, along with several others prayed for a lady who had pain in her ankle.  She had an almost look of unbelief on her face as she went to the washroom and came back and found that her ankle was better.  She also had pain in her shoulder for many years and I watched the look on her face as she started moving it only to find there was no longer any pain, it went from unbelief to absolute joy as she realized she was healed.  We got to pray for other people during the course of the night too and saw many people healed.

One thing that really impacted me was when Bill said people who use Holy Spirit only for their ministry, is like the oldest profession in the Word where intimacy is used for profit.  Bill had many gems like that, but I only picked up a few.

After the meeting we were about to leave, but a friend encouraged us to get prayed for by Bill.  So, Suzie and I received an impartation from him with both of us ending up on the floor.  It was a great night.

LOVE

Look up the word “love” on dictionary.com and you’ll find about 28 different definitions and connotations for the word.  It is amazing how one little four letter word can carry such weight, meaning, and significance in the world today.  Yet it’s what we need, what we desire, what we crave in the deepest parts of our soul.  Love is the source to our hope, the foundation to our faith, and the unity we find in the fellowship of others; without love we cannot find our way.

Almighty God in His omniscience and omnipotence has revealed Himself to us in this way: LOVE.  He is the embodiment of it, the clear expression of it, He is love in the full measure of what it could be, should be, and will be.  He is love.

Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3:18 is that we would be able to “grasp” (NIV) how wide, long, high, and deep is the love of Christ.  Is that even possible?  I for one find it completely mind-blowingly unfathomable of how an awesome God, creator of the universe can choose to love me, to love us… the world.  This is why God is the ultimate lover.  He is the one who truly knows how to love; to be able to express it in a way that we can minutely comprehend it - from infinity to the finite.  Only true love would find a way to come down to our level and to come so unconditionally despite our rejections, our abuse, and our neglect.

My response comes in gratitude, in a feeble way of saying “thanks” in the enormity of His ever-lasting and unfailing love.  That I would be able to return even a small measure of this same love is what He deems enough because it’s what He desires of us, a genuine, honest, and sincere love – our worship.  A love that is pure.  The love of a child to an open armed Father.

“The Lord appeared to us in the past, saying: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness.” (Jeremiah 31:3)

Thanks Abba for Your amazing Love.

Samuel Jung

“Love is in the air…” is the opening line of a popular song.

February is the month in which we celebrate Valentine’s Day. Yet, there are multitudes of people who are pained by this, because they are reminded that they have no one “special” in their lives.

Whether you are reading this in the month of February or any other month of the year, God has sent me with a message for you.  He wants you to know that you are very special to Him.

“I come to you with red roses in hand, and I want you to know how much I love you.   I died for you, the greatest expression of My love for you.
Will you count My love of lesser value than that of a human being?
 I hear you say, you want to have love with flesh and bone, to feel
the warmth of a hug, and see that big smiling face, looking back at you.

But many times, what you fail to recognize is that I am the One hugging
you through that person, and smiling back at you.  Those are the times
when you feel truly embraced, and cannot explain to yourself why
you feel the way you do, when certain people give you a warm embrace.

So even if you are without that special person in your life, know that I am
the One who makes such love possible between two people.
I have unique and wonderful ways to reveal My love for you that leaves you feeling breathless, marvelling that I know you so well.
You are left feeling warm inside, secure in the knowledge that I love you.

Every human being is limited as to the depth of love and devotion, they can
show to another.
A loved one no matter how precious and dear, dies or leaves, for one reason or another.  I will never leave you nor forsake you.

Will you let Me be your Valentine?

I speak to those who are married.
I am not blind to the unkindness, even cruelty which passes between you as man
and wife.  You hide it well behind the curtain of the marriage vows.
You think by being married you have the right to demand from each other:
“Meet my needs.  Make me feel good about myself. Love me the way I need
to be loved or I will punish you.  I will grow cold, silent and morose.
I will withdraw my affection.”

Some of My loneliest, saddest people are those who are locked in loveless marriages.  You ache to be loved.
 I speak of it here not to condemn you, but that if you recognize yourself, you will repent.  This is like a dark secret being brought out into the light.
Invite Me the consummate Lover into your marriage, and I will teach you how to truly love each other.  You will live to see Me looking back at you through each other’s eyes, and you will feel My joy, as you tightly embrace.

Let Me love you through each other.

So whether you are single or married, I ask again,
“Will you let Me be your Valentine?”
 I am the only One Who knows how to love you perfectly.
I have reserved this right for Myself.  This then explains, why even when you are enjoying a very happy and satisfying relationship, there are moments when you feel seized by such deep longing, you are left feeling speechless.
You try to decipher the reason for such aching loneliness, and come up with something not quite the truth.  Dear precious one, it is for Me that you ache.
It is a faint echo of how I desire for you to come to know My great love for you, the only love that will truly satisfy.
All other loves are My gifts to you – whether it is the love of a
mother and father for their children; the love you feel for you animals; the love for friends, for nature and all the beauty it brings; the joy you feel when your team wins at a game; the list goes on and on.
But there is place deep down inside of you that only divine Love can satisfy.

Come let Me love you…”

Hazel Jones for Singing Waters Prayer Team.

OLYMPIC TORCH RELAY

We have acquired picture evidence that some of us here at Singing Waters have truly gotten into the Olympic groove. A great picture, Gloria!