Jeremy Riddle - To Be Like You Song Review

This song is awesome! I've been playing Jeremy's album from 2009, "The Now and Not The Yet" (check it out or buy here) for the past couple of hours and this song just jumped out to me. I don't know why he doesn't sing this more it's such an amazing song?!

The lyrics are wonderfully crafted, very simple one of those ideas that make you go like, "wow, why didn't I think of that?"

Holy you are/Perfect and pure you are/Everything right you are/Yes you are/broken am I/Full of discord am I/Hungry for change am I/Oh am I/ Oh to be like you/Oh to reflect the God I know/The love you've shown/This is my longing/This is my deepest, strongest plea/Lord change me/Love you are/Spirit and truth you are/Everything right you are/Yes you are/Humbled am I/Contrite of spirit am I/Open to you am I/Oh am I

Kindly remember these lyrics and this song is absolutely not mine and is provided here for educational and promotional (for his album) purposes only!

To Be Like You (Album)

I did my own cover of the song, just messing around, if you wanna listen, have at it;

https://www.dropbox.com/s/0m9vgqecbatyraf/To%20Be%20Like%20You%20Vocals%20Cover.wma

xx
Jo

Shop Furaha

One of the things I'm really looking forward to this year is starting a shop on this blog where you guys can buy some of the stuff I'm working on. We'll have jewellery up here, clothes, books, e-books, downloads and anything else I can come up with and I think it'll be fun to share a little bit of myself with the world.

Anyway, check back for updates, to make it a little easier, I've added a new tab on the top of this page labelled "Store".

Love you all,

xx
Jo

Journey To BSSM Part 3

God showed off.

He pulled one out of his hat today. I woke up, first thing I did as usual was check my email, guess what I find waiting for me?

Update: Got this in the mail a couple weeks later

I GOT IN!!!!

I got my acceptance letter (e-mail) to BSSM! Can you even believe it?! I'm going to be worshiping here live and in person! 

source

It’s insane! I texted my mom and sister immediately with the news. I had to leave for class at KU but the only thing on my mind all day was I GOT IN! The cool part is my profile page on the school website changed from “Applicant in 1^st Year” to “Student in 1^stYear” hahaha! How cool is that?!

The euphoria is amazing and the grace I feel right now and God’s hand over my life is so tangible! I absolutely don’t deserve this by my own merit, it’s because if Him and who I am (daughter of God) because if His great love for me.

I’m Bill Johnson’s and Kris Vallotton’s and Bethel Church’s student!

Are you kidding me?!!!

Mom got home and immediately asked to see the letter. In the middle of reading it, she told me to go see my aunt Catherine to advice me with some travel details. After she finished reading it, there was this long silence and I think it hit both of us:

1.       This is going to be near impossible. The amount of money and the sacrifice this would take is insane. I don’t know how I’ll do this. I don’t know if this is even feasible or a good idea. I was going over all this in my head and God reminded me that this isn’t about me. I was chosen to go to Bethel, it’s not about me, it’s not about the interview, it’s not about how good my application was or wasn’t. There’s a huge picture at play here. It may not be fully visible to me; maybe I’m a part of Bethel’s vision or Mavuno’s vision or my own vision to change this world. I don’t understand it fully but I know something huge is about to happen. I’m joining an army of revivalists and all He’s asking for me is to trust Him.

2.       This is real. I’m actually facing the prospect of leaving my family and starting over in a foreign country with absolutely no connections. I’ve never been away from my family. Now we’re looking at 9 months!

Anyway like I said, God’s been writing this story for the longest time and I’m more than willing to be player in it. I told Him, I don’t care how this ends up. I tasted His goodness and there’s no way I can go back to life without Him. He’s brought me from so far and He’s made me so happy!

This Church has changed my life. I’ve loved this school and this church and these people before I even knew about them. I have faith that what I’ve seen in my dreams and all the words spoken over me will be found in this journey. The hope I have for what’s to come makes me so happy and spurs me on in my pursuit.

Catch Up:
Part 1
Part 2  

Mexican Standoff With God

So, yesterday didn’t go according to plan but I’ve determined in my heart to not be sad or agonize about it. It’s so easy to get caught up in a Mexican standoff (a no win, no lose situation) with God. I think of it as being on a hunger strike, where you tell God, I won’t be happy, I won’t experience your joy today because I’m pouting since you didn’t go according to my script. I talked about this before.

Julie asked me if there are any issues that I’m dealing with, you know like, drinking, drugs, pornography and so on. I told her no, thank God for no alcohol or drug addictions, I've seen the withdrawal...wah! But I gave her my story of healing from depression and all those other stuff I faced living in my “gray days.” I told her how my life changed completely last February watching iBethel, and how I got my healing and ran with it. She asked me how I planned on maintaining it, I said, “Not loosing focus on loving God and experiencing His love for me. That’s my plan.” I don’t even know where these answers came from, remember I was nervous; the line kept going dead so I was frustrated and scared she’d just give up on me. It was God I tell you!

Afterward I was thinking about it and what I said and I was like, yeah, loosing focus on His love is the beginning of the slippery slope. Here I was feeling so low about this whole thing then I read a tweet of Hebrews 13:5 “I will never leave you and I will never abandon you” That might be coincidence to you, but that was love to me. And He does that all the time if we take the time to look. I was moved to tears by that tweet! And nooo not just because I'm a tiny bit emotional!

I determined I was going to set my heart on course for joy. So I picked myself up out of bed and went to visit one of my friends who just had a baby and it was great. Nothing brings back joy more than looking at a sweet baby face.

Anyway, the day picked up from there and went around doing the usual things and finally got home and sat around with momma and watched the debate. I didn’t make it far though and fell asleep about half way through!

xx

Jo

Shagz Roadtrip Part 3 / Journey to BSSM Part 2 - Interview

Driving home today was more than fun. Spent a great time with God praying about my school interview and about this whole move abroad at my dad’s farm. That’s my most favorite place in shagz. My dad built that place with so much love and looking forward to the future and it’s sad that he didn’t get to enjoy it, but I love that place. Got to feed the cows too, and no, I wasn’t scared at all!

My aunt forced us to eat some lunch and then we left. The trip back was definitely a lot more fun. I bonded with my mom and it was awesome! She took some pictures, from a moving car for me, but I haven't uploaded them yet, I will though.

We finally got home and I prepped for my interview and waited for that call. Tonight looking at the phone waiting for it to ring took on a whole new meaning! Finally I got the call, and wouldn’t you know it, the line cut off after each minute. 

I cannot tell you how frustrating that was. I answer a question, the phone goes dead. She calls me back, I answer another question, and the phone goes dead. We finished up and went on email and we talked a little bit more and then it was over. That was the worst experience ever! I’d done such a huge job preparing and getting my notes down and everything, I was really looking forward to talking and expressing my heart then having something so uncontrollable like a phone line put a damper on everything.

I texted my sister and went down and talked to my mom and vented and felt a little better. My sister texted me back, 

Gotta love sisters!

Xx

Jo

Shagz Trip Part 2

I realized I have some pictures from my last trip here.

We drove to Karatina for a wedding today. Went to pick up my grandma, and of course she invited 2 of her friends and my cousin. On the way we were also supposed to pick up my aunt, and of course, she invited her friend. I drive a Toyota; do not ask me to explain how we fit 6 people in the back of that car! Gotta love shagz!

The Lord showed me just how much He’s taught me about patience. I was pissed off, but I was oddly calm at the same time. I just said, I will not stress about this, let’s just get this over and done with. Of course my Zen attitude didn’t stop me from being stopped by the police. Apparently I used the wrong exit, (HE WAS WRONG! Just saying!) I agreed with him and was polite and mom walked with me when he led me away from the car and defended me. He let me off with a warning and said, “It’s because your mom reminds me of my mom” Thank you Jesus he didn’t ask me for a bribe or look inside that car, remember it was overloaded!

Anyway, we got to the wedding. Honestly, there is nothing like a Kikuyu wedding, especially a Kikuyu shagz wedding! It was crazy. All the weirdness and embarrassing moments you could think of were there. At the same time though it was a really great day, everyone had so much fun and I loved it. Fr future reference, I found this blog that details all the traditional aspects if you wanna check out out, click here.

Coming back I told my mom there was no way I was driving all those people back, and luckily her and my aunt Catherine had my back on that, so bye bye 6 people, I was left with 3!

We got home pretty early, on account of me pressuring them to leave before the cake cutting. (Didn’t wanna drive in the dark on foreign roads!)

Watched some iBethel TV and went to bed.

xx

Jo

xx

Jo

Shagz Roadtrip Part 1

I was sitting at home bored this morning waiting to drive my mom to the bus stop since she was traveling up country to Nyeri for the weekend to visit my family up there and to attend my niece’s wedding. (My mom’s sister’s kid’s daughter) 

On my way to pick her up, I thought, “What am I doing home all weekend, why not just go?”

And that’s exactly what I did.

We drove up to Nyeri through Murang’a and had a great time, my mom showed me the longest train bridge in the country and guys that thing looks spectacular. I didn’t get any pictures, but it’s definitely a drive I’ll make again just to see that. We finally got to Mukurweini which is home, and went to town to run some errands and pick up some lunch. (Fries for me obviously, and Ugali and Mala for mum) Driving on those roads was awesome, apart from a stretch in Murang’a where the word pothole gets a new meaning, other than that, I felt like I was in the grand-Prix! Perfect roads, thank you WuYi!

via: coastweek.com

After that we went down to Giathugu to see my grandma. Honestly, no one on earth loves me like she loves me! That woman struggled so hard to make sure my mom went to school and loved Jesus. She gave me an incredible God-fearing mom, and everything I am now is because of who she is and who she raised my mom to be. Unfortunately, the door to the trunk of the car got jammed, so we had to drive all the way back into town to get it fixed. The mechanic looked at the car and just laughed, because all he had to do was wiggle the lock and it came loose. Luckily he didn’t charge us anything…I love SHAGZ!

After that, we went up to my dad’s farm to look around and say hi and I got a chance to take a much-needed shower. Finally we went back to my family’s farm at around 7, where I promptly fell asleep watching Modern Family, (Oh KPLC how I love you and your expansion!)

xx

Jo