oh happy day!

why hello there! and welcome to my blogspot!
I'm not exactly sure if people really do read this thing... but I keep adding to it anyways! haha ... "Whatever It Takes" right?

Wow! what a turn around for me! Jesus saved me. He saved me from my sins! How exciting is that!?!?! I don't have to live a life of numb-ness anymore, I dont have to rely on alcohol or even drugs to achieve happiness! There is TRUE joy and a peace that comes with knowing Jesus.

I remember hearing a story about some ladies from my church, who are all Salvation Army soldiers.. meaning; THEY DONT DRINK - who were making friendly conversation with some ladies who do not go to church.... apparently these ladies were completely SHOCKED that the soldiers do not drink alcohol and can still have so much fun!

On Monday, this week, I went to the Big Day Out with my sister. You know what? I didn't drink (which is normality for me these days).. and I had THE BEST TIME!

Praise the Lord for the Joy that he brings. simple but true.

BTW, 4 more sleeps until I become a soldier! SO EXCITED!

Official Announcement

Hey All!

It's offical; I'm becoming a soldier in the Salvation Army!!!

I get enrolled at the Craigieburn Salvos on the 1st of February at our 7pm church service!
Everyone is welcome to come!

yay! so excited! : )

much love x

I'm The Desperate and You're The Saviour!

I love my music. Generally, i love all styles too.

I also love the fact that there are so many different styles of music that reflect worship unto God.

Sometimes I love to turn to the lyrics from such bands as Underoath, Emery and Paramore (keep an eye out for quotes in blogs to come).

In fact I've had many times when I used this kind of "screamo" music as my own personal worship music... inspiring stuff.

Underoath have this amazing way of portraying (through song) us, mere humans, as weak... fallen from grace, living in sin. And God as the almighty, the Saviour, the King. I so love that!

My sister has this tattoo on her neck with lyrics from an Underoath song titled "In Regards to Myself";

"It's All Worth Reaching For"

Actual lyrics are; "It's All Worth Reaching For The Hand To Pull You Out"

Jesus is the hand that pulls us out.

No matter how many times I fail. Jesus still manages to yank me up from it all .... drawing me closer and closer to Him.


I'm the desperate, and you, Jesus, are the Saviour.

"You Know What Really Grinds My Gears?"

If you haven't picked it already, my heading is a quote from a popular tv show we like to call "Family Guy". Peter Griffin, a Family Guy who doesn't really think before he speaks at the best of times and has unrealistic expectations about life and of others, is asked to be part of a television segment where he rants on about things that annoy him most.

You know what? Us, as humans, we like complaining a lot. haha

We talk about WHO or WHAT annoys us the most. In fact we spend so much time dwelling, or maybe analysing these things sometimes... we forget what annoyed us in the first place!

I wonder what annoys GOD most... the fact we complain so much? or that we spend our time on focusing on other things (that "annoy us so much") instead of praising Him?

One thing I know must annoy God about me, is when I'm spiritually lazy. I forget what my purpose is (esp when I'm out and about) and I forget about just talking to God and maybe reading His word, I lose my passion.. if only for a brief moment. I know it definately annoys me!

There's a couple of directions I could head with this blog.... But I really feel the need to speak more about complaining...

The bible talks about becoming dead to yourself when you decide to follow Jesus. What if that meant forgetting about our earthly problems? What if it meant to stop dwelling on the things of earth that annoy us so much and start dwelling on our Eternal life?

Imagine a world like that... I think a lot of counsellors/psychologists would probably go out of business!!

Psalm 40

I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord. Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust, who does not look to the proud, to those who turn aside to false gods. Many, O Lord my God, are the wonders you have done. The things you planned for us no one can recount to you; were I to speak and tell of them, they would be too many to declare. Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but my ears you have pierced ; burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not require. Then I said, “Here I am, I have come— it is written about me in the scroll. I desire to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.” I proclaim righteousness in the great assembly; I do not seal my lips, as you know, O Lord. I do not hide your righteousness in my heart; I speak of your faithfulness and salvation. I do not conceal your love and your truth from the great assembly. Do not withhold your mercy from me, O Lord; may your love and your truth always protect me. For troubles without number surround me; my sins have overtaken me, and I cannot see. They are more than the hairs of my head, and my heart fails within me. Be pleased, O Lord, to save me; O Lord, come quickly to help me. May all who seek to take my life be put to shame and confusion; may all who desire my ruin be turned back in disgrace. May those who say to me, “Aha! Aha!” be appalled at their own shame. But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you; may those who love your salvation always say, “The Lord be exalted!” Yet I am poor and needy; may the Lord think of me. You are my help and my deliverer; O my God, do not delay.

My Testimony. Raw.

For those who don't know me too well....

I have grown up learning the truths about God. Learning about his will for my life. Learning about how he sent his Son to die for me. How could I avoid such important lessons when my parents are in fact Salvation Army Officers?!

But then, the worst happened.

I couldn't tell you the exact day it happened... but i turned away from God.

I had married young, and had moved to Brisbane, two whole states away from my family.
To begin with, the journey interstate was all about taking risks for God.

Slowly, and without awareness, the lies started to flood into my mind. I began to search elsewhere for answers, for independence. I became so critical of the christians I had around me, that I stopped going to church. Blaming them for my troubles.

Everyday, i sunk deeper and deeper into this depression. Every weekend, I made myself available to the alcohol and the party life just so i could forget my troubles.
My marriage began to suffer also because of my bad decisions (no surprises there). I began looking to other men for acceptance and affection.

Even my friends, that I had been partying with all that time, were beginning to get sick of my ways!

I headed back to Melbourne, hoping for a fresh start.

But my bad decisions continued! I partied harder. Was out getting drunk most weekends, still looking for the "male attention". Seriously, I'm no saint. I was sleeping around, doing drugs, lying about almost everything. I was pushing myself to the physical limits of how much I could actually take - every single weekend.

My family life suffered most from this, and the people I love most, got so badly hurt by the things that I had chosen for my life.

(Here is where the story gets good...)

One day, whilst at my desk at work, the Lord breathed truth back into my spirit.

There was no fancy, over-the-top, worship songs "persuading my thoughts" (as some critics may love to say).

There was no preacher yelling into a microphone telling me to repent.

Nothing.

Just the Lord asking me to Come Back.

WOW.

Why had I been wasting all that time?

Why was I even worthy of GOD to ask ME to come back to him?

I'M NOT WORTHY OF HIS LOVE!

I surrended my life back to Jesus that day.

So far, the road has been so hard! I have had to loose bad habits, one thing at a time... I have had so much criticism because people have only known the "bad-decision-making Chelsea".

I now choose to live for the Lord, am learning new things about him every day.

I have completely stopped drinking, smoking and drug-taking and the sleeping-around.

I am in church every single Sunday. I am telling people about the love of Jesus. I'm soon to be starting out in Youth Ministry and I plan to become a soldier in The Salvation Army within the next month.

Please hear me out, I AM NOT PERFECT.
I screw it up all the time! And I'm continuely asking my Lord for forgiveness. I am learning everyday how I can live more holy, how to be like Jesus.


My LORD is perfect. I choose to serve him. He is the single most best thing that has ever ever EVER happened to me! He is worthy of all praise!

I have been finding, so far, that a lot of my inspiration for my blogspots are coming from sermons i here at my church. So let me state plain and clear, these ideas aren't original... not my own... just sharing with you that which inspires me... that which is on my heart... i hope that in some way they might encourage you aswell.

Today at church, my Dad (Captain Gary Grant) preached. Such a legend that man! love him to bits!

Anyways, he was talking about the 7 letters, to 7 churches, 7 'Overcome Instructions', 7 rewards.
Now to get what I'm talking about, you are definately going to have to pick up a BIBLE (yes, this requires extra reading, so do it!) and you will need to read Revelation 2 & 3.

John wrote to the early church, giving them each instruction on 'how to' and 'what to' overcome... and in turn if they overcame these things what their rewards would be from our heavenly father.

We each have things to overcome, whether that might be laziness, anger issues, sexual immorality, pride, gossiping, being "spiritually dead", etc. (I'm sure I could list a lot more!)
Truth is, God wants us to OVERCOME those things that hold us back! HE WANTS THE BEST FOR US! God is FOR us, not against us!!!

Overcoming these things might not exactly be easy! But you know what? when we overcome....we have the Eternal kind of rewards!!! I'm so excited about that!

Please guys, read up on Revelation 2 and 3... some brilliant stuff in there!!!

Remember.... JESUS IS COMING!!!