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Mysterious Purpose
Why does it sometimes take pain to push us to grow deeper in Christ? If I could answer I’d be really brilliant. I can’t even explain it to myself in a way that totally makes sense because I could never fully explain God’s ways. Why? Because He’s so much wiser than I am and well, you know…He’s so much more in every way than we are. But we do not have to understand Him or fully explain Him to know Him! As I’ve continued reading chronologically, I am studying Job and although he was a righteous man, the devil was allowed to test him by destroying what was important to…
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Genesis…Again?
Yes, again. But I’ve read it multiple times, why again? I just started my 5th D-Group. Each group has lasted a year to a year and a half. Each group reads through the Bible chronologically using Foundations: F-260, New Testament 260, Old Testament 260 or The Bible in a Year. This new group This is using The Bible in a Year by Kandi Gallaty. And guess what, each time we begin in the beginning because, well, chronologically, it teaches about the beginning of time! I know, not a shock to you who know scripture! (insert smile here) So, this week I’m reading through part of Genesis and Job. What in…
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Posts for the Leader
Sometimes I’ve struggled with how much or how little to share personal as I’ve led. Whether we are using social media, sharing one-on-one or in a group setting, we need to be wise. I’ve always been a pretty transparent person, sharing what is going on in my life as I’ve led. But I also have tried to use discretion, wanting to be sure I didn’t hurt another person by what I shared. I didn’t always get it right. This is a great post by Carey Nieuwhof you must read: The Fine Line Between Oversharing and Undershare as a Leader. LifeWay Research provides many helpful posts for leaders. This one refers…
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Discipleship For Women
If you’ve read my blog in the past, you are probably aware of my love for discipling women. It challenges me to keep learning and growing in my own walk with Christ, and to learn from the women I disciple. Their hunger keeps my own hunger for the Word fueled and my walk with Jesus strong. This week I am linking you to a post I wrote for Get Strong Ministries as a part of their Discipleship Leader Training. On this page (under video session 3) click Leading a Women’s Discipleship Group to read. If you have a heart for discipling women, I pray this will encourage and strengthen your…
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A “Don’t Worry” Reminder
At the end of 2022, I got a call from my doctor’s office about needing some follow-up scans to ones I’d had a few days prior. Not a call you want to get right before Christmas…or anytime really. Unfortunately, they couldn’t schedule the scans until after the first week of January. My first thought was, “I have to go through the holidays with this on my mind? Wondering if there is an unexpected something that will change my life in 2023.” Yes, I would have to go through Christmas and New Year’s celebrations without knowing if something was wrong. Then, I remembered another time, years ago, when I got a…
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More First of the Year Thoughts
How are you are at memorizing scripture? I remember when Beth Moore wrote the study, James: Mercy Triumphs. She challenged those who did the study to take the plunge and memorize, along with her, the entire book of James! I was in my late 50’s and thought, “there is NO way.” Well, there IS a way. Because I like an impossible challenge occasionally, I decided to try it. It took over a year to get it, but it happened. So don’t say you are “too old!” Since then, I have continued to memorize chunks of scripture. I was challenged, at the beginning of 2023, by the last part of my…
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New Year’s Blessings
Thank you for reading my posts in the past. I am so grateful if anything the Lord is teaching me ministers to you. Truly, what you read is not what I’ve mastered, but what He is teaching me, often for the hundredth time! I pray that this coming year, the Lord will use me to continue serving and encouraging you. No matter what we face in the months ahead, glorious joy or the depth of despair, Jesus will walk with us through it all. We will be changed, and we will become stronger in our faith, if we will trust Him completely, even in pain and fear. We will learn…
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Looking Ahead
Do we intentionally make faith more difficult than it is? Sometimes I wonder? As I’ve thought about 2023 and looked ahead as to how I need to grow and make changes, I’ve been drawn back to the “simplicity”, or rather maybe I should say, the single focus, of our faith that leads us to change and growth. In Exodus and Deuteronomy we find God’s 10 commandments given to Moses and all of Israel. The first command, if we get it right, makes all the others possible. Do not have other gods besides me. Exodus 20:3 Sometimes I think I focus on all the others and forget how foundational this really…
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The Word on Waiting
As “waiting” has been on my heart, and in my advent study, I’ve also been working throuh a Melissa Spoelstra study on Isaiah. (Check the blog category for more on the topic of Waiting) Once again, the Lord has connected it all today as I was in Isaiah 49. The author’s focus was “we can trust God’s timing because He sent His Son, Jesus, just as He promised.” This message is very similar to what I’ve learned through the advent study, Our Hope Has Come! So, yes, Lord, I am listening while I’m waiting and waiting and waiting! I needed this reminder today and wanted to share some great waiting…
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The Waiting of the Second Advent
If you missed the last post, please read The Waiting of Advent first. This week the focus is: how we are to wait for what hasn’t happened yet? How do we wait when we have unmet desires? And especially how do we wait for the second and final arrival of Christ? A reminder, these thoughts were generated by the study of Our Hope Has Come as I led our life group through. Though we are never given exact dates for Christ’s return, we are told what we should be doing. The Great Commission, a few of Jesus’ last words to His disciples, is found in Matthew 28:18-20. “All authority has…
