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What Do You Do in a Dry Season?
Ever experienced a long season without answers? Maybe without feeling like you are growing spiritually? Maybe a longtime unanswered prayer? Perhaps you wonder if God is even listening? If you follow this blog often, you, no doubt, are aware that I love the beach. You also may have read my other “beach lessons” posts (check that category if not). And you probably know one of my favorite things to do at the beach is hunt seashells. But the last couple of years have had very little yield. Today as I walked Johnson Beach looking, again I came away empty. As I write this, I have two friends in very treacherous health…
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Who’s in the Spotlight?
Have you ever served Christ in some capacity and it just felt good? Perhaps it was serving in a homeless ministry and you came away feeling blessed yourself. Maybe you helped plan an event for a church gathering and got a few pats on the back and thought, “wow, I might just do this again”? As follower of Christ, we are to serve. In fact we’ve been created to serve. Ephesians 2:10 (which happens to be my life verse) tells us, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” (NKJV) But when we begin to feel good…
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Wanderer, Come Home!
Today my daughter is blogging for me again. And as before, this will no doubt speak to a deep place in many of you. Alycia knows this journey and has seen God’s love wash all over her. All of us have if we are followers of Christ. Our stories are different but our eternity is the same! My hands were full when I tried to quickly shut the backyard gate behind me, but my dog, Walter, was able to quickly squeeze past my legs and he took off into his new-found freedom. I was talking on the phone at the same time and hollered his name. The person on the…
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I Remember
I LOVE this song by Lauren Daigle, Remember. Such a testimony of the faithfulness of who God is and what He has done for us. On this blog site, I have shared previously about how I’ve had quite a bit of history with the Lord (mainly due to my age!). I’ve known Him since I was a pre-teen, but didn’t really know how to GROW in Him as a disciple until I was in my early 20’s and facing my first major life challenge…infertility. It was then I learned to stop seeking MY purpose and to seek HIS purpose for my life. (You can read more in these posts: What’s Your…
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Talent or Spiritual Gift?
Exodus 31:1-5 shows a beautiful picture of God taking a talent and making it a spiritual gift to be used for His glory: “The Lord also spoke to Moses: “Look, I have appointed by name Bezalel son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah. I have filled him with God’s Spirit, with wisdom, understanding, and ability in every craft to design artistic works in gold, silver, and bronze, to cut gemstones for mounting, and to carve wood for work in every craft.” Today’s post by my daughter Alycia is her own personal journey in the area of God’s transforming power to take talent and make it a…
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Who Feeds You?
This year as my husband and I dropped by the office to check in to our condo for our beach vacation, we were greeted by this guy… We wondered if this heron was our welcoming committee! We inquired about him inside the office since he seemed rather tame, having never moved from his spot even as we walked right by him to enter the realty office. The receptionist said he’s there quite a bit and they’d been feeding him. Ahhhh, now I get it. Kind of like the seagulls on the beach if you throw food to them. They will be back! As always, I’m watching for God’s “beach lessons”…
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Restoration and Redemption
Today’s post is written by one of my daughters, Alycia Neighbours, who is blogging for me as we enjoy an extended vacation. You will be touched by her honesty and willingness to help others as a result of her own journey: The prodigal son had reached such a desperate place of despair, he humbled himself to return to his home hoping to be treated as a slave and therefore better than where he had found himself. The lost lamb finds itself separated from everything familiar due to its wandering and bleats out longing for rescue. I was at my rock bottom. Separated from my family, having no friends and…
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Contentment…No Matter What Part 2: Circumstances
Last week we looked at how comparison keeps us from being contented. If you missed it you can read that post here. Today we will look at a second big issue that causes us discontentment: our circumstances. If only…what if…iif I had…if I lived…if I was….THEN I would be content with my life. Have you ever said, “it must be nice…..”? In her book, Lies Women Believe and the Truth that Sets Them Free, author Nancy Leigh DeMoss Wolgemuth says we believe this: “If my situation was different, I would be different.” We always seem to be searching for that elusive state of bliss in life. In the scripture we looked at last week in…
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Contentment…No Matter What Part 1: Comparison
How content are you right now? Be honest. Is it even possible to be content no matter what? Can we accept what Paul says in 1 Timothy 6:6, “Contentment with godliness is great gain?” Can we really experience contentment in the midst of a relationship crisis, job loss, life threatening health situation, brokenness, betrayal, etc…you fill in the blank with your discontent issue. I believe like me, you may struggle with this, at least occasionally. Perhaps our world would be much more pleasant if we weren’t always striving for something “else”. Let’s define contentment as happiness in one’s life situation and discontentment as craving for what we don’t have. We…
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Retired Together…3 Issues and 7 Tips
Some of you may know I retired in 2017 after 22+ years at LifeWay, serving as the women’s ministry specialist. It was such a surprise and an honor to get to do this ministry. I loved my work and am so grateful for all God taught me. But, my husband and I knew that this was the year to retire. I turned 65 the September prior and God made it clear this was the time. God affirmed this in so many ways the last year I was there and my retirement was such a sweet time of celebration. I wasn’t retiring from ministry, just from serving in the capacity I…
