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Helpful Blogs for Current Times
The church, and people of faith, are seeking to share the hope of Christ in a world that seems to be falling apart. People leaving their faith, sometimes in later years of life, violence occurring every day, hopelessness on every corner. It’s tough to lead when we feel overwhelmed. I pray these blogs will encourage and challenge you to endure in the place the Lord has called you to serve. 1 You have heard much about what women in the church need today. Here are some key issues that must be in place to reach and disciple women effectively. Check out What the Church Must Provide Women in Today’s Culture…
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When It Just Won’t End!
What else? How long? Have you asked that once or twice in the last couple of years, the last couple of weeks, as I have? Jut about the time things seem to be healing or changing, a variant COVID pops up. Then world events just take our breath away. Add to that personal crises, several friends who are in a health fight for their lives, on and on. Seriously? What’s next?…I guess the same thing that I wrote about so recently in He Speaks, before the last couple of “issues” mentioned above popped up. So this is how that morning a couple of days ago played out as I did…
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Time for Blog Sharing
Here are a few great posts I wanted to share this week to encourage you to read lots of bloggers’ material. Enjoy! 1. Although I feel all Christians are called to ministry, full time even, I do believe some are called to serve in vocational ministry as a career. Either way, this is a list for all to consider, from LifeWay Voices. Am I Called to Ministry? A Checklist to Consider by Dr. Jason Allen 2. Church is changing at such a fast pace. I love reading Carey’s posts that alert leaders about trends to consider for discovering how God wants our church to reach people in today’s world. 11…
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Sharing Our Prodigal Story
Just a week or so ago, my daughter and I had the privilege to share our “prodigal” story on Leighann McCoy’s new podcast. One thing I’ve experienced over many years of teaching women is how God encourages ME when I get to remember what He has done and tell others of His work. I’ve witnessed His faithfulness in every single tough situation He has allowed into my life. One of those stories was the topic that Leighann asked me to share on this podcast, The Power of Praying Momma’s: Praying your Prodigal Home. I asked her if she would like for me to ask my daughter to also be on…
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I KNOW I KNOW!
I read Psalm 16 today, a beautiful testimony of David about his God, his Refuge. It took me back once again, to my Hurricane Sally experience. If you’ve read my previous posts (Part 1: Peace Over the Storms, here, Part 2: My Cornerstone here, and Part 3: More Lessons from Hurricane Sally here), you know I said, I THOUGHT the last one was the final in that series. Well, I guess it wasn’t! Processing this experience just takes time. In Psalm 16 (feel free to stop and read it, it’s short), David claims God as his Lord as he prayed for protection. He mentions relying on God’s counsel at night…
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More Lessons From Hurricane Sally
I’m till processing and learning from our experience of riding out Hurricane Sally. This is the third, and probably (although I’m not promising) the last post on this. I’d encourage you to read the first two posts (Part 1: Peace Over the Storms, here and Part 2: My Cornerstone here) before you start this third post. Sometimes it takes a while to process an experience and see God’s hand in it all. I believe with all my heart God is sovereign and not one thing happens without His permission as well as His purpose. So I’m warning you, this is not a short post since I process God’s lessons partially…
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MY Cornerstone!
Photo by Joel Filipe on Unsplash As I write this series following Hurricane Sally, I’d love to encourage you to read the first post, Peace Over the Storms, here before you start this second post. When a building is constructed, it has what is called a cornerstone to make it secure and give direction to the building. It unites two masonry walls and is the starting place for construction. It’s absolutely essential, or indispensable, to the building. Personally, I am so grateful for the cornerstone in the 18 floor (we were on 16) condominium we were in while on vacation in Perdido Key when Hurricane Sally chose make landfall in…
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Peace Over the Storms
Normally, by now, during our extended time at the beach each fall, I’ve had a number of “beach lessons”. Until today (September 14, the day I began this post), this year I’d not had what I consider a beach lesson, although I’ve had lots of balcony Jesus time. This morning, this was the scene I watched as tropical storm Sally was about to become hurricane Sally. This is the third coastal hurricane we’ve experienced, but it’s not something we ever look forward to by any means! Waves were crashing and, yet, I felt safe sitting on the 16th floor balcony of our condo looking down at the churning water. All…
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Are You Listening???
Do you ever wonder if God hears our cry for Him to do something? Perhap’s it’s been a long season of praying and not seeing any answers. Do you think, maybe He’s not listening, maybe He doesn’t know, maybe He doesn’t want to fix this? I think the real problem isn’t whether or not He hears us, but whether or not, we hear Him. Too often, I just miss His answers, or maybe I’m just not intentionally looking for them. And I too often look only for answers as I want them to appear! Daily we see people listening intently through ear buds of one kind of another. We put…
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4 Pandemic Lessons
I recently spoke virtually to women’s leaders in Baptist Convention of New York sharing some of the things I have learned during the pandemic. I limited it to only 4 of those many lessons and wanted to share them with you today in this post. Since December, I’ve been reminded of a post by Noe Garcia on Jeremiah 29:11. He shared how that verse is a follow up to the message that Israel would be in captivity a long time, and while there, the Lord told them through the prophet Jeremiah to settle in, marry and have children, grow crops and be fruitful. I actually wrote on this in January…
