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From Unbelief to Pillar
When you think of a pillar, what’s your first thought? Strong? Holding up something? Foundational? Been there a long time? All of these are accurate pictures of a pillar. Various shapes and types of pillars are used in buildings. Now, think of a person as a pillar. One who holds up something. Again, we see lots of different things and ways people are pillars. What about you? What are you holding up? What do you support? Are you like everyone else you know? Or an individual God has shaped to hold up His values and truth, different from any other Christ-follower to bring His glory to your part of the…
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Grand Girl’s Camp Crisis & God’s Provision
If you have read this blog for long, you’ve been introduced to my daughters, Amanda Dugger and Alycia Neighbours. Alycia has written several blog posts for me, and today you will read another one. Our family lived alongside Alycia through the stories you are about to read, one 8 years ago, and the other this summer. She has such a powerful way of showing how God works in and through each situation and I know you will be blessed by today’s post: Yesterday (heck this whole past week) has been a bear. This time of year is always hard as we approach the anniversary of when my late husband took…
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Wilderness Temptations
After 7 months in the Old Testament, my D-Group just moved into the New Testament using NT260. I read this week, once again, about Jesus’ temptations in the wilderness right after His baptism and His pubic ministry began. I began to try to put the temptations the devil used with Jesus into current application for my life. The enemy continually seeks to pull our focus from what God has called and commanded us to be and do for Him. Perhaps you can relate to one or more of these that I identify with. You can find this series of temptations in Luke 4:1-13 (also found in Matthew 4:1-11, in a…
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When Social Media Isn’t “Social”
Have you ever been misunderstood, criticized or even attacked on social media? It’s painful, is’t it? It’s frustrating when someone assumes they know your intent better than you do. Without hearing the sound of our voice, a person doesn’t really know how we said what we said. Often we think that our own opinion is the only one that is correct and assume we know what is best for someone else. I was on the opposite side of this coin recently. Someone asked a question whether we’d ever had a man in our lives who has encouraged our leadership as a woman. I responded with the name of a former…
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Daily Nurture
I love this time of year and being able to have color on my deck! I spend a LOT of time out here and though I’m not a great gardener, I love flowers. During this season, I must water these daily, even twice a day on a couple if it’s really hot and dry. If not…they look like this! You can see what happens if I neglect to nurture these beautiful flowers daily. It also remind me of what happens in my spiritual life if I neglect to nurture it continually. In John 15 we see the image of being attached to the vine and being severed from the vine.…
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Teamwork That Works!
We have quite a menagerie behind our house that includes deer, squirrels, rabbits, birds, ground hogs and sometimes a fox. So we enjoy watching nature at work before our eyes. This past week I was working in my home office and heard my husband Pat say, “Well, that’s something I’ve never seen before!” When I asked what he’d seen, he said it was a squirrel scampering off with a peach in his mouth. Our neighbors have a peach tree that we have watched grow for several years, so that squirrel found himself a treasure. We’d noticed that although there had only been peaches hanging ON the tree and none on…
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WHOSE Plan?
How many of you are list makers? You like a plan and you like to stick with it? You set out the day with YOUR plan and check off each item as it is completed. I get that. How many of you, like me, often make this plan without consulting with our Creator? Who knows the plan and purpose of our day (and life!) better than He does? Sometimes I move into my plan without remembering this! As I look back over many years of ministry, I see times I pushed my plan through at any cost. Then I remember those times when things weren’t going according to my plan,…
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Pruning for Greater Harvest
When we lived in Tyler, Texas, my parents moved close by and had a home on 10 acres. This land included a peach orchard of about 60 trees. My dad was so excited…then we had peaches! But he saw that many of the limbs were so heavy with peaches, they broke. He learned that you must prune the trees back so they can produce healthier and a more abundant amount of peaches. I have had several Knockout roses in my yard, and for years, I’d enjoy some blooms but I never cut them back. I’d see my neighbors huge bushes full of blooms. Finally I decided to pinch off dead…
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Strength as We Mature
If you haven’t read the other posts in this series, you can read those here: (1), (2), and (3). This post is a follow up and the final post in this series. I’m very encouraged by the church trend predictions from Carey Nieuwhof 10 Predictions about the Future Church and Shifting Attendance Patterns especially these two: If this is true, are we ready as church members and as disciplemakers to serve selflessly? Do we just continue to do Bible study after Bible study without our lives being transformed as a result of what we are studying? Are we leading women’s Bible studies in this way? If so, it’s time for…
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More Spiritual Maturity Indicators
The last couple of weeks, we’ve looked at the need for discipleship and some indicators of maturity as a disciple. Today I want us to consider as few more indicators. Some time ago, Kathy Ferguson Litton, Director of Planter Spouse Development at the North American Mission Board, wrote a blog post (What Spiritual Maturity Really Looks Like) on this subject and I’ve adapted from that post for us to consider this list of indicators. Some of these I’ve personally experienced and wondered why. Now…evaluate your own growth using this assessment. How many of these can you answer “true”? For those you struggle with, pray for God to help you take…
