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Spiritual Game Changers Part 2
Two weeks ago I started this list with #1-5 in Spiritual Game Changers Part 1. Please scroll back to read that first if you missed it. Here are the last 5: What else would you add? A lifetime is not long enough to get to know the One Who knows us best and loves us most! Banner photo by Jose Castillo on Unsplash, inset photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash
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Spiritual Game Changers Part 1
At this stage of life, and I have a lot of life behind me (although I’ll never get old!), I’ve looked back over my years and my walk with Jesus and thought about what has given me the ability to keep breathing when life is difficult. Especially if one difficulty leads to another and another. What is it that causes us to walk in faith throughout our lives? What keeps our focus on those things that will sustain us on into eternity? How do we allow God to use every circumstance in our life to draw us into a deeper walk of faith? Here in part 1 are the first…
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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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5 Women With a Connection…Part 5
Do you sometimes wish you had this idyllic background and life story that was filled with family, faith and obedience? The women we’ve studied in this series all had issues, pain and loss…just like us. This final post in this series looks at Mary (Luke 1-2). Different in many ways from the other 4. They included one who betrayed and slept with her father-in-law, one was a prostitute, one had paganism in her background, and one was an adulteress. Then there is this humble Jewish teenager. Mary engaged to a man and, no doubt, excited about planning a wedding and looking forward to a home filled with love and children.…
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My Soul’s Longing
Something occurred to me recently regarding why I want others to know Jesus and why my heart for discipleship has been a calling now for about 40 years or so. Because it was quite a few years between my salvation and the first time someone personally discipled me and showed me how to grow in Christ, I do not want that to be the story for other new believers. Some days, even during difficult seasons, my time with the Lord just causes my soul to soar and all I can think is, “I so want others to experience this satisfying joy.” A joy that transcends earthly concerns and pain. The…
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Lessons from #MoDawg
Listening has been the theme of some recent posts, today is another. You may know that our 12 year old Yorkie Mo has been blind for about 2 years. Today we took him kayaking, which he loves, and also for a walk in the park. In the past, we let him off the leash to run his legs off. Then he went blind. He still loves the freedom to run. Although we let him off his leash occasionally in an open field, he’s much slower than before, more cautious, and he depends on our voice commands to guide him safely, and so he can locate us. Today as we watched…
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The Cost of Leadership Part 8
Please start with the first 7 posts in this series if you haven’t already. This is the final segment. Cost 5: the cost of giving ministry away. As some point, the Lord will ask us to leave behind a place of ministry we have led. He may ask us to serve differently, or He may call us home to eternity. The question is, what do we leave behind? We must ask the question now: have I invested well so that God’s work continues even after I am no longer around? Our job it to obey and serve the best we can, then step away when He directs us to do…
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The Cost of Leadership Part 7
Please start with the first 6 posts in this series if you haven’t already. The seventh aspect in the cost of going deeper is battles. Followers of Christ have an adversary, and his name is Satan. His desire is to keep us from knowing, serving, and trusting Christ as we walk with Him. At times we will carry scars from the battles with him. Ultimately Christ has won the war, but this side of heaven the enemy still has influence on earth that we will face continually. It may come through painful relationships, failure, criticism from others, health…any number of situations in which we face spiritual warfare. Even when we…
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The Cost of Leadership Part 6
Please start with the first 5 posts in this series if you haven’t already. The fifth aspect of the cost of going deep is prayer, and the time it takes to pray. Deeper for me was when our daughter walked away from our family for 8 years. And God called my husband and me to continue walking and serving faithfully when the waves we had to cross got even bigger. We continued to pray for years that the Lord would bring her back, keep her safe and draw her to Himself. Sometimes as we serve and lead, God does not answer for a long time. But He is at work even…
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The Cost of Leadership Part 5
Please start with the first 4 posts in this series if you haven’t already. The second aspect in the cost of going deep involves laying down our fears through our faith in Him. For me, the deep, was when He first called me to speak in front of my church. If you know me, you’ve heard me say, I’d never be a public speaker. Deeper was when the Lord called me to LifeWay to continue serving out the call to disciple women, this time training church leaders across the country how to effectively develop ministries for women that help them grow deep! Laying down fear takes courage. Just look through…
