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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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Time for a Reassessment?
Have you ever been moving along, things were going well and you knew you were in the center of God’s will…then for some reason you find yourself totally thinking…”It must be time for a change, this doesn’t feel right anymore.” I have. Right in the middle of following God’s surprising purpose in my life and ministry. My call didn’t happen overnight. It was a gradual pull by the Holy Spirit to grow deeper in Christ, serve Him by serving others and then eventually into vocational ministry for women. Definitely not my plan…not even on my radar. But having felt so blessed and fulfilled to GET to serve Christ and others…
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7 Things to Do When Facing Times of Discontentment
OK, I hadn’t planned on any more posts on this topic, but you know how it is…God seems to always test me on what I’m teaching and claim to believe. Shouldn’t come as a surprise. That’s what happened right after I spoke on this topic at a church and after I completed this series. If you missed it you can read that series here: part 1, part 2, part 3 and Part 4. The day after I spoke on this topic, I can’t even remember why, but I experienced discontentment. My thoughts were…”what’s up with this?” and I felt as though God said, “Where is YOUR contentment?” It was a moment to prove what I…
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Contentment..No Matter What Part 4: Transformational Steps
This is the last of this series on contentment, and can I say that even this weekend, after teaching on this at a women’s event Friday night, I’ve been challenged to stand on what I believe about contentment. You can read part 1, part 2, and part 3 if you missed those. Then come back and let’s get practical! We must remember, we do not have the whole picture..but God does! Paul understood this. He said in Philippians 4:11-13, “I don’t say this out of need, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I find myself. I know both how to make do with little, and I know how to make do…
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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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I Surrender!
The white flag is up! Time to let go. Time to give up whatever we’ve been holding back and allow Jesus to use it for His glory. What is that for you? I can think of many things over the years I’ve held onto thinking I can control them better if I do. How about you? Are you holding on to any of these?: job children spouse other relationship finances fear failure unfogiveness life purpose loss selfish will time gifts, talents and abilities personal plan what would you add? I wonder if we hold because we think we can do a better job than the “King of the World” can!…
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Finally, Retreat Time! 8 Tips for Retreating Often
Yes, don’t you wish you were saying “retreat time” right now and heading out for a weekend at your favorite place…alone or with a few people? Me too! I’m so grateful for those week long stays at my favorite place, the Gulf Coast beach. Last year my husband and I began a new tradition: a month at the beach! Sometimes I have to schedule it around speaking engagements, or as I will do this year, fly from Perdido Key (via Pensacola) to the East coast, Miami! But that extended time of rest and reflection is something I truly look forward to. When I was in full time vocational ministry, that…
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Your Memorial Stones
I wrote last week about stepping into the water and told you I wanted to follow up this week talking about memorial stones. So read that post first if you didn’t see it last week. In Joshua 4, after the Israelites had stepped into the water, saw the waters part, and walked across on dry land, God gave Joshua a directive. He said to choose a person from each of the 12 tribes to go back into the dry river bed and choose 12 stones (boulders, actually, that had to be lifted onto their shoulders) to build a memorial. What were these stones for? Why did God tell them to do this?…
