Thursday, March 26, 2009

Finally....

...I've had a chance to look over all my notes from the Beth Moore conference and I'm now ready to post about them. Beth taught from Galatians a wonderful book about living out the Christian faith. Here are just a few of the things I learned that weekend.

1. When misery visits our lives we sometimes go to one of 2 extremes:

Repression - stuff it; not deal with it; try to ignore it or act like it doesn't exist - all that does is make us sick.

Rebellion - the other extreme is to do something stupid that you will regret later.

Instead, find our hearts over the matter; get real and get reverent with God. The enemy can just as easily get you with distraction as he can with destruction. Don't let anything get you off target/off focus.

2. God is not sorry He made me. He has good taste!! (creative, but good :)
I haven't been chosen by men, I've been chosen by God. Don't get in the mud and wrestle with people who like to mud-wrestle. Let other people get ugly if they want to, but don't get ugly with them. Let God take revenge on them. He's good at it. Nothing gets past God. (Gal. 6:10)

3. Don't seek people's approval, seek God's (Gal. 1:10)
Be somebody's else's refreshment and don't get cynical. Don't try to please people - only God.
When you work with people, expect titanic problems. Peter was weak and Paul was proud. We work for God - not people. We work with a lot of sick people, but that's what paramedics do!

4. Choose to trust - not to rust!
I am God's maidservant. I was made to serve Him. Feed what you want to grow. In other words, if you want the spirit to grow, feed the spirit. Otherwise, if you feed the flesh or anything like that, you will reap the dregs.

5. Don't trade one bondage for another one - get rid of those chains altogether!
Memorize scripture to tear down strongholds. Get about 20 scriptures memorized so that you can refer to them at any time. Quote scripture to yourself in your head AND outloud.
Don't ignore your problems. Get restored, then help others get restored.

Well, those are the top 5 things I learned. There are many others, but I will end it all by just saying these words that Beth said to us:

KEEP THE KING THE THING!

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Whew....

....I feel like I flew to Nashville in a whirlwind. It was so incredible but it was too fast....it flew by. I finally came up with my 6 words (see the last post). These are the 6 words I came up with to describe my life before Christ: pretty good, but not good enough!

The Minister's wives event was incredible. There were approximately 1,200 minister's wives in attendance. Beth was funnier than I remember her being in a long time. We laughed until we cried. Then we really cried when she told a touching story about her neighbor who died of cancer. She gave us all gifts....some of her books....she is a very generous person!!

I am going to process all my notes from this weekend, and then I will write another post. I'm so thankful that the Lord is patient with us, aren't you? He's still working on us. He hasn't or won't ever give up. One song we kept singing over and over this weekend was: "You Never Let Go!" That is sooooooo true - the Lord will never let go of us. I don't know about you, but that's a comforting thought to me!

Here I sit in Nashville, Tennessee....

....in a hotel room and I haven't slept a wink. It's 3:15 in the morning and all I can think about is how great the conference was last night at the Beth Moore Living Proof Life Event for Minister's Wives. Travis and the team led in anointed praise and worship of Almighty God.....whew.....just about enough to live on for quite a while. And Beth was so inspiring that I can't even turn off my mind long enough to get a wink of sleep. I just keep thinking about all that she said and how much closer to the Lord I want to be. He is so faithful. I wish I was more faithful to Him. I've been to the mountain top and I don't want to ever go back to living in a pit. And, for that matter, I don't want any of my friends or family to ever live in a pit again. The secret is to allow the Lord to be our # 1. No other gods....no other idols....no other people or things above Him. When we are desperate enough for Him that we will go to Him to meet our needs instead of other people, then we will feel the satisfaction we are longing for.

Beth asked us to come up with six words that would describe our life before we met Christ. She assigned it as homework. I have to come up with something before 8:30 this morning....yikes...that's only 5 more hours!!!! What do you think? Here are a few I've come up with but I'm not sold on any of them.

Went to church, even before born.
Saved at seven, called at seventeen.
Went to church, every time open.
Raised in a Christian home, PTL!

Anyone out there got any suggestions for me of something a little more snappy?

Monday, March 9, 2009

Praying for a sister church

Please join me in praying for FBC Maryville, Illinois. This church is not very far from St. Louis. They lost their Pastor yesterday to a gun man who just came into the church and shot the Pastor. Here is my prayer for them. Please join me in praying:

"Father, we lift up the family of Rev. Winters. Please comfort his wife and children, and also the church family at First Baptist of Maryville. Lord, we also pray for the gun man, that he will come to know you. We also lift up his family and the other families of the ones who were injured. We know that you will bring good out of this tragic situation. In Jesus Name, Amen."

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Facebook

I am now on Facebook. I don't have everything figured out on it yet, because I just signed up today. I will make an attempt to get it going, so if you want to be my friend, just let me know.

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Memory Verse

Here's my newest verse I'm working on.

"Ah, Lord God. Behold You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm. There is nothing too hard for You. You show lovingkindness to thousands." Jer. 32:17-18a

What verse are you memorizing?

Monday, March 2, 2009

Can You Guess?




What this is a picture of? I bet you will never guess. It's something very near and dear to my heart. As a matter of fact, the more I get to know them, the more I love them!



Can you believe what started out looking like that, ends up this cute?
How many of you believe I'm telling the truth??????