Monday, August 31, 2009
Big Prayers, Big Answers, Part 2!
Alright ladies, I am receiving tons of e-mails with great stories of how God moved in your life this past weekend. It's time to share your stories with others! Let's hear how God spoke to you through His Word this weekend and some of the decisions you have made!
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Big Prayers - Big Answers!
Hello Ladies! I am so excited to share with you what I'm about to say I can hardly stand it! Leading up to the Beth Moore simulcast this weekend I have been reading and praying Isaiah 29:13-14. I have desperately prayed that God would cause His daughters to no longer draw near to Him with only their mouths and honor Him with only their lips and yet have hearts that are far from Him. I have prayed that our worship of Him would be authentic and not be made up merely of rules taught by men (v. 13). I believe with my whole heart that God wants to astound us with wonder upon wonder (v. 14) and that He will, if we will turn our hearts back to Him in true worship and repentance. Oh how I prayed that for us this weekend! A group of us gathered every week and prayed for God to tear down the walls that divide us like denominational walls, racial walls, socioeconomic walls, etc. These are issues that were heavy on our hearts as we met with God and poured our hearts out to Him before this weekend's event.
For those of you reading this that were there, you know without a doubt that God answered Big Time! There is not enough space here to share every detail of how God moved this weekend, but I want to highlight the two of the most obvious.
First, we had serious issues with our satellite feed on Friday evening due to the storm and at the worst point, actually lost feed altogether. That's when so many of you hit you knees and so many of you stood to your feet and we sent desperate cries to our Father to move His mighty hand over the storm, part the clouds and make a way for us to receive the Word He had for us that night.... and He did! Just in time to hear the message He had laid on Beth's heart. And we heard the entire thing without so much of a glitch! Praise His Holy and Mighty Name!! What a wonderful show of His power! I LOVE it when He shows up just in time like that!!
Secondly, God answered our prayers of tearing down the denominational walls in a HUGE way! When I got home last night I began thumbing through the cards you filled out that asked what church you were visiting us from. Now I figured the numbers were going to be high because there were so many of you there this weekend, but I had no idea the surprise I was in for when I began to make a list of all the different churches. Are you ready for this??? There were ONE HUNDRED AND ONE different churches represented there this weekend!!! Glory to God! We had ladies there from every denomination you can think of from Catholic to Lutheran to Methodist to Baptist and everything in between! Only God can do that! What a beautiful picture of the unity Jesus spoke of in John 17! I know He delighted in seeing His daughters worship Him in unity!
I want to say thank you to all of you who were there this weekend and thank you to all of you who worked so hard to make sure this weekend was a success. I hope that we will remember what we learned - God delights in us and our biggest delight in life is when we learn to delight in Him. He is the Ultimate Desire of our hearts!
I love you all dearly!
For those of you reading this that were there, you know without a doubt that God answered Big Time! There is not enough space here to share every detail of how God moved this weekend, but I want to highlight the two of the most obvious.
First, we had serious issues with our satellite feed on Friday evening due to the storm and at the worst point, actually lost feed altogether. That's when so many of you hit you knees and so many of you stood to your feet and we sent desperate cries to our Father to move His mighty hand over the storm, part the clouds and make a way for us to receive the Word He had for us that night.... and He did! Just in time to hear the message He had laid on Beth's heart. And we heard the entire thing without so much of a glitch! Praise His Holy and Mighty Name!! What a wonderful show of His power! I LOVE it when He shows up just in time like that!!
Secondly, God answered our prayers of tearing down the denominational walls in a HUGE way! When I got home last night I began thumbing through the cards you filled out that asked what church you were visiting us from. Now I figured the numbers were going to be high because there were so many of you there this weekend, but I had no idea the surprise I was in for when I began to make a list of all the different churches. Are you ready for this??? There were ONE HUNDRED AND ONE different churches represented there this weekend!!! Glory to God! We had ladies there from every denomination you can think of from Catholic to Lutheran to Methodist to Baptist and everything in between! Only God can do that! What a beautiful picture of the unity Jesus spoke of in John 17! I know He delighted in seeing His daughters worship Him in unity!
I want to say thank you to all of you who were there this weekend and thank you to all of you who worked so hard to make sure this weekend was a success. I hope that we will remember what we learned - God delights in us and our biggest delight in life is when we learn to delight in Him. He is the Ultimate Desire of our hearts!
I love you all dearly!
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Don't Waste Your Breath!
Paulette has talked a lot about Joshua lately, and though I've read the book before, I decided to read it afresh, with new eyes, an open heart, and a listening ear. Let me tell ya, God is faithful and it fell FRESH.
So I was reading Joshua 1 and I noticed in vs. 9 that God told Joshua, "Do not be terrified, do not be discouraged..". Now we know that God would never waste his breath, right? He'd never say something that doesn't need to be said. So the obvious implication is that Joshua was terrified and discouarged! Moses was dead. Joshua was now the leader of the Israelites. He was in charge of getting them into their promised land!!! That would be enough to make me scared out of my mind, too! So what happened after God COMMANDED Joshua NOT to be afraid and worried?
Verse 10 - "So Joshua ordered the officers of the people..."
Yep - he BELIEVED what God said and TOOK ACTION accordingly.
But that is not exactly where I'm going with this. That seems to be the more obvious point, right? When God speaks, take action! Believe Him! What struck me the most is that if God doesn't waste words, then I shouldn't either!!! OUCH.
How often do I waste my words ~ saying something that someone else does NOT need to hear? Something that I WANT them to hear, but is it life-giving and encouraging and full of truth? And on the flip side, how often do I miss opportunities, or even worse, how often do I fail (BY CHOICE) to tell others what they DO need to hear? If my husband has had a rough day, am I too consumed with myself to encourage him because, "Hey! I've had a rough day, too!" The examples are endless, aren't they?
The point is: God ALWAYS tells us what we need to hear.. and He NEVER tells us what we don't need to hear. I plan to make this a personal goal in my relationships... while fully submitting to the awesome power of the Holy Spirit to bring it about! Wanna join me?
So I was reading Joshua 1 and I noticed in vs. 9 that God told Joshua, "Do not be terrified, do not be discouraged..". Now we know that God would never waste his breath, right? He'd never say something that doesn't need to be said. So the obvious implication is that Joshua was terrified and discouarged! Moses was dead. Joshua was now the leader of the Israelites. He was in charge of getting them into their promised land!!! That would be enough to make me scared out of my mind, too! So what happened after God COMMANDED Joshua NOT to be afraid and worried?
Verse 10 - "So Joshua ordered the officers of the people..."
Yep - he BELIEVED what God said and TOOK ACTION accordingly.
But that is not exactly where I'm going with this. That seems to be the more obvious point, right? When God speaks, take action! Believe Him! What struck me the most is that if God doesn't waste words, then I shouldn't either!!! OUCH.
How often do I waste my words ~ saying something that someone else does NOT need to hear? Something that I WANT them to hear, but is it life-giving and encouraging and full of truth? And on the flip side, how often do I miss opportunities, or even worse, how often do I fail (BY CHOICE) to tell others what they DO need to hear? If my husband has had a rough day, am I too consumed with myself to encourage him because, "Hey! I've had a rough day, too!" The examples are endless, aren't they?
The point is: God ALWAYS tells us what we need to hear.. and He NEVER tells us what we don't need to hear. I plan to make this a personal goal in my relationships... while fully submitting to the awesome power of the Holy Spirit to bring it about! Wanna join me?
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)