My Shield Against Sin

We recently began a new series in our church Ladies Bible Study. We are studying the book of James together. Wow what a book! We are only 12 verses into it and have been challenged! I love it when God does that...when He works in our lives in an unmistakable way.

As I was preparing to teach the next lesson, I was reminded how God did not leave us without defenses against the temptations of Satan. He provided a way of escape for each and every temptation we encounter. That fact is not something I did not know; however, I most certainly needed reminded. I am without excuse. I have no one to blame my sin on but myself! Ouch! I cannot use the age-old excuse, "the Devil made me do it."

As we studies the defenses that the Lord has given us to defeat Satan we were reminded of how Jesus always used Scripture. How good God is to provide us with a ready defense against the wiles of the Devil. This morning as I was reading my Bible God directed me to Proverbs 30:5~"Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him."

Today, I just want to praise the Lord for giving me a shield!

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What is life's purpose?

This morning while walking through the hallway at our Christian school, I was stopped by one of our teachers. She asked me to come into the class and enter a debate, of sorts, that they were having.

Apparently one of the girls in class had voiced her opinion that her goal in life was to be happy. At the end of the day all that matters, is whether she is happy or not. The teacher was concerned with her answer, as she should have been. It an earnest desire to help this young, beautiful, everything-going-for- her-girl, the teacher plead with her to please hear her...the ultimate goal in life is NOT to be happy. Happiness comes and goes. Happiness if often based on our circumstances. The wise teacher told her to seek JOY that can only come from the Lord.

So, in I walk. All eyes turn and the students looked eagerly to see whose side I was going to take. Wow, talk about peer pressure. :) I shared with this sweet, misguided girl, her class, and her teacher, something my Dad told me on countless occasions. As Dad so often directed me, I sent her to Revelation 4:11. It gives us our purpose in one concise verse. It says, "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created."

I am designed to bring God pleasure. I have an ultimate purpose to all that I do and say. The key, as I understand it, to bringing God pleasure, is to glorify Him. In essence, I need to live my life in a way that glorifies Him! I Corinthians 10:31 gives clear direction to how I am supposed to do this. "Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God."

True satisfaction from a job well done will come in my life when I bring glory to God. As it was said by CT Studd, "Only one life twill soon be past, Only what's done for Christ will last."

I pray the girl heard, both with her mind and heart, what was said to her today. She is at an age where doors are opening and she has countless opportunities. I pray that she and I both use our lives to bring God pleasure.

I just wanted to thank all of you for taking time to stop by here. Recently there have been several more readers and I wanted to greet you personally. I pray that something on here will be an encouragement to you. God bless!

Always A Student

Growing up, Mom and Dad, encouraged my sister and I to always be a student, continue to learn. My education did not end with my college graduation ceremony. I must strive to grow, learn, and mature even though my formal education ended many years ago. There is something beautiful about a woman who has a teachable spirit. I want that in my life. Proverbs 15:14 says, "The heart of him that hath understanding seeketh knowledge; but the mouth of fools feedeth on foolishness."

We as Christian women, must stay alert and curious. There are more things to learn than is possible for any one human. So, what are we to do? Where should we concentrate our efforts in learning? We must stay focused on learning things that will help us as a Christian, a woman, a wife, a mother, etc. We can never lose our hunger and thirst for knowledge. Our first and most important source of knowledge is the Bible. We must study it and glean the great truths it holds. God put everything we needed to know until His return in His Word! Remember we are commanded in II Timothy 2:15-"Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." We must meditate on Scripture, memorize it, and certainly apply it!

Other resources we have are endless. Christian friends and those who have gone on before us can serve as excellent examples of God's truths. They can help encourage and guide us. Learn from them. Christian authors can share knowledge they have gone to great lengths to accumulate. Reap the benefits of their hard work. We ought to be careful to always filter what we read or are taught through Scripture. If our "knowledge" does not line up with the Bible, it does not matter how good or logical it sounds, we cannot adhere to it! We must live our lives on the God's Word. However, we must know it do to that. :) We must be students of the Word of God!

*Psalm 78:1, "Give ear, O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth."
*Proverbs 5:1,2, "My son, attend unto my wisdom, and bow thine ear unto my understanding: That thou mayest regard discretion and that thy lips may keep knowledge."
*Proverbs 4:1. "Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father, and attend to know understanding."
*Isaiah 1:17, "Learn to do well..."
*Hosea 4:6, "My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge..."

It may take some effort and work on our part, but we need to continue to be a student of God's Word! The benefits will far outweigh any and all effort that we give it. God will reward our time and we will be better women because of it. I find my schedule it busy and I have to make cuts regularly to get it all done. One non-negotiable on my schedule is time to study God's Word. I must, and so must you! What is your favorite Bible study tip?

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Iron Friends

This weekend I was blessed to be able to attend a women's retreat hosted by a chruch in Tennessee. This retreat was so very special to me for two reasons. First, my Mom was the speaker and I love being with her anytime! It was fun getting to be roomies for a few days and just enjoy each other's company. The sessions she taught were such an encouragement to me! I probably appreciated them more because I knew how much time and energy she spent preparing and studying for them.

The other highlight of my weekend was seeing my "Iron Girls." A little over 6 years ago, God brought a group of four women together and bound us as friends. They are my Iron Friends as found in Proverbs 27:17- "Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend." God has used each of them, many times to sharpen my countenance. They have encouraged me, been honest with me, even when there were tough things to say, and they have shared many memories.

I share all of this as a reminder that we must be thankful for our friends! True friends like these girls do not come along every day. In fact, our friendships are a direct result of prayer. At the time God brought all of us together, we were all lonely and needed a true, Godly, heart-connected friend.

Personally, I had just moved and left my Mom, sister, and two other heart friends. I was a young mom with little ones, a husband that was finding his way in a new ministry, and I was so very lonely. I was surrounded by people and yet felt very alone. I started praying, asking God to please just help me find one real friend. He blessed my with three!

In the six years we have all been friends, we have gone through many changes in each of our lives. We have since moved again to our current ministry. One of my chums has moved twice due to some very challenging and unexpected circumstances. One recently moved away from our church in Tennessee as her husband took a pastorate in Virginia. And my final chum is leaving in a few short weeks to begin her new life with her family as missionaries in Uganda. God is busy in our group and I pray that continues. As ministry has now spread us out across the globe, we strive to find ways to stay connected. Friendships like these are too valuable to die. We send "round-robin" messages through Face Book and we will begin a Bible study together as soon as our Uganda Girl gets settled. I am blessed beyond measure and I praise God for my friends!!! If you have friends like these, take a moment and let them know how thankful you are for them. If you do not, ask God to connect you with someone. He will!

How do you stay connected with your friends near and far? Leave me a comment with some ideas. Thank you for stopping by today. God bless!

Memorial Stones

We had a wonderful service at our church last evening. Our guest speaker, preached from Joshua 4. We were challenged to put up some reminders or lasting testaments to God's working in our lives. Joshua commanded the children of Israel to take 12 stones, one from each tribe for a rememberance of what God had done. Joshua 4:6,7-That this may be a sign among you, that when your children ask their fathers in time to come saying, What mean ye by these stones? Then ye shall answer them, That the waters of Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord; when it passed over Jordan, the waters of Jordan were cut off: and these stones shall be for a memorial unto the children of Israel for ever.

The fact is, our children will and do have questions about why we go to church, why do we read our Bible, why do we serve God. They may ask do we have to give in the offering, etc. We as parents must be ready to answer them with thoughtful answers. If we merely dismiss their questions as unimportant or assume they are being disrespectful we fail to do as we ought. As our children grow they must develop a PERSONAL relationship with Jesus Christ and I mean far beyond the point of salvation! Truly it ought be every parent's desire to see their children accept Christ's gift of salvation, but we will fail as parents if we do not encourage and help foster a long-lasting relationship between our children and the Lord. Far too many older teens or college age people are dropping out of church and becoming involved in ungodly things. Many times this "failure to thrive" in church is because it is not personal to them. As a pastor's wife this grieves me. I hate to see young adults drop out!!! We as a church are working hard to minister to this age group. It can be such a challenging time. However, as a mom, it scares me. I constantly ask myself what can I do to "transfer my faith" if you will. At some point I know it comes down to each of my boys and their relationship with the Lord. Until that time, while they are under my roof and influence, my husband and I strive to point them to the "stones" of our faith!

We try to live out a genuine faith, not just put on a church face as we head out of the door on Sunday. We have Scripture hanging in a few places in our home. We listen to Godly music we hope will penetrate their hearts. We memorize Scripture together. We attend church together. We serve the Lord together at our church. We spend time in daily life talking, listening, and answering questions. We pray as a family and try to be quick to give God thanks for answered prayers. We share our testimonies with them. We encourage them to have a daily quiet time with the Lord and maybe more importantly we try to model that for them.

I am always trying to find new and more ways to encourage my boys. What are some things that your family does to point your children to the "stones" of your faith?

Preparing my life for revival

As our church continues in our revival services this week it has been amazing to watch God work. We have had people saved and baptized. People have joined the church and come to rededicate their lives to the Lord. I love watching God work! We serve a big God!!!

Each day before the services I have prayed as David said in Psalm 19:7-14 which says, "The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul; the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold. yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover by them is thy servant warned: and in keeping of them there is great reward. Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults. Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be in innocent from the great transgression. Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer."

I am excited about what God will do tonight....