Good morning, sweet friends!    

If you have heard me speak, and you are reading along in Chapter 17 then you probably know exactly where I am headed today:) However, I don’t want to make light of what also speaks to me as I read through Acts and the mission of these men, and perhaps you feel the same?? For me, I have just stood in awe of the love, devotion, and passion  these disciples had for Jesus, and how they spent their lives traveling the land to spread the news of His death and resurrection! They weren’t consumed with their career or homes or food, but focused intently on making a difference for His Kingdom!!!  I know we all at times get “moved” by a cause, or find ourselves passionate about a topic or issue, but how often do we step out boldly to make it known….to see it happen or to make a difference???? I hope you look at their journey and devotion, and it moves you to step out of your comfort zone and share your story…..what has He done for you and who needs to hear it?? You too can make a difference!!!

So what spoke to me most is no surprise…….

  Yes, I was so excited when I got to verse 27, because part of my testimony is the story of me finding Him, and if you have heard me speak, you know I am passionate about this!!! I, like most women, had clung to the words of Jeremiah 29:11

and being honest,I had made it all about me……Oh, He has great plans for me and those plans had to do with becoming a writer or a speaker or a teacher or a mom, but what I found was the greatest plan He could ever have for me was the rest of that verse…..

    After I found this verse and saw the truth of it in my life, I began searching for other verses about finding Him, so I was so very excited to add to my verses of conviction this verse on His desire for us to seek Him and find Him!!! I pray it gives you some conviction too! He is near us, and if we would reach out, we would see that He can be found!!! Remember the ultimate goal while inhabiting this earth is to love him and walk in His ways, and then He says…
I will come and make home with you!! (John 14) What greater gift than Him making home with you????  Sweet friends, I know you may be over hearing me say this, but once again…

That is a woman living her calling:)

A little assignment for the weekend:) This is one audio from seven, but when you click on the first, you should be able to forward through to all seven, and it is about 45-60 minutes. Friends, it is life changing. It is from the book The Bema by Tim Stevenson.  You can’t wait another week to hear this message, so please listen this weekend. Those in the book of life will sit in the Bema Seat or receive the “good” judgement and the blessings for what they have done, and I promise you……… this will change you.

The Bema Judgement 1 of 7

Good morning, sweet friends!    

I hope you are still following me on my mission through Acts. I know that some of you may be missing our becoming the women daily encouragement that we usually share, but we are almost through the book of Acts, and I promise we will return to living our calling…..and for the moment, Acts is our calling:) So I pray you embrace it!!! On to Chapter 16….What spoke to me was this little verse hidden amidst the missions of the disciples……

  He opened her heart:) Lydia was a worshiper of God, and Paul approached her to speak the message of Jesus Christ, and it says the Lord opened her heart to receive the message. I loved  this…..he can open our hearts and the hearts of others to receive the message!! This speaks so much to me…….First, have you ever needed God to do a work on someone’s heart to receive what you were about to tell them?? I don’t know about you, but I am guilty of spending endless hours imagining various scenarios and picking the perfect words before the conversation even begins, praying that the other person would receive my words, but very rarely have I stopped to say….God, would you open to their heart to receive this!!

Second, have you needed Him to open the heart of someone you love to receive the message of salvation???  I heard a preacher from Celebration Church in Florida a few months ago that told us that he was a bouncer at a bar on the LSU campus, when one day he hit is knees and was forever changed, and he claimed it was all because of the endless prayers of his aunt that changed his heart!!! Yes, He can do that too!!

Lastly, what really spoke to me was from my own personal experience! I once did a Beth Moore bible study where she told us to pray for a heart to love Him above all things!!! She said we must pray for Him to change our hearts, because it was nothing we could do in our own strength……we weren’t capable. So, I prayed for God to change my heart, and He did!!! It changed my life, and it is the reason I am even writing you today. I desire it for you too!!

So, sweet friends, find encouragement today that He can change your heart, and more importantly……. He wants to!! Seek this week to stop before you speak, and ask Him to tender the hearts before you. Let your knees get calloused praying for those loved ones knowing that He can change their hearts too!!! He says the greatest commandment is to love Him with all of our heart,  so it is in His will that every single one of us receive a heart for His!!!

Good morning, sweet friends!   
Continuing on our journey through Acts, we are now on Chapter 15, and today is one that I hope brings a little bit of freedom to your soul!!

  This seemed to be a hot topic for us on Sunday……Are we truly living worthy to be called to the wedding feast as the Bride of Christ? We know that we have all fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23), but the question became……at what point have we fallen away from our inheritance as Children of God??? I think many of us are being convicted right now of seeking to remove sin from our lives, which goes perfectly with the message of the harvest is ripe, because part of the harvest in Matthew 13 is the pulling of the weeds of sin from the harvest. It is once we are convicted of the sin in our lives that we are able to address and repent from it, and thus remove it. It is also the removal of sin that allows the righteous to shine forth His glory!! In this chapter of Acts, we find the Pharisees seeking to make the Gentiles adhere to the Jewish laws to receive salvation, but the disciples agree that it was not the intent that they should take on a yoke that could not be fulfilled even by those trained in the law. They wanted the gentiles to be encouraged, and to see the grace found in Jesus, not yoked to rules and rituals! This is by no means a free pass to sin,  but it gave me a little peace knowing that we aren’t expected to live the law perfectly.

Good morning, sweet friends!    

I am venturing to be bold again today, so buckle up;)  I feel much like Peter and Paul when they asked to be given boldness to speak, and so I pray you receive this,  because I have been consumed with such urgency to reach you!!! First, we are catching up the last few chapters of Acts that took us through the weekend and have now arrived at Chapter 14. My thought trying to look over all of these chapters together is this…….
What do you really believe???

I ask this question, because as we are traveling through these chapters in Acts, we see that it is full of the supernatural!!!  Just a few points to ponder…….
Peter has this vision that led him to the gentiles. His Spirit told him to go to with three men to Cornelius. The men tell him an angel appeared to Cornelius, and told him to send for Peter. They baptize Cornelius by water and the Holy Spirit. Then Peter is put in prison, and an angel is sent to release him. Herod is then struck down by an angel to death. We then go to the journey of Barnabas and Saul/Paul, and it speaks to them worshiping, fasting and being filled with the Holy Spirit. They blind a sorcerer, and heal a crippled man just speaking to him. And the crescendo of Chapter 14 happens as Paul is thought to be stoned to death and drug out of the city……but the disciples gather around him, and he gets back up and walks back into the city. Yes, supernatural!!!! Supernatural!!! Supernatural!!!

In these chapters, we see visions, filling of the Spirit, miracles, angels, constant fasting, prayer, and worshiping. We see one released from prison and one from death, and another struck down with death. My question is this…….Why is it that we read the Bible, the book of truth, and we don’t see these events strange, but quite consistent with the entire Bible, yet many would think one was crazy today if he/she mentioned a vision, or a healing, or heaven forbid an angel???? So many are afraid of the Spirit, yet it is the greatest gift of the believers in Christ! Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom (2 Cor 3:17).

James 5 says that when someone is sick that we should call in the elders, anoint them with oil, and pray, and the prayers of the righteous would make a sick man well, and I can not tell you how many people we have offered this to……many plagued with cancer and all claiming to be Christians, but yet they say something like…..“we aren’t in to all of that “or “pray from a distance.“ This is the thing my friends, and someone mentioned this at church Sunday….the Bible is not a menu where you get to pick and choose what you believe.It says the truth will set you free! And the truth says the Spirit is freedom, and we have seen an entire book of supernatural, yet we live in the mundane fearing or trying to quench those that try to live with the Spirit????

Good Monday, sweet friends!    

I hope you had a wonderful weekend! I know many of you are mothers and many of you have been that mother figure to someone or many through out your journey. My daughter was born on Mother’s Day, and so my weekend was packed speaking to the women of Ocean Springs, MS, entertaining a mess of eleven year-olds:), and preparing for Mother’s Day. I can’t tell you the last time, I slept during the day, but my only wish on Sunday was to do just that!!! Much needed Sabbath rest after a week of preparation and traveling!!! I haven’t awoken in years to words flowing from me, until yesterday, and so I must share it with you.

A Tribute to All Women

Some became mothers by the fruit of their womb,
And others by a heart where love thus did bloom.
Some became mothers as they were molding lives along their way,
And others while proclaiming blessings over lives they did pray.

Some showed motherhood as they offered their hands,
Pouring into to needy souls that thirst in foreign lands.
Some showed a mother’s love as they lit another’s darkened way,
While some opened their hearts and homes for the broken to stay.

Some have been that gentle voice of refuge to those found in storms,
And others have been a home to those needing open arms.
Some have been the encourager to those crying for someone to care
And some have been that whisper of love saying….I’ll  always be there!

Some have sacrificed their time to simply be present to others,
But all share the heart of God-appointed Mothers.

If you are not a mother by the giving of your name,
Please know, dear friend, you have been a mother, just the same!

And we are thankful that all weren’t mothers by womb,
Because we’d have less hands to allow mothers to bloom!

May 13, 2012

I have had such a privilege to meet so many amazing women over my traveling these past few years, and I have often felt lacking as I have met so many that have mentored, and served and traveled abroad to touch lives. I have small children as many of you do, so my schedule doesn’t allow me to leave for weeks to minister to those in foreign lands, or to be present as much as I would like to for others in need.  With this being said, many of you women have been more than a mother to some that needed you desperately!!! You may not even realize how your presence has molded the lives before you, and I just hope this day that you realize that we are all where we are called to be!!! I have said before Bloom Where You Are Planted !!! I pray if you are a mother that you will pour into those little lives as we are called to do in Deuteronomy 6, and I lift you up, because I know it is quite possibly the most difficult job in the world!!! If you are an empty nesting mom, start pouring in to your community and churches or offering your wisdom to those who need support and encouragement! If you were not a mother by womb,  but of heart, be a blessing unto others!!! Please know that there is someone in your community that would be so very blessedby your presence in their lives!!!!

Good morning, my friends!    

I was reading through Chapter 9 last night, and though I have read it before, it always gets to me when I read of the conversion of Saul. How amazing that God could touch the very man that was persecuting Christians, and lead him to be one of the greatest biblical writers of the new covenant. The writings of Paul are my personal favorites!  If you are needing hope, this is a story to take in today. If God can change the heart of Saul, and birth in him the life of Paul, He can certainly change our lives!!!

The really awesome point of this story is that He can even change the lives of those that seem most lost. I have received numerous letters from brokenhearted women over the straying of their children, the crisis in their families, and many that are crying out for God to save their marriages. This story is such a testament that God is in control, and He can change the heart of anyone at any moment He chooses. He can bring your children home, and transform your families, and turn your marriage into a testament of His redemptive power. Our problem, as women, is that we seek to fix things ourselves in our own strength, instead of turning to Him …..the one with the POWER!!!

Sisters, if you are reading this and thinking …...this is my life,stop trying and start praying for them. Pray that He steps in like Saul and touches them so personally that they can’t help but be convicted. Show them love and kindness instead of judgement and condemnation.  Recall Jesus at the well with the woman who felt unworthy to be in His Presence, He didn’t persecute her or judge her but offered her forgiveness and a fresh start.  Could you use a fresh start or does someone you love desperately need it???? May the story of Saul/Paul remind you that we serve a mighty God that can and will change your life, and be full of Hope this day as you await His hand to touch your life!!! Also, note, Paul was given the Holy Spirit, and it was through the indwelling of His Spirit that He would transform our lives with his inspired word!!! If He can use Saul for His Kingdom, He can surely use any of us surrendered to the will of His Spirit!!!

Good morning, my friends!