An Invitation

The invitation is for my lady friends who live in or near Madison, however if you don't fall in these categories, still take time to read because the books I will be talking about are recommended resources!!

For those of you who don't know me well let me take a moment to tell you one piece of my story. I have had the opportunity to lead Women's Groups over the last 5 years. This happened because my sister Wendy and I were blessed with having our sons 3 1/2 weeks apart. As stay-at-home Moms, we decided to begin reading books together to learn how to love our husbands better. Through the process, we grew in love for our husbands and in relationship and accountability with one another. It was a beautiful summer together. In the fall of that year, our church was offering a study of Waking the Dead by John Eldredge at night. Since my sister and I had young children it wasn't going to work out for us to go. She volunteered me to lead the study at her home during the day. So for the last 5 years, I have been leading/co-leading Women's studies. My sister pushed me off the ledge and I have been falling more in love with God and with freedom for women ever since!

This fall, I am taking a step of faith and leading/co-leading two studies instead of one! To say, I don't have fears (or haven't said to myself, "What in the world were you thinking!") would be an understatement, but I am very excited too. I just got done glancing through the two books I will be doing and all I can say is WOW! Both studies are amazing and I just feel blessed to have an excuse to be a part of both of them.

So here are the studies and the dates and times the studies will be taking place. If you are in the area mark your calendars and please come, not for me, but for an opportunity to grow more and more in love with God!

1. He Loves Me by Wayne Jacobsen. The back of the book states: "Do you find yourself picking through circumstances like a child plucking daisy petals, attempting to figure out whether or not God loves you? If you find yourself least certain of His love in those critical moments when you most need to trust Him, there is hope for you.
I'm only 3 chapters in to the book but it is amazing!
This study will be meeting on the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays beginning Wednesday September 9th from 9:00 am-11:00 am. This study will meet in my home, and children will be present. It is always and adventure but it is a worthwhile one! I co-lead this group with my friend Correna; we make a great team!

2. Study 2 is: Breaking Free:Making Liberty in Christ a Reality in Life by Beth Moore. This 11-week study requires you to spend personal time on your own throughout the week in God's word! Then we will meet once a week for group discussion and a 50-minute video presentation.
This study will be meeting once a week beginning Thursday, September 10th from 6:30-8:30pm. We will meet at Mad City Church Offices and there will be no child care present. I am still working out the details of how this will look and function...

You do not have to go to Mad City Church to participate in any of these studies, but you do have to be a lady (sorry to my guy readers). If you want the opportunity to be in fellowship with others and fall deeper in love with God then these are a couple of opportunities!!

If you aren't able to come because of time or location, I am sure you will hear a lot more from both resources in my blog! Still consider picking up one of them and finding ladies in your area to go through it with you.

Did you know you are naked?

So yesterday, I was listening to someone re-telling the fall of Adam and Eve. I was only half-listening because I've probably heard the story at least 500 times (side note: What I love about the Bible is you can always get something out of the Bible; it doesn't matter how many times you have heard the story). Well, as I was listening, I tuned into the fact that before the fall Adam and Eve were naked and without shame. Then after they sinned God comes looking for them and says, "Where are you?" And they answer, "We were hiding because we were naked."

So what? Well think about it. They were obviously naked since day one and it never bothered God. After the fall, Adam and Eve realize they were naked and they decide to hide from Him. They tried to fix their problem on their own by making their clothes out of leaves. When God finds them, He fixes them new clothes through an animal sacrifice and sets them straight.

What does that have to do with us? Well, we really are not that different from Adam and Eve after all these years, are we? The Bible says in Hebrews 4:12

Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight.

Everything is uncovered and laid bare

before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.

We are still naked before God. He sees all of our sin, everyday! Yet when we realize our sin, what do we do? Like Adam and Eve we still run away from God and hide. We try to fix our problems on our own. "I can't believe I just did that! God must be so ashamed of me." [He probably is saying, "You've had this problem for the last 10 years but now that you've finally recognized it we can start getting down to do something about it]. We choose to hide in guilt shame, and condemnation. But what does God want us to do? What did God want Adam and Eve to do? He wanted them to come out of hiding and allow Him to fix the problem. And guess what, just like He fixed it for Adam and Eve, He has ultimately fixed the whole problem for us through Jesus on the cross. Read what directly follows the verse from above; it will thrill you:

Hebrews 4:14-16

Therefore, since we have a great high priest

who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God,

let us hold firmly to the faith we profess.

For we do not have a high priest who is unable

to sympathize with our weaknesses,

but we have one who has been tempted in every way,

just as we are—yet was without sin.

Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence,

so that we may receive mercy and

find grace to help us in our time of need.

I pray that we can really get this! Jesus is able to sympathize with our weaknesses. He came to earth, He walked where we walked and He experienced temptation! He overcame and as our great High Priest He offers us all of Himself! Let us approach the throne of grace with confidence! Adam and Eve ran away in shame, but because of Jesus the second Adam we can now approach God with confidence in our time of need and what do we receive: mercy and grace!

So if you have found yourself down and out, stand up and approach Him with confidence because Jesus has made the way for you to come.

In Christ,


If you liked this you might also like:
Why Do I Throw Out the Good?
Breaking The Cycle with TRUTH

Smorgasbord Tuesday: Access to the Thoughts of God

Last week we finished going through our 9 week journey through the Fruit of the Spirit. As you know, I really grew in understanding the role of the Holy Spirit in my life. The Holy Spirit has always been a bit of a mystery to me. You hear a lot about God and who He is as our Father, and you hear a lot about Jesus of course and His role in setting us free but the Holy Spirit I think remains a bit of a mystery and He doesn't get talked about a lot.

As I began finishing up the fruit of the Spirit series, I began running across a lot more verses that discussed the Holy Spirit.

2 Corinthians 2:9-16

But as it is written in the Scriptures:
"No one has ever seen this,
and no one has ever heard about it.
No one has ever imagined
what God has prepared for those who love him." — Isaiah 64:4

¹⁰ But God has shown us these things through the Spirit.

The Spirit searches out all things, even the deep secrets of God.¹¹ Who knows the thoughts that another person has? Only a person's spirit that lives within him knows his thoughts. It is the same with God. No one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.¹² Now we did not receive the spirit of the world, but we received the Spirit that is from God so that we can know all that God has given us.¹³ And we speak about these things, not with words taught us by human wisdom but with words taught us by the Spirit. And so we explain spiritual truths to spiritual people.¹⁴ A person who does not have the Spirit does not accept the truths that come from the Spirit of God. That person thinks they are foolish and cannot understand them, because they can only be judged to be true by the Spirit.¹⁵ The spiritual person is able to judge all things, but no one can judge him. The Scripture says:
¹⁶ "Who has known the mind of the Lord?
Who has been able to teach him?" — Isaiah 40:13
But we have the mind of Christ.

Now I really want you to take time to stop and reflect on what these verses say. Everyone knows the verse, "His thoughts are not our thoughts, His ways are not our ways" but they don't know what follows in 2 Corinthians. We have been given the Spirit of God, and what does the Spirit of God do, it searches the mind of God. Think about that really, it will blow you away! Your spirit is the thing inside of you that nobody else on earth sees or has access too. If you don't want somebody to know what you are thinking, they won't know. Yet God in His infinite wisdom and power has decided to give us access to His secret thoughts. We have the mind of Christ!

Daniel 2:21-23

He gives wisdom to the wise
and knowledge to the discerning.
²² He reveals deep and hidden things;
he knows what lies in darkness,

Amos 3:7

Surely the Sovereign LORD does nothing
without revealing his plan
to his servants the prophets.

God desires to reveal His secret thoughts to us! Are you listening?

2 Corinthians 3:15-18

Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts.
¹⁶But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.
¹⁷Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
¹⁸And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

We have something that most people in the Old Testament did not have, access to the full understanding of the word of God! We are being transformed to become more like Christ through His Spirit working and operating in our lives! Take full advantage of what you have been given! You have been given God's Spirit and where His Spirit is there is freedom!

As you know I was very excited to have Brian White in town last week for the Freedom in Christ conference. While those messages are not available online at this time, he did speak at my church on Sunday. He talked about the thoughts of God and our thoughts and it goes right along with today's blog, so if you are interested in hearing more about the the thoughts of God the message is called: What Do You Think?

So why do I like Brian so much? I like him because he is not a pastor (not that I have anything against pastors:) rather he is a professor at a public college in Michigan. What I like is that he really gets what I've been talking about in this post. We all as believers have access to the heart and mind of God and it can and should effect our everyday life in a very powerful way! He is someone who believes this and walks it out as a "lay person" and I personally find it very inspiring for my personal life.

I have also run across someone on the blog sphere named Micey. She has an incredible testimony, called Once I was Lost, if you have an extended period of time sometime you will want to read her story. Anyway, she is someone who has her ears open to the Spirit and it is amazing how many opportunities she gets to minister the gospel to people. Check out her post on 7/22/09 for an example of what she does on at least a weekly if not daily basis.

My encouragement to you this week is to know who you are and what you have been given as a child of God! You have access to the secret thoughts of God on a daily basis. Start listening and you will be amazed at what He has to say to you.

In Christ,

Freedom in Christ

Okay, so I have to share already! I have been thoroughly blessed at the Freedom in Christ conference. The only way I have to describe it is that I had a lot of "jars" that were near empty in my heart and I feel like they are being filled to overflowing . It has been a difficult season for our family with the loss of Nevaeh. Losing her not only only brought pain because we don't have her anymore but it also brought a lot of questions about who God is and where He is. Let me just say, He has been pouring in abundance into my broken and weary heart this week. I love baths and it has felt like a nice long bath in the love of God being restored, refreshed and renewed. Many of the truths Brian is speaking out have been little thoughts on the back of my mind and he has blown on the flames.

If you live in or near Madison, there are still 2 more nights!! It is at LCC Church from 7-9. Come and be blessed.

Smorgasbord Tuesday: Fruit of the Spirit Self-Control

Okay, get out your box of Kleenex (sniff, sniff) this is the last week with the fruit of the Spirit! This has been a 9 week journey and I hope that you have had as much fun as I have had. Okay, I could go on and on but I'm really just stalling because today's fruit of the Spirit is self-control. Who really wants to talk about self-control? Anyone? I see no hands!

This journey began with the fruit of the Spirit love and I think that was the perfect start, because love is the foundation of this whole thing: knowing that we are loved by God and then giving love to all those around us. The journey ends with self-control and I again think this is the perfect ending to this topic. Just like we can't do any of this without love, self-control is the perfect way to get all those other things we talked about into action.

Self-control as a fruit of the Holy Spirit is a perfect example of this balancing act that we've been in this whole journey. One the one hand, these are fruits of the Holy Spirit and so we know that it is an attribute of God that we get to have in our lives. On the other hand, we know that these fruits aren't just "mystical" things bestowed on us without any effort on our part. Self-control is something that we need to put into action, but we also see that it is a fruit of the Spirit, so to have it in a life-changing way will not exist apart from our relationship with the Holy Spirit! I don't know how you've landed on this journey with understanding this balancing act but I've definitely leaned way more into the Holy Spirit to receive all these fruits than I ever have before, and self-control will be no exception!

As we probably all well know self-control is not an attribute of American culture rather the opposite of self-control i.e. self-indulgence is rampant in our society. From Nike's "Just Do It" to commercials that say "Have it NOW" we and our children are being bombarded by the exact opposite message. I am asking you to take an extra minute to step back with me and see exactly what the Bible has to say about the benefits of self-control in our lives.

Proverbs 25:28
Like a city whose walls are broken down
is a man who lacks self-control.

The full appreciation of this verse is lost on us because of cultural differences, but today's version might say "like a country whose missile defense system is broken, is a man who lacks self-control." As we see in this verse and will see in verses to come self-control is our system of protection. I believe one of the most important things you can teach your children is self-control. The ability to control yourself and not give in to every urge that comes your way will go a long way for your kids. Also, as I said earlier the other fruits such as patience and faithfulness will not work very well unless you have learned to control and stop those initial fleshly reactions.

If you read the book of Titus you will see the word self-control emphasized and given out to everyone. It asks older men, young men, older women and young women to be self-controlled. It also states that elders and deacons should exhibit self-control. We learn in II Timothy that the lack of self-control will be a sign of the last days. Let us, as the people of God, rise above our society and our culture and exhibit self-control and teach our children to be self-controlled. This is not something that is for the "mature" in Christ but it is a necessity for our protection and the protection of the church. We have seen far too often in our culture the damage that is done to the body of Christ when those in leadership are caught in a sin that took place because of the lack of self-control.

I Peter 5:8
Be self-controlled and alert.

Your enemy the devil prowls around

like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

Resist him, standing firm in the faith.

This verse warns us to be self-controlled and alert. Guess what, you have an enemy out there prowling around and he is looking for a wide open door to run through. It seems like the lack of self-control is one of the ways of opening up the door to the enemy and saying pick on me, pick on me! We, however, can and should resist him and one of the ways we do this is through exhibiting self-control.

I Thessalonians 5:8
But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled,

putting on faith and love as a breastplate,

and the hope of salvation as a helmet.

Putting Your Clothes on will be one of the ways you can operate in the area of self-control.

2 Corinthians 10:3-5
For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does.

The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world.

On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.

We demolish arguments and every pretension

that sets itself up against the knowledge of God,

and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

A second way to grow in the area of self-control in your life is to take this verses to heart and begin applying them. Take whatever area you are struggling in the area of self-control whether eating, anger, lust etc and begin to submit those thoughts to Christ. We have the power to demolish strongholds. Lets begin doing it!