Go tell the Disciples

As I was doing some laundry over the weekend, I caught my son looking at the new Bible App for Kids. He was sitting in a laundry basket and enjoying himself. Then I heard the narrator talking about the Resurrection of Christ and the Holy Spirit opened my heart to something new in this situation.

After Jesus had been buried Mary and some other women went to the tomb to put spices on his body. Think about this. When the Angels told them that Jesus was no longer there they were instructed to go and tell the disciples that Jesus was risen from the dead. They were the first who would share the gospel of Jesus Christ. What a calling! What a awesome command!

I’m encouraged because they were told to tell disciples, not just anyone, but disciples.Disciples are people who follow Christ and encourage others to do the same. The gospel was given to dependable followers by women who were obedient. What if they had decided that they would sit at the tomb and wait around instead? What if they went off and told some other people who were not disciples? What would have happened then? Thank God for Mary and the other women who shared the Good News first!

Today after church I went out to grab a bite to eat. I was feeling sorry for the woman was serving me. She was working all alone and seem to be a bit stressed. She was the one taking orders and she went on to make and serve the food. At that moment, I felt led to share the gospel. I was waiting for the right opportunity. I offered a daily bread devotional to her with a secret $25 gift card inside as a big tip. As I prepared to give it, another worker, a guy with tattoos covering just about his entire body walks in and gets behind the counter. I asked the woman, "If I give this to you, will you read it?". She refused. In disappointment, I Immediately asked the guy who willingly accepted the devotional. Perhaps that was God's plan after all. He may share the good news with someone else if they can get past his tattoos. He just may become a disciple for Christ!

I wonder about that initial reception and rejection of the good news by the disciples and by people today. If they only knew!!

If you take the time to research other biblical stories, you will see that God has used women first to share the Gospel, to bring Jesus into the world and The Bride of Christ herself is a female character. Females are instrumental in God's plan of salvation and discipleship. I got excited. Maybe just maybe, God can use me after all!

Giving Thanks

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. There is so much to be thankful for. There really is! I am in much prayer for my brothers and sisters in the Philippines this week. They are still suffering. That typhoon was huge and has disrupted their lives in an immeasurable way. The country has literally changed shape overnight. Those of us that were unaffected have much to be grateful for. I hope that you will take the time to support ministries that are reaching out to those who are now homeless, jobless, widowed, orphaned, or naked and are in much need of the Savior today.

In my giving thanks I am also driven to my knees to look at the others who do not have as much as I do. We always say we are going to pray for others but do we really? Find that sometimes if I do not pray for people right away I become a liar when I say that I will pray for them. That is just unacceptable. So if I ask you for a prayer request and you give me one, know that I really am praying. And God has been answering those prayers. I am grateful this morning for life, health and strength and all of the other things that are so intangible like salvation, the Holy Spirit working in my life and forgiveness of my sins. How about you what things are you grateful for this week?

Being grateful should drive us to our knees. Not only because we are overcome with God's blessings but because there are so many others who we should be being a blessing to. Your blessings are never just for you. God puts you in a position of overflow to flow over into the lives of others.

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday because there is less fluff and more substance. That is, if we take the time to enjoy the substance. It is not about filling ourselves full with food, but filling ourselves up with the Holy Spirit in a time of gratefulness and appreciation to God. So many of us are so spoiled and we cry over things that do not matter. We concern ourselves over things that are not eternal and we worry about things that we cannot change even though we do not need them.

It's time for believers to wake up and to realize their blessings and share a little...no, a lot! That's right, if we have more than enough why aren't we sharing? We are like a spoiled little kids who whine about the least important things. Please take time to be thankful this week really spend time evaluating how God has bless you. Not only that, but reach out to someone else who is in need. This life is all we get to share Christ. Feed His sheep not your face...lol!

Totally freezing today, but grateful for the snow that reminders me of summer.

Clean this House

When I was single, I would often look up to married women who seemed to have it all together. They knew the Lord, had Prince Charming, a couple of kids, a pet and a beautiful home. I told myself that this was a dream that could be real for me. Very early I knew that I would be a wife one day. I actually looked forward to marriage much more than even having children (which is another reason why it was about five years later). I knew that I could do this wife thing: submission, sex and cooking. What I did NOT prepare for well was the cleaning!

Now, I'm a neat person. I really am. I put things back in their places and most people are rather impressed that my home is not a pigsty considering that I have two boys that are eight and "about to be seven mom". However, my husband has one idea of cleanliness and I had another. We are both neat, but there is neat and there is "excellence". My hubby says to strive for what is excellent. We are stewards of our home and therefore it ought to be kept as unto the Lord. Well...okey dokey then. I got to work after I got home from work and from doing my homework and helping the kids with their chores and homework and doing my workout. Whew..I got tired. Fast! So we made a schedule and that was a challenge as well. My boys got messier, they ate more, people came over, they ate more...it was overwhelming to do all this work and clean afterwards, right away and in an excellent way.

Then, doors opened for ministry. Woo-Hoo! We are busy serving the Lord, so I served at home a little less. Hmm...mistake. We got busy in ministry, so I planned to clean the next day and the next day and over the weekend. What started as excellence became not even quite ok.

What I began praying for was a mentor. I needed a woman who had it all together to show me how to organize my life. It's not cool to be ministering to a broken wife with piles of dishes in the sink and your kids wearing last week's socks! I was determined to do what God had called me to do, but my priorities were all out of whack. Honestly, my heart was not in the right place. I needed to clean there first. I work for God, not any man. God reminded me (very often through my hubby's looks of disappointment) that the goal was not perfection but right priority. I sought out a woman who had it all together and could show me how to make the money, keep the hubby happy, have nutritious meals and a perfectly clean home. And guess what? I had to stop looking. She doesn't exist.

What I have learned instead is this. If I clean my house from the inside out, meaning replacing my ideas of what I should be with God's ideas, I am making God happy, and consequently, hubby too! I learned how to manage my time better from a woman who was always on time. I invited a great cook into my kitchen and gleaned from her. I follow women in ministry with clean homes. I need to see that you have Christ in first place and your primary ministry in order before I am mentored by you. I sit among great mothers with their children. Because one thing I notice is that they actually have a relationship with their children. What I am trying to convey to you is that we ALL have something to share with someone else. You have succeeded in something and instead of keeping it to yourself, you should help someone else out! The Proverbs 31 woman is the Body of Christ. She can do it all but look closely - she has help. If we are the Body of Christ, when we all help one another instead of putting our mouths on each other, we make Christ look good! It's nothing that you can accomplish on your own. So perhaps, like me, this is your struggle. Or maybe, you can relate in a different way. It really is all the same.

And guess what? God wouldn't even let me post this on Sunday as I had scheduled until i completed my mopping, did two loads of laundry and cleared the sink from our last meal. Real ministry.

Once I realized the power of community, my marriage, family and ministry changed. Now, I am in the process of teaching other women to do the same thing. Networking is a untapped power that women are afraid to use. Often we just don't trust each other. But that just shows me that there is housekeeping of the heart that needs to be done. Clean that house first and the rest will follow.

My Source

God is my Source. He is the reason for and the reason why all things exist. When I think of the word source, I think of money of course, but I also think of my source of salvation and of life.

I did a bit of a word study on source, resource and outsource. Here are their definitions:

Source - a place, person or thing from which something comes; someone or something that provides what us needed or wanted; where something springs into being; origin

Resource - a stock or supply; other assets for effective operation; something used for support or help; provision

Outsource - obtained from an outside or foreign supplier; to send off to be done by people from outside the "company"

God is the source in the sense of being the Creator. He also is the supplier. He gives us everything that we need to do what He has made us for. In addition to that, He sends others from outside to assist us in what He wants us to do. This can be in the form of unsaved helpers or even enemies who push you to your destiny in Christ.

When we realize that for Him, and through Him and to Him are all things (Romans 11:36) we realize that our lives and whatever we think we can offer God are already His. This brings me to the conclusion that God owns us and we are caretakers of whatever He generously supplies.

I then had the thought that I am the Lord's resource. If He lives inside of me and I am usable by Him, then I become a conduit of His blessings to others. Think of how electricity works. It is its own source and the use of its power comes only through something else. The Holy Spirit works through those who are willing to be used of God, but the power of God in our lives and in our gifts and talents are not just for us. They are for others to the glory of God!

When I read Revelation chapter 1 this morning, I stopped when I got to the part that said that John was "in the spirit" on the Lord's day. We can be in the flow of the Spirit, but the capacity of use is in our power. How much of us can the Lord use freely? If we cannot be used by the Source, He is able to outsource to get His will accomplished by other means. In no way does the wire that is supposed to conduct electricity diminish the source. It is simply disposed of and replaced.

My prayer is to be a live wire for the Kingdom. I never want to say "God you can have only this much of what You have given me". What?! That doesn't even make sense. We are stewards of His blessings, our lives, money, time and marriages. When He returns, will what He gave you be multiplied?

Hunger Pains

This morning I read Acts chapter 27 where imprisoned Paul and other shipmates were caught in a life-threatening storm and were so worried that they did not eat for 14 days! After a while, Paul prophesied that God revealed to them that their lives would be spared.This is what the Lord showed me:

We are not in control. When we do not listen and obey the voice of God, He may allow the storms of life to redirect us. God is always merciful. His ambassadors have a different perspective in the storm. We can be optimistic and hopeful and fearful situations. We still have bread. God is maintaining us.

When we fast, we do not worry about not eating later. We know that at least we have bread coming later on. While Jesus was here, there was no need to fast, but now that He is not, fasting is a discipline to keep us dependent on the Bread of Life and to recognize our true source of real sustenance. God will sustain and uphold us until we reach the destination that he has predestined for us. We may lose things but Jesus never loses us. Our lives are held secure even though we are experiencing the hunger pains. So we can fast without fear. We know that The Bread is coming.

Big Announcement!

So I have been working on something and it has finally been completed!

I'm so very excited to introduce to you my new book entitled "The Titus Ten".

https://www.createspace.com/4460079
www.wifestyleimagenetwork.com

This book is a resource for Wifestyle Image Network women. It explains Titus 2:3-5 in a very practical way and gives examples from my personal life and others who have shared their stories with me.

There are ten things in Titus that every woman needs to teach younger women. So even if you do not consider yourself older or younger, this book is for you!

Please get a copy for you and for a friend. This is a journey through the bible that you do not want to take alone.

Follow up video training that accompany the book will begin in December so buy  your copy now.

I pray that this resource is a blessing to you and to the women in your life!

Fall Back, Spring Forward

The blessings of following Jesus far outweigh the trials that He allows us to go through to refine us. Even in our sin and disobedience, His grace is ever sufficient. 

It's daylight savings time. Someone had this idea to "save the light" of day by making everyone in the time zone gain an hour in the fall and lose an hour in the spring. This usually happens as we all sleep here in the U.S. We lose an hour of sleep and people complain about that because their internal clocks become disoriented. While we attempt to rest, our rest is stolen unless we prepare ourselves for falling back.

Perhaps you already see where I am going with this. God knows that we will fall into sin. So he has made provision in not sparing His Son to die. The Son is gone; but when Jesus left this world, He gave us the Holy Spirit to direct us internally. You see, the Holy Spirit convinces us of the truth of the Bible and convicts us when we fall into sin. When we fall back, He redeems the time for us.

When we have been redeemed, the night is like day to us. The world is dark and sinful and many people are asleep to the truth of the gospel. But we are children of the day. So even when times change here on earth, our internal motivation is based on eternity. Work while it is day. Night is coming when no man can work.

As the Lord redeems what we consider to be lost, our perspective changes. When we were sleeping, lazy and non-complacent Christ died for us. Once we believe and receive Him into our hearts, time is not the issue anymore, our obedience is. Now everything you do counts for eternity! Now that is a change in perspective.

God has redeemed us. Have you been awakened from your sleep and filled with the Holy Spirit? If not, I encourage you to do that today. Tomorrow may be too late.

Pray with me.

Lord,
I have sinned and have come short of your perfect standard of holiness. I am sorry. I repent and turn away from what has displeased You. I accept the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for my sins on the cross at Calvary. I give my life to You. I believe that I am saved from sin. Fill me with the power of the Holy Spirit to confess before others the change that You have made in my life. Give me power to overcome sin, self and satan in Jesus name I pray, Amen.

If you have prayed that prayer, I'd love to hear from you. Your next step is to get baptized among a group of other believers and join a discipleship group that will teach you more about the Bible and sharing your faith with others.

Welcome to my family!