Blessed weekends!

I love the weekend. Most of them are refreshing, some are exhausting, but this one was just right. I feel a little like Goldielocks saying that!

Saturday was spend with some dear sisters in Christ at a local simulcast for Living Proof Live with Beth Moore. As we drove to the site we discussed how much we NEEDED some good Jesus time. He met us there and we are so thankful.

Beth Moore is a phenomenal Bible teacher. I love the way she humbles herself before she speaks, on her knees before everyone, beseeching the Lord to overcome all her human frailties and use her as a conduit to reach His people. I waffle between wishing like I could teach like her and being thankful I don't have the responsibility of doing so.

What was amazing to me, aside from Beth's obvious gift to bring a Word and the praise team's gift for music (I love Travis Cottrell), was the mind boggling thought that 180,000 other individuals across the globe were listening to the same message. Not only listening, but knowing that each was receiving exactly the Word that God intended for them to hear. Ponder that for a moment. Reminds me of Pentacost, granted, I saw no tongues of fire, but I have no doubt that the Holy Spirit was working just as miraculously in all 180,000 present.

I often wonder if the non-Christians who work these events walk away as changed as we are changed, or at least with the seed of the Sprit inside them.

One moment I will never forget, was not at this simulcast but at a live Living Proof I attended several years ago, when they asked if anyone wanted to come forth for prayer one woman ran down front as if her very life depended on it. I suppose if she was coming forth to claim her salvation her very life DID depend on it. It was such a powerful moment to me. I have no idea who she was, but I thought that if we all ran to Jesus the way she ran to Jesus we would all be much more at peace with our lives.

So I am feeling a little less empty welled than I entered the weekend. Today I got to sleep in a little and we attended late church. Pastor had a very appropriate sermon on forgiveness. We had some delightful fellowship at the potluck after service and we got to come home and take a nap. Gotta love a Sunday like that. : )

I hope and pray that you were also refreshed this weekend and you will start the work week full of a joyful spirit.

In His Peace -

Being "Openhanded"

There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in your land. (Deuteronomy 15:11)



Last week, Amanda Jones, who is the daughter of the much loved Bible teacher, Beth Moore, wrote a blog that rocked my world. Amanda, who is also the wife of Pastor Curtis Jones and a young mother of two, spent five days in Guatemala on a mission trip with Compassion International. Amanda wrote about her experiences through this highly impoverished area while she was in country and moved me to tears with every entry. I believe that God worked in mighty ways in and through Amanda on this trip.


I don't know about you, but when I read statistics I tend to think, "Wow, how awful" and move on. Those are merely numbers and very difficult to translate into human reality.  Amanda, through her beautiful, heartfelt writing, along with those of other Compassion bloggers really brought the human factor to life for me. The statistics on childhood hunger are truly staggering: "In 2008, nearly 9 million children died before they reached their fifth birthday. One third of these deaths are due directly or indirectly to hunger and malnutrition. The current global economic recession has pushed between 100-150 million people into poverty".(www.bread.org) One hundred fifty MILLION?

We live in the most prosperous country in the world and there are almost 17 million children in our own country that come from families who are struggling to put food on the table.  That is one of every 4 children! If you have a child in school imagine his or her classroom of 28 kids. Using these statistics, seven kids of your child's class could be going to bed hungry. Can you look into those little faces you know and do nothing? We have the power and ability to facilitate change both here at home and across the globe.

What can you do? The options are almost endless. You can purchases a couple of extra non-perishable food items each week and deliver them to the local food pantry or homeless shelter once a month. You could start or help keep stocked a food pantry at your church. Our community food bank has a backpack program where people can go to the food bank and pack bags of healthy food for kids to take home from school each Friday. Without these small bag some kids would go without food at all. Heartbreaking, but a harsh reality for more kids than we are comfortable imagining.Volunteering to help ready these packs is a simple way to help feed the kids in our community. I would imagine there are similar projects in your community. If there isn't, maybe you are the one to light a fire and get one started.

There are two wonderful programs that provide food, clothing, shelter and Christian education to children all over the world. World Vision and Compassion International  are two well-established, legitimate organizations that provide services in many countries. They offer sponsorships in which you can specify the location, gender, age and even birth date of your sponsor child. Typically sponsorship is about $40 a month. If you sacrifice one meal out a month a child can receive Christ-centered education and food for an entire month. You could literally save a life. The delightful addition with these two programs is you have the ability to communicate via regular mail with your sponsor child(ren).

God did not request or suggest in an offhand manner that we give to others, he commanded. Prayerfully consider how you and your family can make a difference in the lives of others.

I encourage you to read the blogs of the folks that went to Guatemala. Compassion has a site with excerpts from many of their mission trip attendees here. Amanda Jones posted on her own blog, Baby Bangs, be sure to back track and read all her entries from her trip. I believe you will step away from the computer with a whole new perspective.

I pray that God moves you to act. I pray that in your action you then will strive to move others to help those in need as well. Even a small pebble can make a large ripple. Do this so we may all someday hear,
"Well done, good and faithful servant"

In His Peace -

Watermark Moments

At the opening of a Beth Moore conference a few years ago, Travis Cottrell, Beth's worship leader, prayed at the event opening. (If you are ever in need of some outstanding worship music buy Travis Cottrell CDs!) Travis challenged us to earnestly seek God during the conference and implored of God that every woman there experience a watermark moment. Travis went on to explain a watermark moment to be something that marks you, something that you can look back on and note a change in yourself or your life, good or bad.

Watermarks tend to be the events in our life that we remember most strongly. The birth of a child, or the loss of a loved one, a new job, or even moving to a new home. Any event with which you tend to mentally mark the passage of time is a watermark event. If you did not grow up a Christian and answered the call of Christ later in your life, that would definitely be a watermark moment for you!

This concept of watermark moments has stayed with me. Nineteen teenagers and five adult chaperones from our church are in New Orleans this week along with 25,000 other kids from around the country for the National Youth Gathering.Thanks to modern technology we were able to watch some of the event online. What an amazing experience.  Thousands of young people together praising the One True God - it brings tears to my eyes. All those kids from all walks of life, from all over the country and of every color of the rainbow, together under one roof worshiping our God. Even watching online you could feel the absolute radiance of the Holy Spirit among the attendees. I pray that this is a watermark event for these young people. I pray that they can look back to this week and say THIS was the event that changed me- the week that fueled my passion for Jesus and lit my faith afire.

Have you had a watermark moment with Christ? A moment when you knew without a shadow of a doubt that you were loved, forgiven and redeemed? God says in the book of Jeremiah, "I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness." Everlasting love. Not temporary, not just when you are being "good", not when you have all your problems solved, not when He is in the mood, but everlasting - forever. All your yesterdays, your today, and all your tomorrows. God loves You.  Let that soak in for a minute. Close your eyes and feel it:  Gods love washing over you like water.
Amazing, everlasting, ever present Love.


I will leave you basking in the love of God because it is a great place to be.

Let that love leave a forever watermark upon you.

In His Peace