Hey, Everybody! I think we may be on the verge of some fun in this post. My good friend, Angela Cottrell, and I were talking recently about how cool it would be to hear women testify publicly to the creative ways God has used them to serve people.

But one reason many of us may struggle to find our stride is that we shortlist limitless possibilities into categories we could count on three fingers of one hand. We assume that to serve God effectively, it must look like __________________ or be similar to ________________________ or maybe ______________________________. And we don’t feel like those are a fit for us. Or perhaps we don’t have opportunities to serve like that. So, what happens? We sit down bewildered and unsatisfied and feeling lame.

But what if we gave God credit for more creativity than that? What if we realized that there are as many ways to minister in the name of Christ as there are needs out there?

No matter how familiar Ephesians 2:10 may be to you, read it again:

The same God who created the galaxies in their vast array, the seas in their unsearchable depths, the beasts of the field with spots and stripes, who landscaped the horizon with pines and cedars and sequoias, and set in motion some 37 trillion cells in the human body…

…This same God created us in Christ Jesus for good works.

His creativity did not come to a screeching halt on the Sixth Day.

He is never uninspired and uncreative in His work. The primary way He spreads His broad hands throughout this needy world is through gloves made of warm human skin.

All of us have opportunities and they are as diverse as the people trying to leave their footprints in the loose dust of this passing planet.

If all our works in Christ’s name look exactly the same, something has run amok. Massive populations and types of people become invisible in our shortsighted vision.

I love the wording of Acts 10:38 – “…God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.”

Since His ascension to the right hand of God and the coming of His promised Holy Spirit, each generation of Christ-followers is anointed by Him to go about doing good and to see Jesus heal multitudes oppressed by the devil.  And behold, Jesus says, I am with you always, to the end of the age. (Matthew 28:20)

Shine your flashlight on the less familiar wording of these two segments from The Message, holding it right up close to the catch words of creativity:

This morning I slipped out of bed before my alarm went off so that I wouldn’t awaken Keith. I’d slept much later than usual because I’d had a full weekend of taping sessions at Life Today for Wednesdays in the Word. Our church also has an 11:00 AM worship service slot which is a glorious grace for people who work many Friday nights and Saturdays and need a little sabbath in the worst way. I had my prayer time and several cups of thick dark coffee in the regular spot where Jesus and I meet on mornings when no one is up in my house but me. If Keith is awake, I move to my library to finish out but, if he’s sound asleep, I stick a little closer to the coffee pot. It saves considerable pacing.

Half an hour in, I glanced at the clock and knew I’d better get moving toward the shower or we weren’t going to get there in time to fellowship at all before the service started. Something is always missing in my Sunday when that happens. I don’t go to church for the service alone unless I’m in too much distress to want to talk to anybody. In that case, I might go in late and leave early, as much as I hate to admit it. But far more normally, second to participating in worship and the Word, I go with full intention to be with a family of believers equally frail and human but also pursuing a life of faith. I give and get hugs. I get and give words of encouragement. I pray for people and people pray for me. Sometimes my own daughter will lean over in the part of our service dedicated to prayer and whisper intercession in my ear.

This holy give and take. A community cannot exist without communing.  Church has never just been limited to a service for me. Nor has it been limited to Sundays.

But back to this morning. I didn’t want to be late so I stacked up the Bible I use for my morning devotionals, my journal, and my iPad and headed into my library to set them back on my desk. As I put them down, I hesitated for a moment before turning toward my bedroom. I knew I still had something on my heart that I had not brought to the Lord. When I finish my prayer time, the goal for me is that my heart would be poured out before Jesus in praises, confessions, intercessions, and concerns and then filled back up by Him with His own Holy Spirit.

Trust in Him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before Him. God is a refuge for us. Psalm 62:8

Be filled with the Spirit. Ephesians 5:18

I pour out, He pours in.

That’s our deal.

Just minutes before in the kitchen with my Bible open, I’d talked around the thing that was on my heart but I’d not voiced it the way I really felt it. I had questions about it that I hadn’t exactly asked. Maybe I hadn’t asked them because I’d not really expected an answer. Or maybe I hadn’t asked them because I was uncomfortable being that raw. By raw I don’t just mean honest. Good grief, I hope to heaven that I approach God in prayer with honesty this many years into our relationship after the places we’ve been together. I don’t think I’m exaggerating to say that, if He hadn’t insisted that I learn to be honest with Him about my true estate, I’d probably be dead by now.

I’m pausing to stare at that statement to see if it really rings true in my spirit.

Yeah. I think my body would be cold and in the ground by now. I was headed for a full fledged implosion.

To me, raw doesn’t just mean honest. It means not having to think carefully about how I’m going to word it. Not having to frame it in godly terms. After all, I want to be godly. God help me, I want to be godly. But it’s hard to be godly with a lot of junk stored up in your heart.

Raw means, “This is the deal right here. This is how I feel. And why is it that…? What on earth is…?”

Raw means going ahead and putting out there how I really feel about something down deep, even if it sounds selfish or small.

Even if it makes me sound pathetic. He can see my heart anyway. And sometimes it is pathetic.

I glanced over at the gorgeous kneeling bench the prayer team at Tuesday night Bible study had given me and I walked over to it and knelt down on it.

Right there I pulled out that pine cone that was still down there pricking and sticking and crowding my heart and set it out before God, all jagged and bloody on the edges. Right there I brought my questions.

August temperatures in Houston are oppressively warm and the air is damp and wet even in the morning. Keith Moore likes his house cold and, if he didn’t, I would. The combination of competing temperatures in a humid climate means that every window this time of year is thickly layered in condensation until the sun comes up and burns it off. You have to go outside around here if you want an unhindered view of the dawn.

As I knelt on that bench, everything was a fog out that window especially with my forehead pressed to the glass. But, as I prayed for just those few moments, my eyes adjusted to one slender streak left by a heavy drop. Just one tear of clarity.

And somehow, it was enough. At least for today.

I didn’t get up off that bench with clear answers to my questions but I got up with something else. I rose from my knees with the sense in my heart that I’d been heard. That the questions were not inappropriate. That the matter was not irrelevant. And that, even if it communicated my flawed and small self, what better place to have exposed it?

Then I went to church and worshiped freely because all that had troubled my heart was out on the table before God and I was hiding nothing from Him. I fought tears for most of the service because I felt close to Him and not because I’d been godly but because I’d just gotten to be raw. And it had been okay.

I am struggling with some things and He knows it and not just from reading my mind but from hearing my mouth. Let’s just go ahead and admit it. There is relief in that.

I don’t know why some things are the way they are. It doesn’t change them to admit my bewilderment but it clears the air somehow.

Hostility grows where things are left simmering and unsaid. What I needed to say to Jesus this morning wasn’t about Him but its only safe place was with Him.

Go ahead, Sister. Trust Him with that thing. Go find a place to kneel and say it. Say it in humility but say it with complete honestly.

And I pray that, though the window’s still wet and blurred by the heat, you will open your eyes and there it will be.

One slender streak of clarity.

Wow, friends! It’s our last gathering for our Siesta Summer Bible Study 2014! Thank you so much for allowing me to serve you this summer! I am so proud of you for hanging in there and pursuing God through His Word in tailspins of activity and swirls of people. Listen, don’t you dare get discouraged if you were unable to finish in eight weeks. Keep at it and see it to a conclusion even if you don’t get to the last page until October! God will time the themes of the lessons to match your challenges. He is so faithful.

I hope you are able to view the video but, if not, you’ll find the basic instructions for your discussions and comments below this screen.

SSBS Session 5 COTD from LPV on Vimeo.

Discussion from Week Seven: (To Love the Truth)

1. In your small group or in your comment to the post, review Day 4, “A Strong Delusion”. How can God use darkness when we refuse the light? Was the lesson any help at all in sorting out some difficult concepts?

2. Pages 180-181 – Choose one of those three sections that hit you the most personally and discuss why. For instance, have you experienced a sifting season? Or a thorn in the flesh? Share something you filled in on pgs. 180-181.

From Week Eight: (The Lord of Peace)

Pg. 205 – Reread Romans 16:20.

1. Day Four: Discuss why you will be especially happy for that day to come.  How do you truly owe the enemy one? What do you hope to make him sorry for?

2. Pg. 209 – Did you happen to write your own word picture of grace? If so, share it.

3. Lastly, if you have one primary thing you believe this eight week series has been about between you and Jesus, what would it be?

Bless you, Sister! I love you and appreciate you so much! Let’s stay in the Word and hold tight to Jesus! I love this portion of Ephesians 6 out of The Message. It’s a perfect wrap up to our series:

“God is strong, and he wants you strong. So take everything the Master has set out for you, well-made weapons of the best materials. And put them to use so you will be able to stand up to everything the Devil throws your way. This is no afternoon athletic contest that we’ll walk away from and forget about in a couple of hours. This is for keeps, a life-or-death fight to the finish against the Devil and all his angels. Be prepared. You’re up against far more than you can handle on your own. Take all the help you can get, every weapon God has issued, so that when it’s all over but the shouting you’ll still be on your feet.” Ephesians 6:10-13 (The Message)

Hi Siestas!

I love you girls and am so thankful for you. I just saw a whole room full of you right after Living Proof Live Lubbock and you are the cutest things I’ve ever seen. What an honor to serve you.

We are sailing through our study! I’m praying that you are able to carve out time for your homework and that whatever you are able to accomplish is speaking clearly and personally to you. His Word does not return to us empty. My biggest hope is that you have a deep sense of walking out these eight weeks side-by-side with Jesus. That is everything. That is the goal.

2014 Siesta Summer Bible Study Session 4 from LPV on Vimeo.

Can you believe that we are already at our fourth gathering? Only one more to go and we’re finished! Here are the bare bones of your instructions in case you are unable to view the video:

Today, for our small group discussions and solo responses, get out your workbook with me and turn to pages 120 and page 121 for discussion from Week 5.  At the bottom of page 120, I just love Eugene Peterson’s translation of I Thessalonians 5:4-8 from The Message. You would have read in your homework:

But friends, you’re not in the dark, so how could you be taken off guard by any of this? You’re sons of Light, daughters of Day. We live under wide open skies and know where we stand. So let’s not sleepwalk through life like those others. Let’s keep our eyes open and be smart. People sleep at night and get drunk at night. But not us! Since we’re creatures of Day, let’s act like it. Walk out into the daylight sober, dressed up in faith, love, and the hope of salvation.

With that in mind, glance at the question in the middle of page 121. Your discussion question from Week 5:

• What one event in your life shook you to your most awakened state?

If you’re willing and it’s not too painful to share, please tell us about it.  If you feel a little lulled to sleep in this present season, then discuss that.  Talk about a way that you really need the Lord to awaken you with His Spirit to His Word and to His presence and His activity in your proximity.
Our discussion for Week 6 takes place on pages 142-143.  I’m so anxious to hear from you about this week of study because it’s all about mobilized ministry. I am hoping that you have written your name in the blank in the statement on the middle of page 142. You have a God-ordained ministry, Sister!

Notice the words on page 143: No one else can fulfill your calling. Other people can do what you’ve been called to do, but they cannot be you doing it. Maybe you know someone with the exact same gift mix. Fabulous! Be great friends with them and rejoice in the camaraderie, but keep in mind that each of you bring something unique to the mix. They cannot be you! And you cannot be them!

• Did you get any insight in your calling for this season? If so, what? Share that in your comment to this post, and with your small group if you’re taking part in one.

•  What do you look like when you love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength? (page 145)  What do you want to do most when you’re filled with that holy fire?

I can’t wait to read many of your comments! I love to see women step further into their God-ordained callings.

Now for our memory verses!

Memory Verse for Week 7:
2 Thessalonians 2:16-17 (ESV) – Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word.

Memory Verse for Week 8:
2 Thessalonians 3:3 (ESV)- But the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one.

So your homework for this next few weeks is to finish up the final two weeks of study, Weeks 7 & 8!  Our video greeting next time will be our wrap up!  Get after it!

I’m nuts about you.

Hey Everyone! We’ve made it to Gathering 3 of our summer study! You guys are doing a fantastic job! The summer months are challenging for maintaining a discipline like in-depth Bible study. I’m tremendously blessed you’re carving out the time to take this journey with us and I am asking God to reveal His Son so powerfully to you through these pages.

SSBS Session 3 COTD from LPV on Vimeo.

If you have trouble viewing the video or simply have no time for it, here are the written discussions for you and your small group. Your answers will comprise your comments:

1. Turn to p.71 in  your Week Three homework and glance down the page at the two questions on the equations. First, if you wrote any additional “minus hindrance” equations, I’m dying to hear them. Don’t stress if you didn’t add one but share it if you did.  Second, were there two equations among those I listed in the lesson that resonated with you? If so, which ones and perhaps even why?

2. We’re going to do something a little different in response to Week Four. Instead of locking in on a specific question I posed in print during the week of homework, I want you to choose any day that from that week that God emphasized with you. In other words, did one day of homework stick out the most to you in your journey with Christ? If so, which one and why? Feel free to take a full paragraph in your comment to answer this question since it’s a big one.

The video for Session Five, which is completely optional in our summer study, goes into the portion of scripture that addresses healthy sexuality. If this topic resonates with you, you might consider downloading this particular session. (All of the teaching sessions can be found by clicking here.) In this session, I introduce the 28-Day Challenge, which can also be found in your workbook on pages 112-113. The rest of the study stays focused on the remaining chapters and wide range of topics found in 1st and 2nd Thessalonians but the 28-Day Challenge comes with much love to anyone who could use some help getting on a path of victory in the area of sexuality. You would do the 28-Day Challenge and the remaining 4 weeks of the study simultaneously. The 28-Day Challenge is primarily Scripture-focused prayer and would only add a few minutes to your homework. Those few minutes could be the difference between victory and defeat in an area strategically targeted by the enemy. I love you and I’ve been there. I deeply want you to know the dignity and honor of Christ’s gracious will for you.

OK!! For our next gathering in 2 weeks, please complete the homework assignments in Weeks Five and Six of the study! Here are your memory verses:

Week Five Memory Verse: (Our title verse! We have to do this one!)
“For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness.” 1 Thessalonians 5:5 ESV

Week Six Memory Verse:
“To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of His calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by His power.” 2 Thessalonians 1:11 ESV

Thank you for the privilege to walk with you through these eight weeks of study. PERSEVERE!!! You are already halfway! So much love to you.

Yesterday I drove up the bumpy dirt road from my house to the highway singing my heart out to God, the wheels of my thoughts still turning from the time I’d had with Him earlier that morning. My soul felt alive. My eyes, wide awake. I pulled out onto the main road and wound my way to work, passing all the familiar scenes. Farms and pastures gave way to schools and businesses and, with every mile, I grew more preoccupied with one glorious wonder: God’s willingness to do that thing that He does again and again. Moved that, after umpteen million ups and downs, God is still willing to move me.

I love that God is a God of again. I’ll get dry and think the bloom is behind me and that the best I’ll be able to do is maintain and try not to lose what I have left. Then I’ll be scared it’s all gone and never coming back.

And here He’ll come again. The Scriptures will jump back to life for me like breathing bones. The Cross will suddenly feel to me like it all happened yesterday and like I was right there in the gore and grandeur and grace of it all. I’ll feel alive with belovedness and anxious to love. Awake with forgivenness and anxious to forgive. I’ll feel called and sent and ready to go. The reverberating power of the empty tomb will fill my soul again and I’ll try my hardest to roll that stone back over the entrance and trap Him in. Then, like Mary Magdalene, I’ll throw my arms around His neck and try to hold onto Him right there where He appears most obvious to me. I want Jesus to stay put. I want it in the worst way. But then…

The wind blows wherever it will, and you hear the sound it makes, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. John 3:8

 Try as you may, you can’t catch the Holy Spirit like a firefly and keep Him in a jar.

Of course Jesus never leaves us. We are sealed.

He abides. He remains.

His presence is a fact, not a feeling. But those moments when He’s willing to make Himself known are without equal, I think, in the human experience. The next day comes and its demands and distractions with it. I read and not much happens. I pray and not much moves.

But sooner than later, His fullness comes again. His shadow will pass nearby through some kindness, some revelation, some word on that sacred page – and maybe not even to me but to someone I love – and my heart will light up again. Or tears will well in my eyes. Not just tears of sentiment, though they are a gift and have their place, but eyes pooled with the Spirit. Enlightened with fresh hope.

Only God can keep doing that again. He alone can quicken our souls like that. He is the initiator. He who brought it, brings it back. He who did it, does it again.

What patience.

What love.

What resistance to boredom.

What willingness to risk that faithfulness could be misinterpreted to its receivers as routine.

Abide with me just a moment in the wonder of this: God is willing to awaken our sleepy, sluggish, selfish, sinful souls over and over again.

I’m not new to so much of this. I was in the church nursery by a few weeks old. I’ve heard ten thousand sermons and read nearly as many books. I’ve heard the sound of my own teaching until I thought that if I heard another word from this mouth, I’d have to punch myself and I’ve wondered how God couldn’t be sick of me, too. This has been my life between and within the train wrecks. I’m not new to Jesus. I’m not full of surprises to Him. I’m not new on the docket. But in His unfathomable and tender mercy, He keeps making Himself new to me.

That’s what takes my breath away today.

And God listened to the voice of Manoah, and the angel of God came again to the woman as she sat in the field. Judges 13:9

And the Lord called Samuel again the third time. And he arose and went to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” Then Eli perceived that the Lord was calling the boy. 1 Samuel 3:8

And the Lord appeared again at Shiloh, for the Lord revealed himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the Lord. 1 Samuel 3:21

And the Lord listened to the voice of Elijah. And the life of the child came into him again, and he revived. 1 Kings 17:22

And the angel of the Lord came again a second time and touched him and said, “Arise and eat, for the journey is too great for you.” 1 Kings 19:7

He prayed to him, and God was moved by his entreaty and heard his plea and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord was God. 2 Chronicles 33:13

Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” John 8:12

So Jesus again said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.” John 10:7

Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” John 20:21

Again.

Blessed, beautiful, merciful, divine again.

So I write today for someone with a heart for Jesus who wonders how she’s going to keep it. And, if she can’t, how she can get it back again. Someone whose life, marriage, health, home, sanity, job or ministry depends on it. You’re the one I want to talk to today. I’ve been you. I’m still you.

He who chose you before creation, authored your faith, and birthed new life in you through His Spirit will see to your reawakening again and again. Not in your timing but in His. Not with your methods but with His. He alone ignites, sustains, and reignites holy fire. The fire is in His palm. It is not of your making. It is not yours to manufacture.

That doesn’t mean there’s nothing you can do when all is cold and ashes.

When you’re parched, tell Him you are. When your eyes are dim to wonder, tell Him you cannot see. When you’re getting bored, have the courage to say it. When you think you’ve heard it all, tell Him your heart is lying to you, for in Him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. When you get sick of yourself, plead to see in the mirror what He sees in you. When you get sick of somebody else, hold your frozen heart straight up to the heat of His holiness.

When nothing moves you, move to the floor. Tell Him you’ve got to have Him teeming with life in your bones. Beckon Him and welcome Him over and over to pour His Spirit on you. And He’ll do it again. In His own time and His own way but, make no mistake. He will do it again. Even when we’re the ones who ran off the fullness of His Spirit.

But the hair of [Samson’s] head began to grow again after it had been shaved. Judges 16:22

Praise God.

Even when your body lays lifeless on your deathbed, He will do it again. He will stand you on your feet in His presence.

God cannot seem to resist an opportunity to resurrect.

You don’t have to accept the waning of wonder as the natural evolution of a long-term relationship. Accept it as a visitor but refuse it as a resident. And, when it visits, don’t waste all your energy ranting and writhing and despising it. The floor in the banquet hall of revival is always made of sand. This has been one of the hardest lessons for me to learn. A garden blooming is not a miracle. A desert blooming, now that’s the miracle.

It takes a certain amount of lifelessness to know what it means to be revived.

Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God. Psalm 43:5

Happy Mother’s Day, Moms of all kinds! This post is especially for those who could stand to feel a little happier in their mothering. Below you’ll find the link to the file I reference in the latter half of the video. Watch it first so that you’ll get the context. This little video is not slick or well-rehearsed but it comes with earnestness and love. May Christ continue to perform miracles in your family and in your home. Nothing is too difficult for Him.

To Moms With Love from LPV on Vimeo.

You are highly esteemed around here!

Armed For Prayer

OK, everybody! Here are the results of our random drawing for our book giveaways! I wish so much we could send one to each of you who entered. I so badly wanted some of the men to win! Bless them for posting on our blog today!

Carole Hunt

Addison Rothrock

Brandy Tucker

Gina Myers

McKenzie

Julie Meador

Kristin Funston

Allie Field

Sarah Bryant

Betsy Martin

Mykael Story

Stephanie Bandy

Cami Lang

Amy Harris

Patricia Hoskins

Brenda Prose

Heather Briggs

Robin Lamp

Jill Roberts

Amy Wilch

Dawn Reeves

Angie Osborne

Alison Vaughan

Please email LPM as soon as you can at [email protected] with the street address (no P.O. boxes please) where you want the personalized book sent and we will get right on it! Thank you! We are so blessed to serve you! Tons of love to you all.

Hey, Everybody! We would just love to do a drawing to give away 23 personalized copies of Feathers From My Nest for Mother’s Day. It’s the only official “Mom” book I’ve ever done. I wrote it with wet affection right after my youngest daughter went to college and it is still dear to me. The idea to do a random drawing for a giveaway occurred to me right at closing yesterday so I asked KMac and Evangeline to do a quick perusal and tell me how many copies we have on hand at the ministry. They looked on our resource shelf then around several tables and came up with exactly 23 copies. That’s the reason for the random number. If we find any more around the ministry, we’ll add those into the drawing and give them away, too! I wish I’d thought of it sooner and we would have placed an order for more but we’ll have fun with this many. I so hope some moms will enjoy it.

If you’re interested in winning one, here’s what you do: Leave a comment to this post with your own first and last name and then the first name of the person you want to receive it for Mother’s Day so that I can personalize it. 

We’re going to do a really fast turn-around because we want to get them into the mail in time for Mother’s Day. That means we need to close the post at 11:30 AM this morning. We will then post the 23 winners at 12 noon today in a second post and ask them to jot us a brief email as soon as possible to supply us with a mailing address for the book.

Sound easy enough? Let’s do it!

So much love to you guys today!