Scholarship to She Speaks

Yippee and Yahoooooooo, My Proverbs 31 sisters are the most generous sisters I know. My friend Amy Carroll is offering a scholarship to this year's She Speaks Conference. Log on to her Next Step Services Site for the details. Don't miss this opportunity to win a scholoarship. This is the one conference you DON'T want to miss.

Do Your Actions reflect Light?

Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. Matthew 5:16

Jesus said, “Let our light shine before men, that they may see your good works.” (Matthew 5:16) Notice that they must see light before they will ever notice any good that we have. The first step is ours. But the message here is that if we’ll turn the light on, God will take care of the rest and make sure his goodness is seen in our lives.

Remember, God’s light is a most powerful and effective tool and we have all Christians have his light in them. Felix Adler, a noted Jewish lecturer, said it this way, “The hero is the one who kindles a great light in the world, who sets up blazing torches in the dark streets of life for men to see by. The saint is the man who walks through the dark paths of the world, himself a light. “

We cannot escape our Lord’s words in Matthew 5:16: let your light shine so that others may see your good works. What we do demonstrates the truth of what we say. Christianity is a religion of words as well as works – we tell people about our faith, we study the Scriptures and spend time in prayer. However, words alone are not enough.

Look at James 2:14: What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?

If our words are not demonstrated by our actions, is there any validity to our claim? When we tell people the truth about out love for Jesus, but we proceed to live as though there were no God, what will they think of our words? When the world sees people who put their faith into action, it gives validity to our words. The result in our lives is obedience and growth, bringing glory to God.

So let me ask you... Does your light shine for Jesus?

Let your Light Shine

Hi friends,

I'm just home from a wonderful time with the ladies at First Friends church in Canton Ohio.

Oh sisters, the Lord visited that event with his very presence and many women shared with me the changes that were made in their hearts.

What a privilege to see and hear of God's goodness over those two days. I was so encouraged to be a part of the wonderful work the Lord did this weekend.

There are so many verses pertaining to light in the bible and these are but a few we talked about and pondered on.

Con you "enlighten" us with your thoughts on some of these verses?

2 Samuel 22:29
"You are my lamp, O LORD; the LORD turns my darkness into light." (NIV)

Job 33:28

"God has delivered me from going down to the pit, and I shall live to enjoy the light.'" (NIV)

Psalm 18:28
"You, O LORD, keep my lamp burning; my God turns my darkness into light." (NIV)

Psalm 43:3
Send me your your light and your truth, let them lead me; let them bring me to your holy mountain, to the place where you dwell." (NIV)

Rejected

I don't care who you are or how old you are, all of us have dealt with rejection at some point in our lives. We have all suffered rejection socially, by friends, even by our family and loved ones.

Rejection plays a definite role in shaping our personalities and our character in ways many of us would probably not even admit. We all react and deal with rejection in different ways.These verses point out the greatest act of rejection.

God sent his Son to earth to redeem humankind, to create a way for all people to enter into a personal relationship with Himself, but they rejected him. Those who God called his people rejected his Son and executed Jesus. In the face of this rejection Jesus hung on a cross with the sin of the world on his shoulders, including the very sin of those who were rejecting him.

These verses also point to the greatest transformation in history. In Jesus God turned rejection into glory. The rejected One was raised by God to the highest place.

I find profound comfort and encouragement in this transformation of rejection into glory. Our rejection, is being transformed into glory, in Christ Jesus. It is marvelous in my eyes. Rejection is being redeemed into glory.

"As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ." 1 Peter 4-5 (NIV)

"But you are the ones chosen by God, chosen for the high calling of priestly work, chosen to be a holy people, God's instruments to do his work and speak out for him, to tell others of the night-and-day difference he made for you—from nothing to something, from rejected to accepted."

I Peter 2:9-10 (The Message)

What about you friend, what is your experience with rejection?

Will you be wiling to share your story with us and the redeeming power of God's love in your life?

She Speaks 2011

Hey friends,

Registration has begun for the 2011 She Speaks Conference.

If you're looking for the BEST conference in the world. Look no further!

Anyone interested in Writing, Speaking, Leading Women in Ministry? Maybe you're simply longing to fellowship with some of God's best, brightest and funniest girls.

Well, friends, this is the conference you've been looking for.

I've been involved with this conference for 7 years and I'm proud to say to only gets better each year.

I love to tell ladies that this is a weekend that is:

Exciting

Exhilarating

Educational

Enthusiastic

Enlightening

Electrifying

You don't want to miss out on this years conference!

See you there!

Changes

As we press on, let's rest for a moment on the third stage of change Believe You Can Change with God's Help. Proverbs 4:23 - Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. The way you act is determined by your attitudes and intentions. People and circumstances may influence you, but you do not have to give in. You do what you decide to do. 1 Corinthians 10:13 - God will not allow temptations that are beyond our ability to bear. He will always make a way of escape. "God is faithful." He will always keep this promise. It makes sense that you can break any bad habit and develop any good habit according to God's will. Philippians 4:13 - We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. This includes changing to please Him. If we trust our own strength, we will fail. Satan can defeat us. If we use Christ's strength we will succeed, because Satan can never defeat Him. Perhaps we have failed in the past because we have trusted our own power instead of using Christ's. People sometimes convince themselves, "I just can't change. It's too late. Besides, I'm only human." They they are denying God's word. They will fail simply because they will give up instead of persisting to use God's power. Psalm 37:5 - If you commit yourself to the Lord and trust Him, He will accomplish His will for you. No matter how strong a temptation you face, no matter how long you have practiced a sin, if God says to change, you can change. (See also Eph. 6:10-18; 3:20,21; 2 Cor. 9:8; Josh. 1:5-9.) What are your thoughts friends and what truths do you find in these verses?

Stumbled Lately?

As we turn the page in our pursuit of change I want to open the discussion to the cycle of change.

If you're anything like me, you have made the commitment to change and you've done pretty well for the most part, but... you've stumbled. Perhaps you find yourself lapsing back into old habits and behaviors. Maybe you feel as if you've stumbled to the point of falling flat on your face.

Well friend, I'm here to tell you that I've stumbled a bit myself.

We've made the first step to change: We recognize we need change.

Now we're onto the second step of change: We stumble and even fall.

Okay, so we've stumbled a bit. Big Woo!

It's not like you've walked off the end of a stage in front of hundreds of people(Oh wait, I've already done that! Really I did. And I jumped right up and got on with it!).

So now, what are we going to do?

We're going to pick ourselves up and get right back to work.

Friends, everyone falls, but those who get up and get right back to it, are the ones who are successful in their change.

I'd like to rest on this second step to change for a bit and would love to hear your thoughts.

Latest Winner!!

Hi friends,

I'm excited to announce the winner of my latest give away.

Made to Crave DVD

Doot Doot Doot Doo!

Congratulations to:

Jill who posted on February 28 at 1:15

Jill, please send me your address in an email and I'll get your DVD in the mail to you.

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!

Happy Birthday Young Zoe

I ran across these photos yesterday. WOW! This girl certainly has changed.

I hope you'll stick with me. I'll be drawing for the Made to Crave DVD tomorrow (Thursday). I"ll be announcing that and then we will turn the page to the next chapter in our pursuit of change.

Talk about changes?!?

This is how a pretty, pretty princess celebrates her birthday these days!