Waiting...

Last night's Esther session was....GREAT as always. I love learning about the origin of words used in the Bible. Here is my favorite point from last night concerning this verse:

Isaiah 30:18

Yet the LORD longs to be gracious to you;
he rises to show you compassion.
For the LORD is a God of justice.
Blessed are all who wait for him!

In the original language used, the word "longs" in the first line and the word "wait" in the last line are the SAME!

In explanation: "It isn't a wait without the longing." In all instances of waiting...there is inherently a longing. There is something you are waiting for. Waiting for your turn...you are obviously longing for it to be your turn. Waiting for Christmas...you are obviously longing for Christmas.

Then, to think about it with this verse in mind...God is longing for what you are longing to receive. Blessed are YOU who WAIT for HIM! His longing is also the waiting...waiting for the right time. LONGING for that time to be here so He can answer and give you what you LONG and WAIT for....

Such rich words! I am sad that we only have two more sessions! I learn so much every single week!

Lessons Learned

Well, today has been quite an exciting day full of plot twists and turns.
I attended another awesome Bible study tonight on the book of Esther.
I have tried to type several things just now in explaining the incredible message and the things we talked about and learned, but it is simply impossible to do it well. All I can say is, if you have a chance to sit in on this study...DO IT!
You will not be sorry..you will be immensely blessed and it may turn out to be your own peripety in the chiastic structure that will one day be your life! (Google it, but it won't do it justice!)

Also, another lesson learned today:
Don't count your chickens before they hatch.
You like that one?
I came up with that all by myself today...pretty profound huh? HA!
Timeless, classic, and ever-applicable!
Sleep well!
You never know what God can accomplish while your head is resting on your pillow!
Look what happened in the course of one night of sleeplessness in the book of Esther!

A Word on Fear

Last night's Esther study explored the sentence: "It's Tough Being a Woman in the Tight Fist of Fear." I can't say enough how this study has spoken to me personally every week. Her words are no doubt inspired and anointed. If you have the chance to participate in this in depth look at the book of Esther, please do!

Beth Moore spoke from the passage where Esther goes from being terrified (for those who enter the presence of the King without being summoned the king has but one law, that they be put to death) to a state of being at total peace with what she must do (if I perish, I perish).

The three points she made were:

1. Esther had a choice.
You always have a choice. You must overcome yourself in order to do what God has created you and positioned you to do....
1 Corinthians 2:9: "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived, what God has prepared for those who love Him."

2. Esther face the fear.
Fill in this blank with your worst fear: If ___________, then _____________. No matter how many different things you think might happen "IF fill in the blank happened..." eventually you will get to the point where God is the only thing left.... so whatever happens, tiny fears, big fears, ...THEN GOD. He will be faithful. Not only to protect you from things that you fear, but to carry you when things you fear actually DO happen.
"DO NOT BE AFRAID" the NUMBER ONE most frequently mentioned command in the Bible.
She had so many awesome points on this one. Facing your fears....being courageous. GREAT stuff! Worth going to the website and paying $4 to watch even if you aren't doing this study! :)
In this part she also addressed the fear of death. I loved this verse she shared and the wording from The Message:
Hebrews 2:14-15 "By embracing death, taking it into himself, he destroyed the Devil's hold on death and freed all who cower through life, scared to death of death."
Such great words. No need to fear death. We really have already been dead once and are now living our eternal lives. Our earthly death is just one small blip on the eternal timeline and it is a very intentional and vital part of our destinies.
Philippians 1:6 "He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." It doesn't say "will carry it on to completion when you die."
How many times have people had incredible impact through their death? Impacting so many more and through the words people speak of them after death? Your destiny is not complete until "the day of Christ Jesus" so therefore death is not the "end." Fear not! Not that people should try to bring on death, but it shouldn't be something we live in fear of happening. From the workbook: "Walking in the shadow of death was as perilous as dying." If you live in constant fear of death, the psychological effects can be as if you are dead already.

3. Esther TOOK the courage she was offered.
God can provide all the courage we need...we just have to TAKE it. Take the courage of His presence.
He will be faithful.
1 John 4:18: "Perfect love drives out fear!"

Esther had two choices. One was to approach the king and die unless he spared her. The other choice was to not approach the king and her entire family and family line would die. Either way she was dead. Same thing with us. We can either face our fear and do something with our lives and destinies that will undoubtedly be awesome with God on our side...or we can be too fearful and be dead in life.

From Beth Moore...it is possible to protect and shelter yourself right out of your destiny.

Don't deny your fears. Deny their authority to control your life.

It's Tough Being a Woman!

Our next girls' book club at Graceland starts tomorrow night! I am very excited about it. I actually attended a few of the sessions at the other church campus and it was very good! GREAT for women of course as it is an in depth study of the book of Esther.
I am excited to be in on all of the sessions this time and have a great time with my friends at Graceland!

Each week she will speak on topics in Esther by filling in the blank:
It's Tough Being a Woman ___________________.

The first session is: "It's Tough Being a Woman in Another Woman's Shadow."

I am also baking the Texas Sheet Cake recipe I baked a couple of weeks ago that I got from the Beth Moore blog site. I thought that would be a fun thing to have for a snack for the first night! We are also giving away some fun doorprizes as a treat to kick things off! I am really looking forward to it!

Still Believing God

Romans 9:33 "The one who trusts in him will never be put to shame."

"Beloved, if you pray that God will move a mountain and He doesn't, or you have the faith to tell a mountain to move and it won't, assume Christ wants you to climb it instead and see Him transfigured. Either way the mountain is under your feet."

-Beth Moore, "Believing God."

Just a tidbit of the material we discussed tonight at our girls' book club. What a convicting, yet encouraging book!

Verse Memorization

(If I sent you a message about receiving an award, read down to the last post! Congrats!)

I want to give a little update on my scripture memorization.

It is going pretty well! Last month I had to repeat my verse for the entire month of February....so..I was a little disappointed with that, but I didn't want to move forward until I had accomplished memorizing the verse. It has truly been empowering to have these verses in my mind. I have my little spiral index card set in my purse so I can take them out and read over them if I am even sitting somewhere like dance class or something. I invite you to try this too....I think anyone who makes this effort and actively repeats the scriptures will be blessed so much by God.

Recently there was a post on the "Siesta Scripture Memorization" about a get-together they are planning for next January. It is for all the ladies who have participated in the challenge online. Beth Moore will speak, of course, and everyone will have an opportunity to recite their verses to each other, with special recognition for those who memorized all 24 verses. I think that is a fun idea and a way to motivate someone to keep on going with this! The problem is that it will be in Houston, TX at Mrs. Moore's home church, so I doubt I will be able to head out, but that won't stop me from participating anyway.

Each month on the Living Proof Ministries website Mrs. Beth Moore posts her verse for the month and she says if you feel that it applies to you then you can choose it for your's as well. I haven't done that so far, because it has proven SO true to me that if you don't "need it" then you won't be able to memorize it as affectively.
But, this month the verse she chose really spoke to me, so I decided to take it on for my own. Here it is:

1 Peter 3:9 NIV
"Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing."

WOW! That is difficult and challenging. I am excited to see how repeating this verse over and over in the next few weeks changes me!!!!

Memory Verse Day

It is time for the second verse of the month for January 2009 in the Bible Verse Memory initiative. As part of the process there was a video posted on the Living Proof Ministries blog with some tips of how to memorize verses. I really enjoyed the tips, which are remembered with the acrostic: RENEW. It stands for:

R: READ IT:
obvious...read it over and over and over.
E: EXAMINE IT:
look for language (first person, etc) patterns in the words,
etc that might help with remembering it.
N: NEED IT:
This was a very big one.
She advised to not memorize scripture that your husband (ha ha!) or friend needs...or a "lofty" verse that will "sound good to memorize"
choose one that YOU PERSONALLY NEED
so your motivations are true and it will be easier to memorize.
E: ECHO IT:
Use echoing to memorize...
say bits and parts of it over and over as an echo to help you memorize.
W: WIELD IT:
Use the sword of the spirit...you have it now, so use it to build
your faith and in your day to day life.

I have successfully memorized my verse for the 1-15th, but not so good on the reference. I have to keep working on that one for now. My next verse for the 15th-30th is:

Mark 11:24

Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer,

believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

Happy New Year !

My first resolution! Memorize 2 verses per month in 2009! The Living Proof Ministries blog is hosting a Bible verse memorization "initiative." You can click the link HERE to read about it and sign up if you want to participate. Everyone gets to pick their own verses, you just check in twice a month to be "accountable."

So, here is my first verse of the year...one to help with my goal of not obsessing and worrying so much. In the recent book that I read, I have learned the importance of meeting with God daily and that he wants to be close to you and "meet" with you every day, so this also emphasizes that kind of intimate relationship with God....here you go, my first verse of the year.

Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.

1 Peter 5:7 (NLT)

The goal is to meditate on and memorize this verse by the 15th of the month, when I will pick a new one. I need to go write this on an index card so it will be handy to look over often! Happy New Year!

Overcoming...(sort of a booking through Thursday)

*Stepping on my potentially offensive soapbox*
I haven't posted in a while because I have kind of been mad at the Internet. I have decided that some people like to use the internet as a way of spreading doom and gloom and I just simply avoided it because I truly just don't enjoy reading or hearing bad news. Now, I know that may seem like living under a rock, but I don't mean it to be that way. If there is something that I need to know, then I know that I will be informed. I do not, however, feel the need to be a newswoman by telling all my friends that if you go to Target you might get abducted by someone pretending to need help. I do not feel the need to warn people about the latest plot against women or how tylenol has been proven to kill you if you take any made between these certain dates. These forwards and emails are just meant to spread worry, fear, anxiety, and to keep people buried in their homes and being totally inactive in the world! There was actually a true warning going around recently about a suspicious van in Bartow county going around trying to trick people into opening their front doors...but really....do my friends think me such an idiot that I would open my door to an unidentifiable stranger?! I have to wonder about what people think of me to think I would drink something that had been tampered with or to think that I would pick up a hitchhiker or that I would leave my kids alone in the car while I go in the store.
I do not pass these things on to 10 people and I DO love God. I have yet to have bad luck because I didn't share this important warning with others. Most of the time these things aren't even true. I do not use email and the internet to spread things that are not of good cheer or a source of encouragement for others. Our job as Christians is not to be the "downer" for other people, but to be encouraging to others, especially when bad things happen.
Even if something is true, doesn't mean I need to share it with others so they can be worried and depressed over it with me! If you are reading this and you are a "forwarder" I hope you don't take offense. I know people who forward things are just trying to share the "whatever info" with others, but really, you can take me off your list. It isn't going to go further than my newly instituted "FW" folder where everything pretty much just gets immediately deleted.
The next time you think about passing something along the world wide web....just ask yourself if it to encourage someone or if it is going to upset the person you send it to. The same thing goes for calling on the phone and being the bearer of bad news to someone who just really doesn't even need to know what you are going to say....why? What is your motivation? When is the last time you remembered to call or email someone when something AWESOME happened?!!!!
*stepping off the soapbox*

Matthew 5:13-16:
You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? ... You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid... Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

As a mom, a teacher, a Christian...I want to be a light in my world. I want to spread GOOD news, because the last time I checked there is STILL GOOD news to be shared and spread. I want my children to know security in their Savior....to know that Christ brings joy and hope where others have none.

Who is going to want to join up with a cause (Christ) when the people who are already a part just seem depressed and worried all the time? I know you can't avoid troubles or whatever, but why don't people quit brooding over the state of the world and all the bad things that can happen if you leave your house and start trying to share the GOOD part that we know about, the reason that we can be hopeful and confident in our futures?! God has good news. God has hope and joy and great things for the future of His people! God has plans for us that involve GOOD futures and GREAT things. I don't want to be the bearer of bad news or worry or the cause of discouragement for others. Our children learn from watching us and is the job they will see us do as Christians be the "important" job of spreading fear or spreading joy?

I am also trying to break a cycle of fear and worry in my own life. I am being very candid on here, I realize, but I hope I can help someone by sharing this.

In our Bibly study/book club that I told you about before, we just finished reading two chapters, one of which I believe was written just for me. It is all about diagnosing fear and worry for what it is in your life and how it just completely stops you from being what you are supposed to be in God. WOW, it truly spoke to me and made me realize that living in fear is just not what I am meant to do and how if I want to do the right thing, I MUST move on and get over it! Whatever situation you are anxious about, whether it be something with your family, marriage, church, local or world issues....just pray about it, hand it over, and stop obssessing so that it takes over your life and prevents you from moving forward!
It isn't that I will adapt an attitude of "not caring." I do care. I care about my family and my church and all those things....but being anxious and worried is no way to live fully in all those things I need to be doing on a daily basis. I have found that fear and worry could stay in my heart and my mind that it would prevent me from enjoying a great day or keep me from doing something that I need to do for God because I am so worried about doing it correctly or obsessing about something totally unrelated. Am I no better than someone whose addiction keeps them from God? Am I addicted to being worried about things?! Am I totally bound by my thoughts that are straying constantly from what truly matters (fellowship with God).

Here are some key verses that really have been lifting me up in my quest to move on, and one thought from the book that I thought was particularly good:

From the book:
"The Bible tells us to not fear over 350 times! Why is the Bible (God) so adamant about our avoiding fear and worry? Because God knows that worry short circuits out relationship with Him. It fixes our eyes on our situation rather than on our Savior."

Proverbs 12:25
Anxiety in a man's heart weighs it down, But a good word makes it glad.

Philippians 4:6-7
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

1 John 4:18
There is no fear in love, but full-grown love turns fear out of doors and expels every trace of terror! For fear brings with it the thought of punishment and he who is afraid has not reached the full maturity of love.

Matthew 6:27
Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

Matthew 6:25
Therefore I tell you, stop being perpetually uneasy about your life.

Isaiah 26:3
You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast because he trusts in you.

2 Timothy 1:7
For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

John 16:33
I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.

So, there you go. I admire you if you trudged through with me and are still reading. I have made it my goal to spread good news and hope and cheer. I will try to say things that are uplifting and encouraging. I will not spread doom and gloom. I will not allow fear and worry to ruin any more of my days or nights or to steal my joy. And along with that, one more verse that seems to be ever presenting itself in my life for many different reasons:

Philippians 4:8
Finally brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable-if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-think about such things.

My theme for the rest of the week....

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Matthew 11:28-30

I know this isn't exactly in the precise context in which I will take it...ha...but in a way it is. BECAUSE my soul is at rest...then I can completely rest my mind and body for the next few days while I take a vacation from my everyday life. I pity the people who can't relax when they get away from it all, even when they ARE away from it all, because their souls are not at rest.

See you on Wednesday probably, with photos from Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party! Bathany ordered our tickets today and in 13 hours I will be getting ready to head out of town! Please say a prayer for our safety and peace of mind while we are both away from our children who we are usually with 24 hours a day!, and for Corey, Katie and Noah as they go through the rest of the week. Also, for Nana, who will have charge over them during work hours...and who will be going through some school work I have left for them.

I am truly excited and ready for some REST!!!!

Booking Through Thursday

I want to share a new book with you this week.....
I have been wanting to start a mom's Bible/book study at church, and it the right time has come! I have never been in charge of leading a study before, so as you read this please say a quick prayer for me to have the right things to say and to be a good leader for this new thing!
We are going to be meeting on Wednesdays at 6pm...a time that will be perfect for us moms who need to get our kids in the bed at a decent hour! ha. I am very excited and believe I was lead to a great book as a beginning point for us.

Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World, by Joanna Weaver

I have heard great things about this book and as I read through the first three chapters as a sort of "preview" I am really enjoying it. The topic has actually been a good one to start a mom's study group, because it is all about MAKING time for God through the "busy-ness" of a mom's life. The back of the book says:

"An invitation for every woman who's ever felt she isn't godly enough, isn't loving enough, isn't doing enough. The life of a woman today isn't really all that different from that of Mary and Martha in the New Testament. Like Mary, you long to sit at the Lord's feet...but the daily demands of a busy world just won't leave you alone. Like Martha, you love Jesus and really want to serve him...yet you struggle with weariness, resentment, and feelings of inadequacy. Then comes Jesus, into the midst of your busy life, to extend the same invitation he issued long ago to the two sisters from Bethany. Tenderly, he invites you to choose "the better part"---a joyful life of intimacy with Him that flows naturally into loving service."

We had our first group meeting tonight and I think it was quite a success! We have a good group of girls and I am so excited about making new friends!