Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Pouring out, pouring in, and pouring forth

It has been awhile since I shared my Bible study with you. Our session Tues night was incredible. Living in the Spirit is all about living in victory and living in the Spirit will change your day. It will determine your mood, it will determine your choices. Begin each morning in praise to the Father, allow your worries and anxieties, your fears and your tears to be poured out at His feet so that you can stand completely pure before Him. I mean, pour out EVERYTHING. Confess all that is consuming you. And then once you have confessed it, allow yourself to accept the forgiveness that God redeems you with. God is our refuge, spill forth all of your concerns at His feet. Once you do that, you will allow Him to pour in all that He is willing to give. This is one thing that you can indulge in. We were created with the desire to be full. Allow the spirit to fill you to the emptiest places, the deepest crevices, the most secret spots. Tell Him what you are lacking and ask Him to fill it for you. We need to live by the Spirit, be led by the Spirit, and keep in step with the Spirit. Once we pour out all that is in us and allow Him to pour in what we need, then we will be able to pour forth His spirit on others and minister to them through the spirit. Letting Him take control, giving Him the worries, will overflow you with peace and and permeate your bones so that you naturally live by the Spirit each day. The Spirit empowers us to fight life's inevitable battles with the world, the flesh, and the devil. In every way and at every turn we are utterly dependen on the Holy Spirit of God.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Sharing my study- Influence

Today's treasure: " Strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to reamin true to the faith. 'We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God' they said" Acts 14:22. Wow, how is that for being relevant? And this was just the first verse of study! Today's study focused on the power of influence and why we need to stay rooted in the Holy Spirit. Did you know that we can possess the very character of Christ? You have to grant God an all-access pass to every part of your life and when you do you will never be the same. Think with me if you will about this. God entrusted women with the most wonderful and terrible gift- the power of influence. Think about Eve in the Garden? Why did the serpent approach her and not Adam? Think about the power of feminine influence. We are the bearer of children, women overwhelmingly staff schools, MDOs, daycares, and Sunday Schools. With the divorce rate up, mothers are the primary influence in children's lives. When we use our influence at best- we encourage, nurture, teach, evangelize, and disciple others. At the worst- our influence can cripple and kill. The line becomes very fine between the two. God exhorts us to have gentle and quiet spirits, meaning we need to think before we speak and act. These warnings in scripture are no provided becasue we are so lowly, but because we possess such an awesome gift.
How do you use your gift of influence in your home, at work, and in your church? Learning to live by the Spirit can refine our influence to be used in positive ways and gentle ways. Please pray that God will help you to wield your influence ONLY under the authority of the Holy Spirit who dwells within you!

{Some statements are taken directly from my study guide and some are my wording.}
Please let me know if you enjoy me sharing these tidbits or not. I just love studying the fruit of the spirit because it is relevant for every day living. And it also helps me study when I share a small portion with you. So speak up! If you don't care for it, I won't share quite as much! But I hope it helps someone out there! I will tell you that this particular study is available for online study and www.lifeway.com if you would like to watch Beth Moore and download the study guides. After two days, I am already feeling refreshed.)

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

God is already speaking to me

Wow, can I say here that only after this first session of Beth Moore's "Living Beyond Yourself" that I came home reflecting already on how He spoke to my heart. This study is about learning to live in the fruit of the spirit, living beyond what we alone are able to do. God has called us to live beyond ourselves. When we are filled with the fruit of the spirit, it makes us immediately different. When you are filled with the fruit of the Spirit, you will find God making you reach out and press forward to your goal. There was one verse in particular that spoke to me in regard to this adoption journey. In 2 Corinithians 1:8-9 it says in part " We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired in life." God brings us far beyond our ability to endure and when we reach the goal we can say without a doubt that GOD IS GOD because it went way beyond our natural talents and abilities.
" The essence of an abundant life is God abundant in our lives."~ Beth Moore
"If you are still breathing, God is still happening".
God has called each of us to live beyond what we are able. I am looking forward to immersing myself is God's word and allowing the wind of the Holy Spirit to blow on my face. If your unrelenting daily demands are beyond yourself and you find yourself having a "here we go again day" stop and fill yourself with the sweet fruit of the Holy Spirit. It will change your life, it will change your day, it will change your mood.

I look forward to sharing my daily studies with you. It is so refreshing to soak up God's beautiful word and see where He has already brought me beyond myself with this adoption and I will continue to trust that God is God and He is still happening and it is far beyond my own ability to endure this journey, so I will put God in control and allow Him to teach me what He would have me to learn. I hope you will enjoy sharing my studies with me. The fruit of the Spirit is probably my favorite study ever because it relates to everyday living and provides and immediate growth in my walk with God.

Getting refreshed


I am starting a new Beth Moore bible study tonight. I am looking forward to hearing what God will have to say to my heart. Being in a very vulnerable place is usually where He brings you when He really needs to speak to you. I looking forward to refreshing my mind, my spirit, and my heart. I so desperately need to be consumed in His love right now. I am at such a low point today. I am still faithful, just feeling down. I know that the fellowship of Christian ladies and prayer, and teaching of God's word is just the ticket for me right now. You see, I am so extremely busy each Sunday that I do not get to attend Sunday School or service as I am overseeing the nursery, preschool , and elementary departments. It is way too easy to get detached when you are not pouring yourself into God's word. It is time for me to come to the well and let God pour His love out on me so I can gain a new found faith, trust, and endurance for whatever lies ahead in our adoption journey. This Beth Moore study is on the fruit of the spirit. I am so looking forward to it. I plan on sharing tidbits of my study here with you so that you may be refreshed also.

Sunday, September 7, 2008

From a friend

I recieved this from a dear friend of mine and I wanted to share it with all of you.


"A child sat on Jesus' lap in the splendor of heaven.
The child asked, "Is it time?"
Jesus parted the clouds, looked and said,"No, not yet child.
"The child asked "When will it be time?"
Jesus replied, "When lessons are learned,hardships endured, and loneliness lived,then it will be time."
Time passed.
The child asked, "Is it time?"
Jesus parted the clouds, looked and said,"No, not yet child."
The child asked, "When will it be time?"
Jesus replied, "When maturity is reached,self-worth affirmed and spirits strengthened, then it will be time."
Time passed.
The child asked, "Is it time?"
Jesus parted the clouds, looked and said,
"Their love is strong and their hearts are open.
Yes, now it is time-Your parents are ready."~author unknown

Thank you, Laurie, you are such an encourager! Maybe God will part the clouds soon and tell Kaylee "Their love is strong and their hearts are open, Yes, now it is time, your parents are ready." We are ready, Kaylee.

Lord, hear our prayer

Protected post. Click here.

Monday, September 1, 2008

The End of One hope

This day, THE day that held such significance for all of us in the Vietnam prospective adopting world has come and gone so quietly. Many of us are holding broken hearts for the dream of the Vietnamese child we have dreamed of for so long, for us, well over 750 days. We are left to pursue other avenues if possible and those whose only hope was the Vietman program are at the mercy of two governments to reach a new agreement and reopen the program. It was stated today that the program has been suspended indefinitely. Such an open ended time frame. Many of us will grieve the loss of the child we had already adopted in our hearts and renew our strength to start over a whole new process with another country. There are families who have been left today wondering what it will mean for them to not have obtained their official referral letter and have grown to love the face of the child they have been provided to be faced with the possibility of their child being assigned to someone else. There are families celebrating the fact that they were the "lucky ones" to have received all the proper paperwork to be able to proceed with the adoption. There are even families who have brought their children home, who in light of all the corruption exposure may pause to wonder if their child was truly an orphan as reports of their child's province or orphange is brough under scrutiny.
My heart is very quiet tonight as I reflect on the dreams we held so dear of the child from Vietnam that we had no doubt we were going to bring into our family. As I have watched families before and after us become families, the joy becomes bittersweet. My mind fills with questions of "what ifs " and" if we only" to the point of craziness. There is no sense in asking these questions because what is is what is. Trusting wholly in God is the absolute only sense in this whole mess. I don't feel in my heart that we are never getting a child. There is just going to have to be a new focus and new set of strength to come from this whole terrible mess. That is what I really feel this has been. We were given so much hope that this Vietnam adoption was going to be a sure thing. We were told we would get a referral, they just didn't know when. And here we are, no hope of a referral from Vietnam, thousands of dollars sunk into this adoption, months and months of fruitless waiting, totally at the bottom of the valley. I am asking God to reach down and bring us out of this storm, praising Him for whatever it is we are to learn from this experience. I know it is certainly easy to praise God when you are standing on the top of the mountain, looking at all you have accomplished, but when you are in the valley looking up to the mountain, your heart cries out to God to show you what you are to learn and then you thank Him for bringing you to this place so that when you do reach the top of the mountain, you will know that HE is the only one that could have brought you to that place. His mercies are wonderful and His ways are not always for us to understand. I do know that God NEVER makes any mistakes, He never forsakes us or forgets about us, He will never leave His children. He only asks us to TRUST in Him, even though our own understanding cannot comprehend His ways. I am trusting God to bring us to the top of the mountain, to bring us to our daughter. It is very hard starting over somewhere else but at this point, we have to endure the changes and press on to a new goal. The months ahead will show us where to go. Those updates are posted on the password protected blog.

Thank you to everyone who is praying for us to find our daughter. If I had never started this blog, I would not have the support today that I have. You all are very special to us and we hope that someday soon it will be our moment and our day that we share with you the news of a daughter that God has led us to. Keep praying for us that we find our direction. You are all truely awesome and wonderful friends.