A season in my life is closing. I have taught children for seven years in Bible Study Fellowship and that season ends Monday night. It has been a blessing. I have learned and grown through the process.
God has taught me how to tell a story, using some of the best examples there are: the bible.
As I looked around the leadership circle this morning at 5am, I thought about how I am going to miss those ladies. I pray I don’t forget the practices God has taught me through this part of the journey. It has been valuable.
But I know it is time to move on because He has given me a passion for the pursuits He has placed in my heart. He has taught me the importance of spreading the gospel. He has taught me how to deliver it to people who do not want to hear it.
I am not the person I was when I started this process. God is continuing His good work in me.

Sugar is an addiction. Detoxing my body from it is misery. Yet it is giving me the opportunity to experience what it means that in my weakness He is strong. (2 Corinthians 12:9) In my year of fasting, this month I am fasting from sugar. I did not think that all of the sweet things from life would disappear with it. My head hurts, my mood is fowl. I don’t know how anyone can get a blessing out of this.

I feel like Jonah walking through Nineveh. God gives me a word. I pass it on, and the recipient runs off shouting praises to God because it is what they had been waiting on. I feel like, “Really, God, you can give them a life long word, but not change my foul mood or make my head stop hurting.”

Because I was obedient this morning, God sent me a very personal word.  I won’t share my personal word with you, but I will give you some observations I made during this session.

It was at the Women’s Fellowship this morning at OCBF that I heard “it is in the dark places we find Him and who He is.”  I have found him more in the last six days of this month than I have found Him all year.  He sends me a message saying I am about to tell you something so listen. When the message comes it is so overwhelming that I know beyond the shadow of a doubt, it is for me.

Our speaker today gave her testimony, which was very powerful. She titled her message, Redeemed, but Dead. I know we can relate because there are many dreams in us we feel have died.  She taught out of Ephesians 2:10.  We are God’s workmanship and He put good works in us to bring Him glory. She challenged us to remember John 11:4.

She said where ever He is, there is life.

So where ever this message finds you, remember where He is, there is life.

Amen

This is the third time I have studied the book of Genesis and because there are so many years in between I seldom remember my key learning.  Through the process of blogging and journaling I hope to have a better handle on it.

This year I am struck by Jacob who named the places where he encountered the Lord.  This week Jacob struggled with God and his name was changed to Israel.  Jacob marked the spot by naming it (Genesis 32:30) He named the place Peniel which meant “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”

This stands out to me because if I had named my previous encounters with the Lord and revisited them, there would be little doubt to what the future holds in times of struggle. I have decided that this year I will name my encounters with God and leave markers behind that will remind me of His character.

I have finished the novel, Connections and am very excited about the story. I love how God used me to tell a fictional story.  The characters which are fun and real, deal with everyday life situations along with the extraordinary circumstances they are placed in.

As I said previously, this was not a project I had planned at the beginning of the year, it was something God brought to  me.  I am trying to be open to God changing my agenda because I know if He brings me to it, He will bring me through it.  I love how He brought me through Connections.

I look forward to the rest of the journey.

It has become God’s habit lately to speak to me through me as I minister to others. (So if I am talking to you and stop in the middle of the conversation, know that God has just given me a word.)

I am a happy content single woman. God gave me a vision years ago that singleness is not something He wants for me, but will change it in His own time.  He has been preparing me for what married life will be like. He has me praying over a successful marriage.  I am waiting expectantly for this man.

Let me tell you I love being single. It is God and me and the adventures are endless.

Here is what I heard from God this month and maybe it will help some of  my single brothers and sisters. I was talking to someone about my singleness.

God gave me a vision for some things He is accomplishing in my life as a single.  There are some tasks He is planning on accomplishing through me.  God has not completed those tasks so it can’t be time yet for me to take on a new vision with someone else.

When I get married, the vision changes. It becomes something else in conjunction with someone else.

God is not going to start one task until another one is accomplished.  He is a God of order.

So if you are holding off on that thing God called you to do until you meet Mr or Ms Right, you might be delaying your own blessing.

I am learning to be content whatever my situation, but I am pressing on toward the goal of the things He has called me to.

This year’s blog will focus more on what is happening with me. I am trying to focus on what God is calling me to and not do so much busy work. There are lots of good things to be involved in so it is easy to become entangled into things that have nothing to do with what you are called to do.

I started the year with a good fast, and I am trying to apply parts of it to my everyday life because I want God to be active in my every day life.

He gave me this great project to work on. It is a great novel that I can’t wait to share with you. Here is the lesson. It wasn’t what I was working on. It wasn’t what I had planned for this year. It wasn’t even in my five-year plan. But I know that God’s timing is perfect and if this is what He wants, it is what I want.

The projects I was working on are on the sidelines. This one is blossoming and growing. I can’t wait to see what He does with it. 2013 is going to be an amazing year.

Merry Christmas.

Sometimes we do things and do not understand the significance of them. But through time God reveals to us the value of the action.

When I was in college, a man and his wife, who was legally blind, used to take a group of us to lunch on Sundays after church. It was always a wonderful time.

When college was over and I moved on, the only connection was a Christmas card every year.

I believe it was this process that began my prayer wall.  I began taping up all of the Christmas cards I received. It was awesome to see the families and how they grew and changed. Over time I began to pray over the people on my wall.  See, I will never get to spend time over a meal with John R like we did 30 years ago.  That season has passed, but we are still connected through my prayer life.

There are people whose lives I am currently intertwined with and pray over particular circumstances, like Jean. But we have been good friends over the last 10 years; so the privilege of praying for specific circumstances and seeing how God answers them is a blessing.

And there are those who are on the outer rims of my life, who I don’t know much of what is happening, but like John R, we have had some significant moments in life. Those times have passed and it is time for us to keep moving forward in different directions.

As I was collecting Christmas cards each year and putting them on my wall, I was just enjoying hearing from everyone. Yet as the Holy Spirit prompted me to pray for those people through the year, I thought wow, I think I might be on to something.

The Christmas cards are something to remember the moments of the past and pray for the future. I remember BSF leadership with some, work, school and karate classes. I love to see what God does every year. I love to see the people He gives me to pray over for the year. It is always a mixture of new and old people.  I don’t know what God is doing in their life, but I know it is working toward His purpose.

So look again at that thing you think is insignificant, can God get some glory out of it? In 2013, let’s make it count for Christ.

Yesterday, I sat in the highest Court in the land.  I saw seven of nine justices. As thrilling as it was to see them in person, it was more daunting to see how they were aging.  As I looked at judges who are appointed for their lifetime, I was reminded of the Supreme Judge who was not appointed. And unlike our Justices who will whither and fade, the Supreme Judge is the same yesterday, today and the future. He won’t get ill. He won’t go against His Word. Along with justice, He always dispenses mercy.

This year is almost over and it has been a tough one. So what have I learned through everything that has happened this year. God is good.

Really, when things are so tough you can’t see straight, God is good.

When things are so good you can’t believe it, God is good.

When you are confused and lost and wondering what will happen next, God is good.

God is always more concerned with our character than with our comfort.

God is always bigger than our circumstance.

As 2012 ends, look for His goodness.

I wrote an article that was published in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram

 

 

http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/10/27/4368570/obama-has-delivered-results-to.html