Sisterhood Rocks!

Dear Friends,

I usually post every Monday morning but today was a travel day for me. This weekend I had the privilege of speaking at a retreat set in the mountains of Chalis, Idaho. Every year the women of Twin Falls Reformed Church hold their women's retreat at the beautiful Living Waters Ranch. We had a great time together and I have to say, I LOVE THESE WOMEN! Spending time with these precious women made me want to get home and wrap my arms around every one of my girlfriends. What a gift God has given us in our girlfriends!

I spoke three times at this retreat and taught a Power Stretch class. We laughed together, shed a few tears together, and shared some fabulous mealtime discussions together. I listened to many stories and the journeys of these women reminded me why we need each other. I was struck how certain paths intersected creating a bond between women that has stood the test of time.

One group of women find encouragement by staying in regular contact for the purpose of friendship, accountability and prayer. Another group spends much of their time laughing, acting silly, and enjoying the break from every day life. Still, another group sits close, talks about things deep and wide, and holds one another up in prayer. At the end of the day, all of these women know they are loved by Jesus. They walk in His love, count on His love, and pass this love on to their children.

It was easy for me to see why God loves these women so and after my time in the mountains, I'm even more thankful for my own girlfriends.

When we determine to put to death the stereotype of cattyness and pettiness among women, and we walk with our girlfriends with honor, holiness and purpose, we will find a sistership that makes our pilgrimage to the Promised Land especially sweet. Thank you, Jesus, for our girlfriends!

May we all be real enough to enjoy deep and thriving relationships with our sisters.

May we all be deep enough to challenge one another to stay out of the shallows.

May we all be rich enough in character to set a new standard in our conversations.

May we all be humble enough to admit when we are wrong.

May we all be true enough to be faithful to our friends.

May we all be holy enough to love, lean on, and walk with Jesus first and foremost.

He Leads Me...

God's intimate love and personal attention to detail never fail to amaze and overwhelm me. A number of years ago I went forward at a meeting where the speaker was speaking words of insight and wisdom to each person. I had just come off of a speaking event and I was both elated and exhausted. God moved in powerful ways and I was profoundly tired.

I wasn't prepared for what I was about to hear and those words would affect me for a long time to come.

I was hoping for exhortation or encouragement in my walk of faith. Instead I received words that embarassed and humiliated me. To make matters worse, none of what he said resonated with me. Now this precious saint is human and God has used him in huge ways, but in my case, he was off or his mind was elsewhere and I was deeply affected by it all. I never wanted to put myself in this position again.

I enjoy hours in the Lord's presence during my own private prayer times. I love it when God speaks to me there. On the rare occasion that I get to attend a conference, I like to blend in and soak in as much as I can. Now mind you, my desire to blend has had more to do with self protection than humility, but I do want all of God I can handle.

This past week I attended the International Healing Conference. I was blessed to attend a luncheon for pastors and those in full-time ministry. Heidi Baker was the speaker and I tell you, I have never met a more Christ-like soul. This woman lives as a missionary in Africa and so far has adopted five thousand children and has loved them into the Kingdom of God.

Her testimony blew me away. I found myself begging God for her kind of radical faith and tenacity. At the end of her message the host stepped up to the platform and said, "Please don't grab for Heidi, let her pass by; she needs her rest for tonight."

There I stood, in a crowd of three hundred people, with my head bowed. I looked up to see Heidi standing directly in front of me. She grabbed my shoulders, planted a wet kiss on my cheek and wrapped me in a warm hug. She prayed a short prayer and smiled at me again. Then she walked away.

I put my hand to my cheek and was just stunned. I walked out to the car with my friend. I buckled my seatbelt and then broke down and cried. I sobbed and sobbed.

Jesus knew I couldn't keep hiding, but He also knew what would bless me beyond words. I once felt publicly embarassed and humiliated, this time I felt blessed and honored.

Each day of the conference I was surprised and overwhelmed by the intimate and personal ways God ministered to me as if I was the only one there. So much more happened than I am able to share here, but the thing I will say is that He knows my name, and He knows yours.

He knows your address, He knows what makes you afraid, and He knows what makes you want to hide. He is gentle and loving and kind and true. So much so, that He parts the waters or the crowds just to bring you a miracle to remind you He's there.

He leads us to the heights, through our fears, and into places of promise.

May we follow Him all the days of our lives!

This I pray...

Father in Heaven,

Forgive us for our apathy and casual committment to all that is right and good. Revive our hearts, Lord, and take us to a deeper place of intimacy with You. Forgive us for the countless ways we have compromised and hardened our hearts toward Your voice in our hearts and the calling on our lives. You love your Church, for she is Your Bride. And yet we've somehow tried to differentiate between our relationship with You and our committment to Your Church. Yes, the Church is flawed, because we are flawed. But You love us and You cherish Your Church. Revive our hearts, Lord, and give us a First Love passion once again.

Give us eyes to see, ears to hear, and a heart to do Your will. Forgive us for the over-busy, completely distracted lives we live. You deserve a Bride, fully engaged, fully committed to You, because You are fully committed to us. Oh, God, revive us once again. Anything good in us comes from You. Draw us into a deeper relationship with You and fill our hearts with Your glory. For nothing on earth compares with You, and nobody loves us like You do.

These are critical days and we cannot afford to be spread so thin that we make no Kingdom impact. Bring focus to our lives. Lift the grace to do anything but that which You've anointed us to accomplish.

Set us free from ourselves, our hang-ups, and our fears. Release us from the opinions of man that we may live lives totally devoted to You. Give us faith for living, giving, loving, and serving. May we determine to walk in such faith that a groundswell response follows us wherever we go.

Thank you for loving us with such great passion and deep affection. You deserve all that we are and more. Time on earth is short oh God, may we live with Eternity in mind.

As Psalm 26:3 says, we will keep Your Love ever before us and we will walk continually in Your truth. We will speak, move, give and live with Your love in mind. And we will walk forward unafraid, full of faith because Your truth sets us free and sets us up to live powerful lives.

Come, Lord Jesus, revive Your Church again!

We need You every hour!

Amen.

Fill Us With Your Glory!

How lovely is Your Dwelling Place, Oh Lord, God Almighty!

Wow! What a weekend we had together up at Covenant Pines in McGregor, Minnesota! This was the second of two retreats and God blessed us more than I can say.

Over and over again, God chose to remind us that we are LOVED and we are CALLED. My words were met with great warmth, enthusiasm, and excitement. When you have a group that shows up, expects God to move and wants to hear what He has to say, you have a recipe for a compelling time. This is a picture of the beautiful, empty Covenant Pines Chapel, just waiting to be filled with ready and expectant women. Such women showed up and God blessed us beyond measure!

Once again, worship was absolutely powerful, led by Andrea Lupino. If you need an excellent worship leader for your event, check my previous post for her information. She is a delight and an anointed leader.

At every session we were ushered into God's presence with powerful, heartfelt worship. We laughed and cried together, and above all, we were reminded of the importance of belief. We must believe that we are the object of God's love. We must believe that He sings over us, and dances over us, and calls us to His side. We must believe that we are everything to Him and can do all things through Him. We must refuse doubt, worry, and insecurity, and cling tightly to the fact that we are made in His image, and made to do great things.

We will sometimes be called to do things beyond our reach - wild, exciting, scary things. And we will at times be called to do things that seem beneath us, because this is how Jesus always lived.

These are critical days in which we live and it's both our privilege and responsibility to know our worth and to know that we're called.

Thank you, ladies for a divine time, celebrating our Beloved.

I love you all!

Now share with me, some of your own God stories!

My Voice is Sweet...

This past weekend I spoke at Covenant Pines Bible Camp in McGregor, Minnesota. Over one hundred women gathered there to spend time with God and with one another. The worship was led by Andrea Lupino and was out of this world! Her leadership and passion set the stage for a power-filled time in God's presence. In fact, if you are in need of worship leader for your upcoming event, contact Andrea at: andrealupino@gmail.com; you won't be disappointed.

We talked about many things this weekend; our character and Christ-likeness, our vision and our hope; the way we treat other women, and how we see ourselves.

At one point I referred to the Song of Songs where Solomon tells the Shulamite woman to come out from behind the rock because, he said, "Your voice is sweet and you are lovely." Jesus says the same thing to us. We all hide behind our rocks of performance, perfection, insecurity, busy-ness, you name it. And in doing so we deprive the world of being blessed by God's presence in our lives. We also miss out on all of the ways God wants to reveal Himself in and through us.

I told the ladies to turn to their neighbor and say, "My voice is sweet!" And I had them turn to their other neighbor and say, "And I am lovely!"

They giggled and laughed as they said these uncomfortable words to one another. I'm sure you are shifting in your seat at the thought of saying such a thing out loud. And yet we must.

Until we identify ourselves as someone whom God deeply loves and celebrates, we will never fully grasp what it means to be His.

I dare you, put your hand over your heart today and declare, "Thank you Jesus. I don't have to hide behind anything. In fact I'll come out from behind the rock because I believe You when You say that my voice is sweet and I am lovely!"