Empty Me

Here is a link to my new favorite song, Empty Me. And for those American Idol fans, yes that is Chris Sligh!


Enjoy.

Faith Zone Challenge #1

The first faith challenge that Tracie Miles gave us was to have a consistent quiet time with God for 30 minutes. Thankfully I've been working through a devotional for my quiet time this summer, so consistency was the challenge for me. As I said in my earlier post today, the summer is erratic and I seem to make a series of spontaneous decisions daily! The kids have constant questions about what we're doing, what we're eating, can we go here and there, etc, etc. Mostly these things are simple, but the volume sometimes wears me down!

In my devotional the last couple of days, the scripture passages have been in Luke 5 and Jesus is very busy. He's teaching, preaching, healing and he's providing food! Many are hearing about all that Jesus is doing and are coming to see him too. In this constant parade of people in need, Jesus isn't worn down. He continues to be loving and gracious towards everyone.
So what is the key to responding in love and grace as Jesus did? The last verse for today's devotional holds the answer, I think. It's verse 16 and it says "but Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed." Prayer-it's the tank filler, the power that enables us to be Christlike.
Now if I can just find a lonely place; maybe a closet with a lock (at least until school starts!)

Faith Zone Challenge

I don't know about you, but summer's are hard for me spiritually. The schedule is a train wreck and all order seems to be missing. As one who thrives with order and structure, this is a challenge. I mean once we left the beach, vacation is over and I'm counting the days until school starts again. So I decided to join a challenge, a Faith challenge. If you're brave, and want some accountability in your spiritual growth, than check out Tracie Miles' blog here. Each day she's posting a new challenge, so sign up quick and get going!

"...So let's keep praying."

This weekend we watched a movie called "The List." We hadn't heard of it before, but it was rated PG and the setting was the South Carolina Low Country. So being a Carolina Low Country Girl, I thought it must be good! "The List" did not disappoint. In fact, there's this one scene that got my attention. So much so, that we stopped the movie in order to write the lines down. (The memory is not good these days, so you understand the urgency!)
In the scene an older, retired missionary lady is talking to a younger lady about her prayer room. She says to her, "One thing I've learned over the years is that God's people and God's enemies make the same mistake. They both underestimate the power of prayer. So let's keep praying."

I've been reading and thinking a lot about prayer lately, and this is a mistake I don't want to make. I've been learning that prayer is not just a one-time conversation in my day, it's on-going, continuous even. So in light of that, I'm going to keep on praying! Will you?

Deeper Still

This past weekend I had the privilege to attend Deeper Still in Atlanta with some girlfriends! We had a blast together; some girls I've known for a long time, some I've known for a little bit, but definitely all that I know better, deeper still now. Thank you God. I needed the retreat from the everyday stuff and it was wonderful.
I've been contemplating the whole weekend and what I should post about. There was incredible teaching from Priscilla Shirer (my personal favorite), Kay Arthur and Beth Moore. Praise and worship with Travis Cottrell, the LPL worship team and MANDISA! And 19,000 women from all over! You can go here, The All Access blog, from LifeWay and read some great posts about the teaching. Below are a few of my favorite WORDS from the weekend:

Priscilla Shirer

• Be exposed before the Lord; expect Him to heal you; open up!
• Fully and practically engage in surrender, obedience
• Practical obedience-saying yes without knowing the specifics
• True discernment is not just knowing right from wrong; but knowing right from almost right
• Quiet Time is not an hour of a day, but when the Word is engrained in our lives and we live it out.

Kay Arthur

• God is moving on Earth; not mother nature
• It is not the desire of God to bring judgement, but rather the necessity of His character.
• Marriage is a covenant-figure out how to live it out, glorifying God.
• Your ministry is on the other side of believing you've been purified.

Beth Moore

• Quiet Time is my personal time with God; not my preparation for study time.
• Marriage-make a deliberate choice to keep falling in love with your husband and keep doing it
• Some people don't want to be delivered; pray for their "want to" to change.

I am a huge note taker, so I have lots more, but these were my favorites. Thinking back over the weekend, God gave me one big take-away lesson-Everyday is an opportunity to go Deeper Still; don't miss it, make the most of it!