Category Archives: Proven Path Ministries

Confessions of a Christian Wife, Proven Path Ministries

God Forbid It!

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This world is fallen and full of suffering. The decaying of this earth is evident all around us, even though todays science tries to convince us that the earth started out as decay and has progressed to its current “superiority”. Most of our life’s mission is to remove suffering from mankind. We have decided that with enough education and control we can make this earth a perfect place. We will find the cure for all the effects of sin! We will find a pill to fix all emotional ills, a treatment for all physical ills, a method for all mental ills, and a stage for all spiritual ills. We shall not accept the consequences of sin… or see any purpose in suffering.

Our first reaction to anyone we hear of suffering is usually always the exact same of that of Peter… “God forbid it!”

 

From that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third day. Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, “God forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen to You.” But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.”

Matthew 16:21-23

Jesus announced that he must go to Jerusalem to suffer… the suffering was in the purpose of God from the beginning. The suffering was the only way to bring salvation to mankind. However, Peter was not on board.

God forbid it!

God forbid that you, the one I love, should ever be mistreated, hurt, or have to suffer in any way. God forbid that you go through any pain. God forbid it. Not you! Peter never even took a moment to let the words of the One He had just pronounced the Christ, the Son of the Living God, sink in. As a matter of fact He rebuked Him. Can you imagine? Peter rebuking the Son of the Living God? Can you just imagine the pain and fear that shot through Peter’s heart as he heard these words of Jesus? It would have to be a pretty emotional moment for him to rebuke his Teacher. This suffering made no sense to him at all. He did not want to see the One he loved suffer. Do any of us?

When we hear of anyone going through any kind of suffering, our first knee-jerk reaction is pull out the Scripture reference a couple of verses above this passage from Matthew 16…

I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.

Matthew 16:19

We start casting out cancer cells, rebuking illness in the name of Jesus, binding the suffering and loosing the healing as if we are God. “God forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen to You.”  Then when the cancer doesn’t listen and the illness remains and the suffering continues we find ourselves questioning our faith, our god, our prayers, and we even find ourselves making excuses for our god… and I use a lower case “g” on purpose in this context.

How does Jesus respond to Peter’s knee-jerk reaction of God forbid it?

 “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.”

Get behind me Satan? What? I mean Peter just doesn’t want to see the one he loves suffer… how could that be Satan? Isn’t Satan the one who inflicts and causes all suffering, so someone wanting the opposite of that and keeping that suffering from happening must be on God’s side right?

Not according to God.

”We use a term quite often here in the States, “needless suffering”.

I disagree with this term.

I don’t believe that suffering is ever needless… or purposeless.

We see this fact Biblically in the life of Christ and in the history of the early church. Jesus healed. He made the lame walk, the blind see, the deaf hear. He cleansed the leper, cured the lunatics, and raised the dead. After His death, burial, resurrection, and ascension He sent His apostles out all over the world doing the same to validate their words were His words and their power was His power.

The sufferings remind us that we are fallen.

The sufferings remind us that we are helpless.

The suffering remind us that we need a Savior.

The sufferings cause us to look out from ourselves.

The suffering allow the works of God to be displayed in us.

Suffering is never needless or without purpose.

As He passed by, He saw a man blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him.

John 9:1-3

Last week during my 9 year old Bekah’s bedtime devo, one of the questions asked was, “What has God done to show His power to you?“

Bekah’s response was quick. She immediately said, “Aunt Tracy and Aunt Phillis. God saved Aunt Tracy and Aunt Phillis has had breast cancer, colon cancer, and now has liver cancer, but God is taking care of her”  

My sister Tracy was in a horrible car accident, she still suffers pain from this accident until this day. My sister-in-law Phillis has been fighting some form of cancer for years and takes regular chemo treatments, but both these women suffer with grace. They still love their God and I dare say they love Him more today than they did before their sufferings began. 

And as a result of their sufferings, when their nine year old niece sees them, she thinks of the glory of God, of the power of God, of the works of God.

For this finds favor, if for the sake of conscience toward God a person bears up under sorrows when suffering unjustly.

1 Peter 2:19

These women didn’t do anything to deserve these sufferings… there was no particular sin that they openly and purposely participated in to bring on these sufferings. They came upon them simply because this world is fallen and sufferings come as a result.

When we look back at the acts of our Christ, think, would these people have ever came to Him had they not been experiencing sufferings? Would those who witnessed their sufferings ever have put forth the effort and energy to get them to Jesus had they not shared in their sufferings as they witnessed them?

No beloved, just because we don’t like suffering, does not mean that is needless or without purpose.

I have learned that before I pray, I am to ask God how I am to pray, because I do not know the greater purpose behind the circumstances.

Our human reaction to suffering is to remove it from ourselves and others as quick as possible… but sometimes, no most of the times, the sufferings are meant to bring us into the very presence of God, because without them, sin and Satan convince us that we don’t need Him…

In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety. Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation,

Hebrews 5:7-9

Book Reviews, Children's Ministry, Proven Path Ministries

Is Your Child Manipulating You?

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This is probably one of my most favorite chapters. This is a chapter that I find of utmost importance because it is so easy as a parent to find yourself on the receiving end of it, before you even come close to realizing it.

There are two things that get in my crawl more today than ever before because I fell prey to it often before my eyes were opened and my heart strengthened enough to stand against it… being patronized and being manipulated.

There are some that are very good at this… and there are many I once respected greatly, until I realized this was their trade, and after several interactions, I have forgiven, but no longer trust them.

So knowing how these two tools of getting what we want greatly hurt others, the last thing I want to do is teach my children to do this to others by allowing them to practice and perfect this trade on me.

Our girls try.

Why of course they try… and sometimes had not my husband and I been working together and been very careful to have each others back our girls would have been successful in using manipulation to get their way. It’s easier to see from the outside looking in than when you are caught in the middle of it.

Our girls have never raised their voice to us, but when not taking no for an answer they have resorted to trying to change that no to a yes by pulling out guilt initiating cards. You know, make us feel bad for the no, by throwing in a completly unrelated, “but you said…” Our girls know how much we value keeping our word and how much we value them keeping their word, so trying to make it appear that we have not done so is their favorite tool of manipulation to get what they want.

In this chapter Dr Scott Turansky and Joanne Miller share:

Don’t allow your children to convince you to make changes you know aren’t in their best interest. Furthermore, don’t let them use manipulation to get what they want. Habitual manipulation over time damages relationships. Many adults are manipulative. It’s time to address this dangerous area now, in children, before it develops into a lifelong pattern.

Being able to accept no as an answer is a spiritual skill all people need to learn. A lot of temptation is out there, and children need to learn to say no to themselves in order to stay within appropriate boundaries. Salvation provides a framework for us to know what to say no to. Titus 2:11–12 shares these helpful words, “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say ‘No’

~ The Christian Parenting Handbook (from chapter 30, Don’t Give In To Manipulation)

 

When I wholly surrendered to the Lord, I for the first time had the power, insight, and discernment to say “no”. I could really say no to things that before I could not. The grace of God and the Holy Spirit in me gave me authority that I had never owned before. If our children know the Lord, then they have the power to say “no”. We have to teach them that the grace of God teaches them when to say no. Until they understand this, and especially if our children do not know the Lord, we have to say no for them, and we have to stick to it, because they have not the power within themselves to stick to it.

No matter how many times, or how many different tools our children try to use to get our no turned into a yes, we have to hold our God given parental authority ground.

In this chapter Dr Turansky and Mrs Miller also point out that we need to recognize the difference between perseverance and demandingness. They share that the line has been crossed when children value their issue more than the relationship. When a child yells at a parent or says unkind things because he doesn’t get what he wants, he’s crossed the line.

In this chapter they also point out that badgering, arguing, whining, dramatics, silent treatment, and passive resistance are all tools children use to manipulate their parents into giving them what they want. Our children can be very stubborn and very persistent in their stubbornness… Let us not forget that our beautiful little rays of sunshine are still selfish sin sick creatures.

One thing my husband often tells our girls is, “I promise, you cannot out stubborn me.”

They will try.

We have no doubt they will try.

However, my husband and I are on the same team… and we have been down this road before… we know the tools… we have tried them ourselves on our own parents when we were kids. You see, we are ready to stand together. Yes, that’s right. It’s us against them, yet working with Him, to get us ALL on the same team: The Jesus Team.

You still have time to enter the book giveaway.

And if you miss the giveaway you can order one from here.

And once again if you live anywhere around Somerville AL, join us in January at Shiloh as we go through the book and it’s study guide together.

 

 

Proven Path Ministries

Come Away

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…and they reported to Him all that they had done and taught. And He said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a secluded place and rest a while.” (For there were many people coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat.) They went away in the boat to a secluded place by themselves.

Mark 6:30-31

 

I suppose my Father already knew that I would come home crying last Wednesday night, feeling like I was stuck on a hamster wheel, overwhelmed by a world that never seemed to be satisfied. A world where nothing is ever “done”- not the laundry, the dishes, the lists, the budgets, the running, etc. A world where it doesn’t seem to matter what you accomplish there is always something you forgot…

I came home crying, overwhelmed with life and wondering if this was what ministry was really about… I cried as I shared with my husband how I couldn’t even remember the last time I completed a thought without being interrupted with another thought, a rolodex of unending lists constantly running through my brain. I came home crying as I looked at all the time I had invested in planning events that were not even given the effort to be looked into, papers that were printed to be left laying on the floor, lessons and studies planned, typed, printed, and delivered that appeared never even looked at. I saw my families life being planned out and scheduled a year in advance with obligations for others, who could and would take them or leave them, because for them this was just an “option” for their family.

Then, I add on top of these emotions guilt…

Guilt for having these emotions because I know others are struggling with juggling much more than I.

But God is faithful and my Jesus knew where I would be at this time, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually… And so He already had it in place for my family to come away by ourselves, to a secluded place, to rest.

The crazy thing is that I have to fight feeling guilt for this opportunity to rest…

It is just not in my make-up to not DO.

So for the next few days its just me and Jesus, and my man, and my girls. Confirmation given to fight the wave of guilt in my study time this morning that we are right where we need to be to be able to keep doing what God has called our family to do…

As I continued to study in Mark 6:30-44 and also comparing it with Matthew 14:13-21, Luke 9:12-17, John 6:5-15… I found myself underlining

 

in Matthew:

They do not need to go away; you give them something to eat!”

And He said, “Bring them here to Me.” 

He gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds

 

in Luke:

You give them something to eat!”

and kept giving them to the disciples to set before the people.

in John:

so that nothing will be lost.

and in Mark:

But He answered them, “You give them something to eat!”

Go look!

He kept giving them to the disciples to set before them

 

As I looked at the context of this miracle of Christ, I discovered that it occurred as the Passover drew near… as I looked at what I had underlined along with the context of this miracle and let this all sink in, I begin to realize that this miracle was a beautiful lesson for the disciples of Christ. I realized it had nothing to do with the awesomeness of making five loaves and two fish feed thousands of people’s stomaches and it really had nothing to do with letting the disciples see how powerful their Jesus was.

John the Baptist had just been beheaded for standing for the commands of God and for preaching repentance and the coming of the kingdom of heaven…

And Jesus was about to go to the cross.

He had just blessed this bread and broken it and handed it to His disciples and had them hand it to the crowd.

And very soon He would take bread before His disciples and bless it and break it… and proclaim that this bread was His body… broken for them… for us… for me.

And because He was broken, many would be fed… not physical bread, but the Bread of Life.

And we, His disciples, would be the ones to feed them because that’s the way He designed it to be.

The crowds would come to Him and He would give to us what was needed to feed the crowds.

He would keep giving to the disciples so that the disciples could feed the people.

As His disciples we need to see the need of the crowd, of the people, we are to go and look and see what provisions are available, and we are to bring them  back to Jesus, and place whatever we have into His hands, and trust that He is more than able to supply whatever is needed.

He is more than enough. He kept giving to the disciples then, and He keeps giving to them now.

The disciples are to feed His sheep.

I wonder if Peter was reminded of this event the day that He sat with His resurrected Lord, partaking of fish that Jesus had provided, and maybe also remembering Jesus’ words to him in the beginning… follow Me and I will make you a fisher of men. Did he think on these things as Jesus repeated to him three times that day feed My sheep.

So though last week I was overwhelmed I am reminded today that it is Jesus that keeps giving to me and I then in turn can give to others… the supply only becomes depleted when I, myself, forget to first bring to Him.

Seek first His kingdom…

See them.

Don’t send them away!

Feed them!

Go look!

Bring to Him…

Know that He will keep giving to His disciples so that they can continue to give to others.

Then go behind them and gather up all that remains so that nothing will be lost.

 

 

Children's Ministry, Confessions of a Christian Wife, Proven Path Ministries

Don’t Practice In The Grocery Store

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Don’t Practice in the Grocery Store is the title of chapter 24 in The Christian Parenting Handbook. In this chapter Dr Scott Turansky and Joanne Miller focus on parenting in public. The thing is parenting in public doesn’t begin in public, it begins at home. One of the quotes at the beginning of the chapter is “Kids who haven’t learned how to accept correction at home without a bad attitude will miserably fail the test when they have an audience.” 

They share how “you don’t practice your discipline strategies in the grocery store. That’s the final exam! You practice in the kitchen, bedroom, laundry room, and backyard. Children need to learn how to to handle disappointment at home so they can accept a no answer in the check-out line.”

In this chapter they share this example from Mom and four year old Ricky:

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My husband and I can testify to this method.

This is something that was always important in our home. To this day when we call our children’s names, the response from them is “Coming!” It’s not “what” or “why” or “wait a minute” or “let me finish” and it is definitely not no acknowledgment. The only acceptable answer is “Coming!”

There are three words that my husband and I are under firm conviction that our children clearly understand.

Stop

No

Their name.

This was not so we could execute tyrannical fear and power over them, it was because we knew that their ability to immediately respond to these three words could mean their very life. If our girls were chasing a ball out into the street and we yelled “Stop” they had to know to stop! Not ignore us. If our girls were about to stick a wire in a light socket they had to know that when we shouted “No” it meant “No”. If our girls heard us call their name they had to know that this meant come and come now. What if we saw danger approaching and we knew that any change in our demeanor would give away the fact that we knew danger was approaching and we needed that knowledge to remain unknown and we needed our girls by our side immediately? When we called their name they had to know to come to us, regardless of the reason.

I remember how this conviction was even more deeply rooted in me after I walked through the ghetto in Warsaw and through the death camps in Poland. These children’s ability to obey their parents, to be quiet when they said quiet, to come when they called their name, to stop when they said stop, to be accepting when they said no… could mean their life and the life of others.

Just because my family is not fighting a seen enemy does not mean we are not fighting one….

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

Ephesians 6:11-12

The conviction to these words came from the beginning with our girls. We didn’t baby talk with them. I hear parents quite often look at their little newly mobile children, just now crawling and beginning their adventure into the things of this world, and as they crawl toward danger, the parent picks them up and smiles and giggles as they baby talk to them and say, “No, No, that’s a No, No” and the baby just smiles and giggles back at the parent…

The parent has just made “NO” a game.

No is never a game.

The same thing happens with Stop…

Then they wonder why their now two, or three, or four, or fourteen year old has zero respect for their “No” or “Stop”

Moms and Dads…

 But let your statement be, ‘Yes, yes’ or ‘No, no’; anything beyond these is of evil.

Matthew 5:37

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But above all, my brethren, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath; but your yes is to be yes, and your no, no, so that you may not fall under judgment.

James 5:12

Dr Scott Turansky and Joanne Miller share how we get into relational patterns with our kids. Perhaps you are in the same rut with your kids that Ricky’s Mom was in. This book helps you identify that pattern, then gives you the practical tools you will need to change it. Or maybe you just needed encouragement that you were on the right path in some areas after all. This book will do that as well.

I am telling you, it’s really good stuff!

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For those who might not be fully aware of the historical context of the death camps and ghetto mentioned in this post, please know that these camps were initiated  by the German Nazi’s led by Adolph Hitler. I walked through the camps located in Poland in 2006 with the March of Remembrance and Hope:

The March of Remembrance and Hope (MRH) is a program designed for university and college students of all religions and backgrounds. The program takes place in mid-May, and includes a two-day trip to Germany, followed by a five day visit to Poland. The international MRH program was founded in 2001 by Dr. David Machlis of the United States and Eli Rubenstein of Canada, both of whom were involved in the March of the Living program.

During the trip students visit locations in Germany and Poland related to the Holocaust and other World War II genocides, including the site of the Wannsee Conference, and the former concentration/death camps of Auschwitz, Treblinka and Majdanek.

The purpose of the March of Remembrance and Hope is to teach students of various religious and ethnic backgrounds about the dangers of intolerance through the study of the Holocaust and other World War II genocides, and to promote better relations among people of diverse cultures.

Holocaust survivors also participate in the March of Remembrance and Hope program, sharing their painful memories in the very places in which their stories transpired. During the trip, the students also meet one of the Righteous Among the Nations, and learn of the heroic actions a minority of Europe’s population took to resist Nazi tyranny.

Children's Ministry, Confessions of a Christian Wife, Proven Path Ministries

Ideas are Easy

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As I shared in my last post, It’s Another Giveaway, Dr Scott Turansky and Joanne Miller are offering another special on their book, The Christian Parenting Handbook. In the introduction of this book they share that “Ideas are easy. Implementation is hard, because that’s where things get complicated.”

We are flooded today with books and seminars of ideas and opinions on how to raise our children. Teachers at our children’s school or day care, our friends (or maybe not friends) at church, our extended family, all have their own ideas and methods to share on how we could best raise our children.

So I have to share a quote from a study that I am currently in, Raising Godly Children in an Ungodly World. In the video lesson for this study Ken Ham asks:

Do you know what God’s Word says about raising children? If not, whose methods are you using to raise yours? 

The bottom line is, you are using someone’s methods. So whose is it? Stop for a moment and think and ask yourself…

Why do you make the rules you do?

Why do you allow what you allow?

Why do you discipline the way you discipline?

Why do you discipline what you discipline?

Whose model do you use to form the relationship that you have with your children?

Whose words do you use in a moment of frustration with your child?

Whose words do you use in a moment of praise over your child?

What are you teaching your children through the way you interact with them?

What direction are you leading them?

 

Have you ever sat down and even asked yourself these questions, or are you just trying to survive until bedtime?  Do you even like your children? If not… why not? How much time do you spend comparing your child to others and evaluating your success or failure as a parent on what you think you see in someone else’s family? If you do, how does this effect the way you see yourself and your children?

Do you know what I love about this book?

bookandhandbook

 

 

This book, this study, is designed to help you implement! It is designed to help your individual family implement. Dr .Scott Turansky and Joanne Miller recognize that every child is different and every parent is different and the circumstances in every home are different. However, God’s Word does not change. He does not change. Therefore, He is the only One who can be the solid foundation on which any family can build. In this book we as parents are taught how to take God’s truth, His opinion, and His methods on how to raise our children and implement them in our own individual and unique homes.

This book teaches us how to not just focus on the behavior of our children, but to focus on their hearts… because as our Lord says:

…the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart…

Matthew 15:18

 

One thing I have realized in our world today is that we spend a lot of time covering our kids mouths, hanging our heads in shame when something comes out that is quite embarrassing, or rushing to apologize for what our child just said and telling them that we better never, ever, ever, hear that come out of their mouths again… but in our embarrassment and rush to just get out of the situation, do we ignore what this moment has just revealed about the condition of our child’s heart and the content of their character?

Have we just missed an amazing opportunity given to us by God through the revealing of our child’s heart that we cannot see with our human eyes? Is this a moment gifted to us by the grace and mercy of God for us to take hold of and not let pass by?

A moment when we can clearly see into the heart, mind, and soul of our child.

A moment, an open door, to teach them the things and thoughts and ways of God…

The bottom line is every single one of our kids is born with a sick and deceitful heart (Jeremiah 17:9), not a one our kids escaped this heart condition. Not a one. They all need Christ. They all need teaching, training, reproof, correction, encouragement, love, and grace…

I remember once in Children’s Church I had a young man upset and in tears because he felt someone had lied to him and not kept their word to him. In his tears he was plotting his revenge on what he was going to do to get back at them. I then remembered some of the tools I had learned from this book, and I remained calm, and took the young man’s face in my hands. I looked him in the eyes and told him that I understood that he was hurt and upset, but God tells us that we should not return evil with evil, but we should return evil with good. I shared with him, that he may not have all the information, and maybe this was not that this person had lied, but maybe they just had made plans before they knew what their family was doing that day. He shook his head and wiped the tears from his eyes with the back of his hand and walked out the door to head to the sanctuary. After I had gathered all the other children and got them seated I sat down beside this young man. He then turned to me and said, Mrs Nicole, I am going to take their things that are in the tree house and clean them all up for them, so when they are able to come everything will be ready.

I was so proud of him!

So moms and dads, let’s not shake our heads and say, I can’t…  

Let us instead fix our eyes on the One who says, YOU CAN!, and get up and fight for the hearts of our children. I believe that the Word of God can work! Do you?

 

 

*** If you are in the North Alabama area my church will begin studying through this book in January on Sunday nights at 5pm. You are welcome to join us!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Children's Ministry, Proven Path Ministries

It’s Another Giveaway!

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Come, you children, listen to me;
I will teach you the fear of the Lord.

Psalm 34:11

The Biblical Parenting University is about to have another awesome push for their Christian Parenting Handbook… It actually began yesterday! The next few weeks I will posting a little more from the book so that you can see a little bit of what you will be getting if you invest in this study.

For my Shiloh Baptist Church families we will begin studying through this book together in January! So this is a perfect opportunity to go ahead and get the book while it is at it’s special discounted rate and enter the giveaway. Right now at Shiloh we are learning how important it is to teach our children a Biblical Worldview and to build under them a solid foundation… in January with The Christian Parenting Handbook, we will learn how to implement God’s Word practically in the discipline and nurture and admonition of our children in the Lord.

 

I am excited to partner with Marcy over at Ben and Me in a giveaway of 10 copies of The Christian Parenting Handbook, authored by Dr. Scott Turansky and Joanne Miller, RN of The National Center for Biblical Parenting.
This biblical parenting book shares 50 heart-based strategies for all the stages of your child’s life.
In this book you’ll learn how to:

Identify character qualities to address problems
Build internal motivation
Transfer responsibility for change to the child
Teach kids to be solvers instead of whiners
Use creativity to teach your kids spiritual truths
Avoid the “boxing ring”
Envision a positive future
And much more!

With these strategies you’ll be able to move from behavior modification to a heart-based approach to parenting. Instead of relying on rewards, incentives, threats, and punishment, you’ll learn how to identify heart lessons to teach your child and implement them in practical ways.
 
I am excited that 10 people will receive a printed copy of The Christian Parenting Handbook! 
To enter the giveaway, use the Rafflecopter below. Entrants should be at least 18 years of age and reside in the United States. Other Terms and Conditions can be found on the Rafflecopter widget. Just click the link below to get to the entry widget 🙂

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

Be looking for future blog post… I hope that in them you will see why I am so excited about this material 🙂

Proven Path Ministries

Commanded to Unite

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Behold, how good and how pleasant it is
For brothers to dwell together in unity!

Psalm 133:1

 

In case you didn’t know, let me give you a little background on myself…

I grew up in the south.  Which means I grew up knowing to go to church. My great grandparents went, my grandparents went, my parents went, my friends went, and their parents and grandparents went… my first memories of church are going with my Papaw Harris and Mamaw Lola. Then I remember going with my parents, then I remember we quite going. After that I remember going occasionally, popping in and out, and attending different churches with friends.

I say all this, to say, I never was in a church long enough to get a church mentality or learn the church lingo…

I remember when I wholly surrendered my life to Christ almost twelve years ago at the age of 24, that when I looked in the church bulletin I didn’t know that I could come to church on Sunday nights. The bulletin said “Discipleship Training” and I thought that was for the Pastors and Sunday School teachers only.

I don’t think I knew that I could come to “discipleship training” until someone specifically invited me to come. I was extremely intimidated by the “church” stuff.

I just this past Tuesday found out what an “RA” is, still don’t know what “GA” stands for, and really have no clue what a “WMU” is…

The December that I surrendered my life to Christ, I was invited to participate in a Precept study. I was already reading through the whole Bible… it was in this commitment to read the whole thing that I realized that I had no clue who God really was and that I didn’t have a relationship with Him, but I wanted to… and after committing my life to Him and then digging into His Word through Precept Upon Precept studies, I just became so stinkin’ excited about Him and over Him and for Him that I just could not contain myself.

So I just jumped right into all things of the church… anything anyone would allow me to participate in… any thing that allowed me to talk to people about God and His Word, because I was, and still am, so excited over Him. I looked for any opportunity to tell people about Him and still do.

My husband and I were attending a Baptist church, and we still attend that same church, but I was not in “the church” long enough before then to get a “Baptist” mindset, or a “Charismatic” mindset, or a “church of where-ever” mindset. I was just now getting a “crazy in love with Jesus” mindset. I loved Jesus and His Word and His church and wanted everyone else too.

So to this very day I don’t get the “church wars”

I don’t.

I never will.

As far as I can tell in the Word of God… we are supposed to be on the same team… a part of the same kingdom… reaching people for the same Jesus with the same gospel.

Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose.  

Philippians 2:1-3

As a matter of fact, what I read in the Scriptures is that we are commanded to be united…

The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.

John 17:22-23

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Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.

Ephesians 4:1-6

So forgive me if I look at you in disbelief and mouth opened dumbfoundedness when I hear that you think another church is competition… forgive me if I get angry with you when you have to put down another body of believers in order to promote yours… because I think its sad and childish and in absolute rebellion to the Word of God… and I in no way see how God could bless that attitude.

We are in the last days and souls around us are being devoured by the spiritual forces of darkness and the powers of hell… our nation is falling deeper and deeper under the authority of this darkness and  I can’t help but find it sad that so many of the churches in it are so busy hiding their “light” from other churches that they can’t join them to fight the darkness together.

I am just foolish enough to believe that I can actually learn from other believers who might see things a little differently than me… I am just foolish enough to believe that God is sovereign and I don’t have to recruit church members from other churches, if God wants them to come to my church He will send them… much like He sent me. Besides, if they are not coming because God sent them, then they are not going to be a benefit to the body anyway.

How much more could the church, the true church, accomplish in our communities if we pooled our resources together to reach the lost and strengthen the saved? If we met together as a team instead of competitors? How much brighter would the light be to our community if we all pointed it in the same place at the same time?

Children's Ministry, Proven Path Ministries

How Did It Go

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I am reading through a book, Rock-Solid Children’s Ministry by Larry Fowler. In the book he asked a question… he asked when you, as a children’s leader leave the room and your spouse asks you, “How did it go?” and you respond, “It was the best day in ministry ever!”, what makes you respond with that answer?

Can I be honest?

I don’t think I have ever responded with that answer?

I believe my most positive answer to this question, is I think it went really well, and that is usually said with a hint of uncertainty. Most days I walk away feeling as though I have just epically failed, at the very most I walk away feeling as though maybe God might have used me to help something in His Word make sense to them.

For me, in children’s ministry or in any ministry that God has allowed me to serve in, I can’t measure whether that ministry is a success or not in the moment… for me successful ministry has nothing to do with whether or not the kids pay attention that day, whether or not I have a room full of visitors, whether or not I actually am able to complete a sentence or read an entire passage of Scripture without calling out someone’s name to turn around, sit down, close your mouth, keep your hands to yourself, etc, whether or not all my teachers and workers show up…

For me a successful ministry could only be measured years down the road…

Will these children who sit before me now still be seeking the face of God thirty years from now?

Will these children who sit before me now teach their children to love the Lord their God with all their heart, mind, soul, and strength?

Will these children who sit before me walk in a manner worthy of their calling through Jr High, High School, College?

Will they seek to their lives according to the Word and not according to the world?

Will they love and serve the church, the body of Christ?

I leave every Sunday, every Monday, every Wednesday, every opportunity in between… with a heart both heavy and hopeful… and asking in a nonchalant you really don’t have to answer me, but I am asking anyway kind of way… Did I do okay today, God? Did they hear? Did you open their hearts today? Did the seed take? Was it watered? Will it bear fruit? 

I teach them and pour what I know into them and I look in their eyes and I see souls that I know can right now make a HUGE impact for the kingdom of Christ as servants for the Most High God. I teach them and pour what I know into them and I look in their eyes and see future men and women of God who might have to give their lives and freedom for the sake of the gospel one day… or prepare their children to.

The fact is I can’t measure whether my ministry is a success. I have come to realize I never will be able to do that. Human measurements cannot measure heavenly treasures… and I know not what lies above. I can only lay what I have, the opportunities I have been given, at the foot of the altar of my Lord’s throne… my offering to HIM… my service to HIM… my life as a living sacrifice laid out on the altar of grace as my spiritual service of worship.

So how did it go?

I don’t know… and when I get to the place when I will know, I don’t think I will even ask because I will finally be before my Lord face to face and really, I just want to run into His arms and be wrapped up in HIM and held tight and hear, “well done… my good and faithful servant… well done.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

Proven Path Ministries

Not Prepared

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Last night I stayed up until midnight watching the History Channel recaps of 9/11. I realized they were showing things and sharing things in these interviews that I had never heard or either never paid attention to before… so I couldn’t help but watch. I remember that day so very well. I remember that when I saw the second plane fly into the second tower, my heart stopped, and I said out loud, this is not an accident, we are under attack…  

From that day on to this day, I have never entered any public venue with the same carefreeness that I did before 9/11. I do not enter a ball field, a school, a church, a concert, a museum, an airport, a plant site, a government building, a hotel… nothing that contains more than a hundred people at a time, without checking my surroundings, scanning the faces, and making a plan as to what I would do if in that moment this building was targeted and attacked.

As I watched the last of the History Channel recap, Condaleeza Rice closed the interview with, for those is authority on September 11th, every day after that was September the 12th. How right she was… but this statement is not just true for those in authority that day in Washington, but it is true for every American that experienced and understood the full implications of it. Our country was changed forever that day. 

We simply were not prepared as a nation for this type of attack… it never occurred to us as a people, nor as a government… I mean, good grief, we were the land of the free and the home of the brave. People came to our country to escape terror, not to inflict it. Right?

I remember in the interviews, Rumsfeld shared how all of our nations defense missiles and radars were pointed outward for defense from an external attack… it had never occurred to our defense teams to prepare to be able to attack and defend our nation from an internal “civilian” attack.

As he said these words I thought about the church in America.

Our nation was founded by believers who were fleeing external persecution. Men and women from nations around the world heard of the freedom that existed in our nation and these men and women fled to our shores for safety and refuge. Here inside the borders of this great land, though not a perfect nation, not a perfect people, there was light- and there was freedom- and there was peace- and there was always hope.

We were free to worship our God with no fear of external attack. There would be no worries of beatings, imprisonment, or death… not even a real concern of shunning from the community if you named the name of Jesus and professed Him as your Lord and the Only Way to the Father.

We were protected from external attacks and so we lived… and then one day it seems that we didn’t just live… we went on about our own lives. The “church” changed. In our lack of concern of an external persecution we seemed to lose all need to pay attention to our inward condition. We forgot that we have an enemy within.

The attack on the American church is not an external attack… it is an inward attack. Individually within our own hearts and minds and also within the walls of our corporate congregations. The enemy has snuck in undetected, slithering right on in… and so many are not prepared.

  Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints. For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. 

Jude 1:3-4

Across our nation we have church buildings full of professing Christians who base their theology on catch phrases instead of Scripture, who stand on traditions of men instead of the authority of the Word, who trust more in man’s imagination than God’s divine inspiration. Professing believers who are not prepared to stand… because they have built their house on the sand.

Within the walls of our congregation we find believers that are under attack within our own hearts and minds. We fight and suffer from depression, oppression, and suppression. All internal battles that cannot be defeated from any external weapon of man’s invention.

for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, and we are ready to punish all disobedience, whenever your obedience is complete.

2 Corinthians 10:4-6

Are you prepared?

Are you aware of the schemes of the enemy within?

Are you on the look out?

Do you have your defense missiles and radar pointed inward so that you might examine and guard your own heart and mind as well as guarding the church that is in your house of worship?

Do you have a plan?

Are you prepared to protect and to serve the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ?

See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. 

Colossians 2:8

Are you prepared to make war with your own flesh, with your own sin, with your own ignorance?

Are you prepared to fight the lies of this world, of demons, even the lies of your own heart with the only weapon that wins, the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God?

in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

Ephesians 6:16-17

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For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 

Hebrews 4:12