Category Archives: Proven Path Ministries

Confessions of a Christian Wife, Proven Path Ministries, Thirty-three Day Challenge

Thirty-three Day Challenge

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I am up for a challenge… I would like you to join me in this challenge.
I am a Christian.
I am still proud to carry this name no matter what the world has done to try to discredit it.
I carry it with honor.
I do not carry it lightly.

As a Christian I have read the end of the book.
I know that this world is only going to get worse.
I am not here to save the world.
I am here to be used by God to save those who are His out of the world.
This challenge is for those that are His.

I don’t know about you, but I am tired of the church not looking any different than the world. I am tired of cults that profess the name of Christ being lumped in with the true Church. I am tired of the lost not being able to find the way of peace because the highway of holiness is so crowded and blocked with briars and thorns and fruitcakes that they can’t get through to see the real Christ. I am ready to be the tree of life that Zacchaeus was able to climb to get over the crowd in order to see Jesus.

I have just finished reading What Are You Waiting For by Dannah Gresh and am now in the middle of Every Woman’s Battle by Shannon Ethridge. Both of these books mentioned this challenge.

Then I saw this:

 

After reading these books and seeing this video and knowing my own experiences and weighing it against about what I know of the Word of God, I can’t help but feel my heart break from the marriages that I am sure have fallen apart simply because that serpent of old snuck his way in and wreaked havoc. I hurt as I think of how many marriages have not even been because the girl couldn’t see God’s man for the fog of Twilight and the fluff of the fairytales. To many of us are too weak and too desensitized to Satan’s presence to even know when to fight him, much less how.

It’s time for the Church to get busy about the Father’s business.
It’s time for the bride to make herself ready for the Bridegroom.

I wish that you would bear with me in a little foolishness;
but indeed you are bearing with me. 
For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy;
for I betrothed you to one husband,
so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin. 
But I am afraid that,
as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness,
your minds will be led astray
from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.
2 Corinthians 11:1-3

Today I ask that you bear with me in a little foolishness… because I too am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I want you to be presented to your Bridegroom as a pure virgin… standing unashamed before Him because you made yourself ready for Him. If your Groom were to come today would you drop your head in shame or would your head be lifted up ready to be received by Him?

I am afraid that many of us have indeed been deceived by the serpent… Adam and Eve alike. We have no doubt been led astray from them the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.

So if you will bear with me in my foolishness to believe that the Word of God is true and relevant in our day and powerful beyond measure… if you will bear with me in my foolishness to believe that their is still believers in the world today who desire to carry the name of Christ with honor and truly desire to live a sanctified life proclaiming His excellencies… then take this challenge with me.

The challenge:
For thirty-three days.
One day for every year that Christ gave us give to Him.
For thirty-three days we shall live to Him and not ourselves in a purposeful way. For thirty-three days let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of the flesh.

Therefore, having these promises,
beloved, let us cleanse ourselves
from all defilement of flesh and spirit,
perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
2 Corinthians 7:1

Beginning February 14th, the secular day of “love” let us begin to live true, real, Biblical, Christ love.

The challenge will end on March 17th, St Patrick’s Day, the day given in remembrance to the man who is believed to have ran all the snakes out of Ireland.

Let us, in this thirty-three day challenge run that serpent of old out of our minds, out of our home, out of our church by loving the LORD our God with all our heart, all our mind, all our soul, and all our strength.

How do we do this?

On February 14th put out the trash.

Turn off the television programs that feed your flesh, your lusts, your pride, and yes, your depression. If you wouldn’t watch it sitting next to your Mom or your Pastor or kids Sunday School class turn it off. If it places a burden of dissatisfaction in you and makes you see yourself or your spouse in a negative way, turn it off.

Do the same with what you read, and the music you listen to, and with the conversations going on around you at work, at school, on facebook and twitter, or even in your home with your family.

Take that time and instead study God’s Word.

Listen to God’s Word.

Read God’s Word.

Thirty-three days is all I am asking for.

I will do the challenge with you.

Each day I will share a Scripture to meditate on.

I will share with you excerpts from the books above and together we will work to become women of integrity.

A woman of integrity lives a life that lines up with her Christian beliefs. She lives according to the standard of love rather than the law. She does not claim to be a follower of Christ yet disregard His many teachings on sexual immorality, lustful thoughts, immodest dress, and inappropriate talk. A woman of integrity lives what she believes about God, and it shows everywhere from the boardroom to the bedroom.  ~ Shannon Ethridge

This is not a flippant challenge I am asking you to join.

It is a challenge that could save your marriage if it is struggling.

It is a challenge that can lift you up out of the pit of defeat.

It is a challenge that can give you the strength to say no to what before you caved in to.

It is a challenge that can free you from your past and prepare you for your future.

It is a challenge that can open your eyes to the invisible chains that have been entangling you.

It is a challenge that you are not to do alone. Pray for a fellow sister in Christ to openly take it with you, not someone you pushed into it, but someone who is serious about it, God will send her.

Don’t try to force your spouse to join you, but explain to them what you are doing, and how serious it is, they will need to know because I have no doubt that there will be changes you will have to make to meet this challenge.

It is a challenge that I want you to pray about before you commit to it.

That’s why it doesn’t begin until Feb 14th.

Pray and if the Lord wills… join me.

Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him,
for the marriage of the Lamb has come
and His bride has made herself ready.
Revelation 19:7
Proven Path Ministries

>The Human Heart Experiment

>Science teaches us many things through experiments, and through these experiments we come to logical conclusions, and most of the time we call these logical conclusions proven facts. When we conduct an experiment we form a test group and from this test group we pronounce a verdict on the whole.
Hmmmm I wonder where man developed this concept?

In the beginning God created man in the image of Himself, male and female He created them in the image of God. Man and woman were in intimate fellowship with their Creator, yet they were deceived by the great deceiver and they believed the lie and denied the truth and sin entered the world and their hearts.

Since this moment the world that was once good has become not so good, and man in the garden tried to blame God for his choice then and still today man tries to blame God for his choices and for the choices of others and for the receiving of the consequences of these choices.

We see all through the Scriptures how man has tried to prove his own goodness by comparing himself to others he deemed not as good as himself. All through the Scriptures we see man blaming God for his choices and blaming God for the consequences of a fallen world. All through the Scriptures we see man trying to make his own way to a god he created because he could make the rules. All through the Scriptures we see man arguing with God out of foolish ignorance of the magnitude of His holiness. All through the world, in the media, on t.v., on the Internet, we see man is still doing the same thing today.

So how does God respond?
I believe God responded with the “Human Heart Experiment.”

God repeatedly has reached out to man and He has not stopped and He won’t until the day of the white throne judgment (Daniel 7:9-10, Rev 20:11-15). Man for some reason just does not want to admit that they need God. Man wants to think that he is not so bad and is doing just fine. He just needs a break, needs society to adapt to him, needs better circumstances; he’s merely a product of his environment and his upbringing. No not at all, he is merely a product of his heart, and he needs God, not a god, but the GOD, and God conducts His experiment to prove it, not to Himself, He knows our hearts, but to prove it to us.

Many years ago a man named Abram was born in the Middle East in a city called Ur. This ordinary man God called out, and said go with Me, listen to Me, I will make you a great nation, give you a land, and in you all the nations will be blessed. This man listened.

God kept His word as He always does, and Abram became Abraham, and he had a son Isaac, who had a son Jacob, who had twelve sons who became the nation of Israel (the accounts of their lives are recorded in the book of Genesis). Israel would be God’s test group in the “Human Heart Experiment.”

We know that Jacob and his twelve sons moved to Egypt during a famine, and there they eventually ended up an enslaved people, yet even in their slavery God blessed them and they grew in number and became a nation. (This was all foretold to Abraham and passed down from father to son as we can tell from the words of Joseph at his death recorded in Genesis 50.)

God brings this nation out of slavery led by a man named Moses. In Exodus 12 God institutes His test group, as He says this month shall be the beginning of months for you, God delivers the nation of Israel out of slavery redeeming them with a great and mighty outstretched arm. He does all the work for them, cares for them , feeds them, and the whole time they are complaining, God has delivered them out of slavery, given them food money and clothing and shelter and yet they still aren’t happy, He still isn’t doing enough to satisfy them (does this sound familiar?).

It took the nation three months to get to Sinai, once there God made the people, the nation of Israel, a proposition. He told them that if they would obey His voice and keep His commandments He would bless them like crazy but if they turned away from Him and broke their promise He would curse them.

God delivered to them His standard of righteousness, the Law, the nation heard the commandments and agreed with God that they were good (because they merely were the written moral law that already was within them) and God gave them the ceremonial Law, which showed them how to approach Him, their holy God. The nation entered into covenant with God, they shook hands and sprinkled blood and said “it’s a deal”.

The test group formed, the standard presented, the variable in place, now what would be the result? We see the result from Exodus 32 through the Prophets, the variable could never meet the standard. No matter how hard they tried, no matter how many chances they had, no matter how many times they went over the rules, they couldn’t do it. Here’s the thing, God knew they couldn’t do it, but they, we, have to realize it ourselves.

Throughout the Scriptures God describes the nations as waters, so we shall do here. Let’s picture the world as a well of water, and we want to check the purity of that water, how do we do it? We take a sample of that water and we test it, and if in that one sample we discover pollutants and disease we declare the entire well polluted and unfit.

God took a sample for the purity of the human heart through the hearts of the nation of Israel, and He tested that sample. He gave them amazing advantage through the revealing of Himself in signs and wonders and His written word, but still the hearts of the people remained polluted. God already knows all human hearts are polluted (Genesis 6:5, Jeremiah 17:9). He has so proven it to us through the Law and the nation of Israel and if we are honest we know that He has proven it within our own hearts.

Now we know that whatever the Law says,
it speaks to those who are under the Law,
so that every mouth may be closed
and all the world may become accountable to God;
because by the works of the Law
no flesh will be justified in His sight;
for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.
Romans 3:19-20

One of the reasons God gave us the Law was to erase any questions and all excuses. Those who do not have the written Law, yet try to walk by the moral law within them, show the others around them their own sin thus the reason we constantly try and find someone who is worse than us or either we gather all those around us who are most like us with our same sin to somehow make our sin not so bad in our own eyes.

People respond to the knowledge of their sin in several ways, they try to hide it, deny it, justify it, fix it, or seek to destroy the who or what that brought attention to it.

Makes sense now why the nations have always hated the Jew, why the people fight to have the Ten Commandments yanked down from public display, if we destroy the test sample, if we ignore the standard, then we can pretend as though we are just fine. Sorry it doesn’t work that way, whether a sample of the well water was taken or not doesn’t change the pollutants and disease that is there, it just keeps killing the people who in ignorance drink the water.

Proven Path Ministries

>Stand

>

 
If I fall in a land of peace
If I crumble in the face of the free
How shall I stand in a day of battle
How shall I reign victorious over my enemy

If I can not stand at attention in obedience to my call
When there is no war raging have I ever stood at all.
If I can not live the truth in the protection of this peace
Then how shall I fare when a weapon of hate is pulled on me

If I stumble in this day of privileged liberty
Will I stand when shackles for the gospel are placed on me
If I shrink back at the fear of the loss of approval of man
If my life is threatened how shall I believe I could stand

If I fall in a land of peace
How will I do in the thicket of the war
If I can not stand strong against an enemy already defeated
How shall I win against an enemy that is still yet to come

If I truly am a soldier enlisted and secured
If I lay down and sleep in the hour of still
If I put up my armor and remove my shoes
If I take off my helmet and lay down my shield
If my breastplate is placed on a shelf
My sword sheaved and discarded
I am already defeated though the battle be not started

The day of peace is not for leisure
The time of freedom is not for play
The hour is for training so that I will not be ashamed
So whether in the thicket of the Jordan or safe in Jerusalem’s walls
I shall stand, stand firm, by Your grace never shall I fall.

“If you fall down in a land of peace,
How will you do in the thicket of the Jordan?”
Jeremiah 12:5

Confessions of a Christian Wife, Proven Path Ministries, Uncategorized

>Ministry and Motherhood are Messy

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>This is a post a wrote in 2010… but it remains a prayer and point of focus as I walk in 2012…

I began 2010 reading through the Proverbs. My prayer for 2010 was “Lord increase me in wisdom, Your wisdom.” Little did I know how much I would need these proverbs as 2010 came rolling in. I thank my God for His Word.

As I studied I came to a particular proverb and out in the margin beside this proverb I have noted “serving the Lord and kids in the house” with a smiley face underneath my little note.

“Where no oxen are, the manger is clean,

but much revenue comes by the strength of the ox.”
Proverbs 14:4

I am by birth, by nature, by DNA, a clean freak and a perfectionist. It was once said that you could eat off of my floors. I would have your cup cleaned and in the cabinet before you even finished setting it down from your last swallow.
Then came a baby…then came salvation in Christ…then came another baby…!
Needless to say things changed.
I realized I could have a perfectly clean house or I could have a life that imparted life to others. God says to choose life, so I chose life.

Our homes, our church, our ministries all relate to this verse.
Will we sacrifice a clean manger for the revenue of life…eternal life?

One thing I learned was that I could dust everyday and still when I got up the next morning the dust was back again. I could wash clothes all day and still the hamper would fill up again. I could mop and make my floors shine everyday, but still someone would walk on them and leave their prints behind.

Then I looked at my children and no matter what I did I couldn’t make them infants again, I couldn’t make the sunshine come back out so I could take them to the park now that the house was clean. I won’t be able to make them little leagers again so that I can coach and teach them. I can’t make those adoring, innocent eyes, so filled with love and trust, turn back to me after I have repeatedly told them I don’t have the time for them.
Trust me I’m still learning to place my priorities, but I am getting better.
Does the house ever get clean?
Yes it does. But it is now in the balance.

In our churches…if we want a church that is full of life…guess what…kool-aid gets spilled on the carpet…the gym floor gets dirty…the paint on the wall gets nicked…but each spill, each nick, each mark was made from a life that was there and heard the message of Jesus Christ?

Isn’t it worth it?

In our ministries…ministry is messy! We make our plans, but they don’t always go according to schedule. People don’t always respond the way we think they should. If we didn’t minister to people then we could have a clean, well-organized manger…but what revenue would we have to show for our ministry?

So Mom’s don’t stress over the house. I mean keep the roaches away and make sure there’s nothing growing on the dishes stuck under the bed and try to keep clean underwear for everyone…but I promise you the dust will be back in the morning!

Church instead of frowning at the nicks, stains, and dirt…pray salvation and the grace of God over the one who made the mark and pray that God will fill your walls with more souls to make more stains!

The ministry…it’s messy.

But God is in control, remember it’s all about HIM.
Confessions of a Christian Wife, Poetry, Proven Path Ministries, Uncategorized

There Is Hope

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PPM-3.jpg

As Walter Brueggemann put it, “This family (and with it the whole family of Genesis 1–11) has played out its future and has nowhere else to go. Barrenness is the way of human history. It is an effective metaphor for hopelessness. There is no foreseeable future. There is no human power to invent a future.”

Then, the story turns with these simple words: “The Lord . . . said . . .” (Gen 12:1). God spoke into the barrenness and chaos. It was as if He said, You’ve done your best, and this is where it has gotten you—now step aside.

Still early in the Genesis story, these words remind us of another time God spoke into darkness and chaos. Before God began to create, the “earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters.” Into nothing, “God said . . . ” God spoke and light erupted, vegetation blossomed, humans appeared. This is still what happens whenever God speaks.

—Winn Collier

You know… I don’t know where you are today. I don’t know the barrenness of your heart or the possible chaos of your soul. I don’t know if you are in a place where it seems that life is crumbling down all around you and you feel as though you are standing alone in the midst of all the broken pieces… but I do know that our Creator God can speak life and order and healing into whatever you are going through. I do know that He has not forsaken you, I do know that you are not alone… no matter how alone you feel.

Open up His Word and hear Him speak.

Stop trying to do it all on your own… you were never meant to.

God is there and I guarantee you that there is someone whose name is on your mind right now that you know would be there for you if they just knew what was going on. You may not have ever really spent a lot of time together. You may not have ever even talked to them. You may not know them at all, but have just seen them interact with others… but their name, their face, is before you now for a reason as you stand among the broken pieces.

Don’t let pride or fear of rejection or condemnation keep you from seeking help. Don’t keep hiding in the dark because our Creator said, let there be light!

A Night of Hope
So far away, so full of doubt
So lost inside, there’s no way out
Within this prison I scream, I shout
But no one hears, no eyes look about
Can no one see me
Is everyone blind
My fear overwhelms me
I’m falling this time

I smile I do, I play the game
I try to be different, but nothing does change
I hate this I do, don’t like how I feel
I want to be happy, I want to be sure
I want to be confident and secure
They tell me this, they tell me that
Follow ABC and all will be well with me

I’ve walked the line
I’ve jumped the hoops
But this time the tight rope is just to loose
My feet are slipping my knees to weak
My mind is reeling, into the darkness I sink
The darkness is safe, in it I hide
No one can see the thoughts of my mind
I hear the whispers, this voice so sleek
It tells me go on, in the darkness there’s peace

But another voice I hear, it’s distant and sweet
It whispers I love you, listen to me
It says in the darkness there is only dark
It says come to the Light, give me your heart
It says I see you, and hear you too
I know your thoughts and hear your screams
Come be still and know that it’s Me
Know that I came to give you a hope
Know that I’m here, My love have I shown
Come this night and know that I’m here
Come this night know to Me you are dear

While in your tears lift up your eyes
Take them off the dark and put them on the Light
Keep them focused looking right at Me
Know that I AM is right here, you’ll see
Trust in Me and in My love
Feel My arms around you embraced in a hug
Take a deep breath, breathe in My scent
Know for you My flesh was rent
I died for you that you might live
So lift up your head, for this hope to you I give

I wrote this May 7, 2009… in Him, in His Light, there is hope no matter how great the darkness, no matter how loud the chaos, no matter how barren the heart… in Him there is always Life no matter how deadened you may feel.

Book Reviews, Confessions of a Christian Wife, Proven Path Ministries

>The Good Wife’s Guide Review

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>I was asked by Darlene Schacht to read the rough draft version of her new book The Good Wife’s Guide. I have been following her blog, Time-Warp Wife, for about six months. I love how she is trying to bring us ladies back to who God created us to be. In the past few decades I have to agree with her that we have gotten off focus as women.

You see I was once queen of the She-Woman-Man-Haters Club. To the point of writing college papers on the subjugation and degradation of women by our society. I researched and filled my head with every bit of information I could gather to fuel and justify my hate of men in general. I had decided that the only one of any count was my Daddy.

I despised the fact of the double-standard that I fully believed existed. I wrote a paper once that I was going to open a restaurant and call it Peckers. The woodpecker would be the store mascot and I would only hire male waiters and they would have to serve shirtless in tight red shorts. You see I decided that men should be just as objectified and degraded as women. Equal degradation was my plan.

My college papers on The Scarlet Letter and Maggie, A Girl of the Streets were asked to be kept by my professors to use as examples in future classrooms. Trust me, I was one fired-up, red-headed female. I was tired of the objectification of women. I was tired of not being physically strong enough to fight off an attacker. I was tired of being sexually harassed. I was tired of a woman being called a whore for the same thing that got a man called the hero of the locker room. I was tired of being a woman.

I was determined that I would never be dependant upon any man. I would never be a “kept” woman. I would do what I wanted, when I wanted, how I wanted. I didn’t need a man for anything. I mean nothing. I could even have a child without one if I wanted… they had test tubes for the only part of a man that was worth anything to me.

Oh me, I was tired.
I was tired, mad, and… broken.

I was so tired that I cried when I found out I was carrying a girl when I was pregnant with my Shelby. I stayed in denial the entire pregnancy. I wanted a boy. I did not want a daughter who would have to face this world that I had faced. I was scared to death that she would be hurt, abused, harassed, condemned. I was terrified.

In my terror I surrounded myself with invisible walls of protection and drowned my fears and demons in alcohol (btw-didn’t drink when I was pregnant) and “girl power”. My breaking point came in my second year of marriage.  My husband and I had been fighting and he walked out the door and he looked at me and said “Your problem is you hate men! Which means you will never really love me because I am a man!”

This hit me like a brick in the head.
This led me to really pick up my Bible for the first time in twelve years.
This truth led me back to the God-Man.

When I fell in love with the God-Man, I began to heal from my hate. I began to fall in love with my husband in a deeper and truer way. I began to learn what it really meant to be a woman. I began to learn how the fact that I was called a helper to my husband by God did not make me inferior to him or any other man.

I learned the beauty in Biblical submission and I learned the peace that comes in shifting a burden that I was never meant to carry over to the one who was designed for it. It has not always been easy nor has the journey always been fun, but it has been beneficial and profitable.

I don’t know were you are right now in your womanhood. You might still be a member of the She-Woman-Man-Haters Club or maybe you are a new bride or maybe you have been a bride for a while, but have been trying to pull the groom’s side for many years… where ever you are… you are woman. You are created in the image of God and you are of great value and worth and your place as woman in your home and in this world is of vital importance.

Discover what it means to be a woman as God created you.
Discover what it means to be a wife as God created you.
Discover what it means to be a mother as God created you.

A good place to get a start would be with Darlene’s new book, The Good Wife’s Guide.
There is much truth to glean from the book.
There are some pretty neat tips in how to work on your role as woman, wife, and mother.
No you may not be able to meet all the offered advice… all of our families have different routines and schedules… but you can take her ideas and suggestions and modify them to fit the dynamics of your family.

But precious one first and foremost… the best guide of learning how to be the woman that God designed you to be is found in His Word… back every bit of human advice you ever recieve up with His Word… if it can’t be backed up with the absolute truth of God… then throw it out. Declutter!

Confessions of a Christian Wife, Proven Path Ministries, Uncategorized

>Great, Now What!

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>I am trying to learn to see my trials through eyes that say “Okay God what are you wanting to teach me?” instead of “Great, now what!” Even when that trial is coming in and through my kids…

I am learning to always remember that I am a child to my Father in Heaven. So when my children do things or act in a way that gets all up in my crawl, I have begun to stop and ask God if I behave the same way toward Him.

I began doing this several years ago… but it seems I forget about it for a while… then when I am about ready to knock all my girls out I realize I need to stop and examine myself and my current relationship with God to see if He is trying to teach me something about my relationship to Him or someone else through my relationship with my children.

He has never failed to greatly enlighten me when I come to Him with this question. I don’t think He has ever said, “Nope, Nicole, we’re great. Your kids are just little hellions and they need their heads pinched off.” It usually is a response of opening my eyes to some things that I need to work on.

Sometimes it is to open my eyes to something between me and Him. Sometimes it’s something between me and my husband. Sometimes it’s between me and my girls. Sometimes it between me and another brother or sister in Christ. Sometimes it’s just to teach me so I will be ready because a future issue is coming and God is getting me ready to know how to respond. Sometimes it is just to help me give my children more grace as I sit before Him praying that He will extend more grace to me.

I currently have one child that has been having a whinefest that hangs around the it’s-all-about-me-festival and it seems to be becoming a perpetual statute for all days until all eternity and then another that is struggling with truth-telling and truth-doing and trusting to receive the right answer, not one gained by manipulating a situation to get their own way. 

These are all areas that God is constantly pruning in my own heart as well… and as I look at my kids and tell them what they should do, and know that they know what to do, and see them struggle to walk in that knowledge, I learn to give mercy and grace.

And not just to them but to others.
Because God gives it to me.
Now I did not say that I let it slide, that I ignored it, that I don’t deal with it… but I do it with mercy and with grace. (And I praise God that He doesn’t let foolishness slide with me either.)

It’s just that there is a big difference in having knowledge and actually walking and living out what you know to be true and right. This stupid flesh, and the pull of this world, and that old, nasty, sneaky serpent take their toll on our strength and convictions… and they love to offer us up a big ole plate of condemnation when we struggle and especially when we fail.

I have learned that the only sure thing in this life is Christ and all that stems from Him. Like the stem of grace, mercy, faith, love, hope, forgiveness, redemption… I have to keep my eyes on Him at all times… and He’s really a beautiful sight… so our eyes on Him should not be that difficult… right?

I have learned that my children will fail. They will struggle. They will desire this world. Their flesh and the desires of this flesh will be used by Satan to tempt them and to lead them to follow the world instead of Christ. But Jesus has prayed for them and we have prayed for them… so that when they fall their faith will not fail. 

So I love them. I learn how to discipline them with “discipleship” mentality instead of “you’re getting on my last nerve and I have had it up to here” mentality. I am a trainer at all times. I am learning how to do this because this is how I realize my God disciplines me.

Training me up to serve and to live an abundant life of overcoming victory in and by grace alone.
With much patience my God trains me up…

So when I hit the point that my flesh is screaming “Great, now what!”
I know now to stop.
To just stop and pause for a moment and say “Okay God, what are you wanting to teach me?”

Confessions of a Christian Wife, Proven Path Ministries

>You Were Made To Be Courageous

>My youngest always wants to know what a song means. We never get to just listen to a song. I have to explain the meaning behind every chorus (thank God we only listen to Christian music on a regular basis. I really would hate to have to explain the chorus to one of today’s mainstream songs).

Well the other day we were on our way home from somewhere and this song came on the radio and my seven year old, says “Oh he just sang that they were made to lead the way, just like Jesus leads the way, like Daddy leads us… that’s what that song’s about… that’s what that movie was about!”

That’s right man of this generation… even a child knows that you were created to lead them like Jesus…

Are you ready?

Confessions of a Christian Wife, Gabby Mom Posts, Proven Path Ministries

>Be A Woman

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>It’s time for me to share about one of my Eternal Encouragement experiences. I received the January newsletter in my inbox and opened it up to read. In this first newsletter of 2012 I read an encouraging word about being all that I could be.

Be all you can be! If you are a mother, BE a mother! If you are a wife, BE a wife! You are a woman, BE one all the way. Don’t be half a one, wanting to do half a man’s role. BE a lady and be one all the way!  
~ Lorrie Flem

I loved this.

The other day as I was watching tv there was a commercial for the show Dr Quinn Medicine Woman and in the commercial Dr Quinn says something like never hide behind the fact that you are a girl. Have you ever found yourself saying, or thinking, along these lines? Thinking that you will not be taken seriously simply because you are a girl, so why bother? Thinking you could not do or become what God has placed in your heart because you are a girl? Thinking you had to walk and talk like a man to get the job done?

Believe me… your womanness is enough. You don’t have to forsake your femininity to accomplish what God has called you to do. You don’t have to forsake your womanhood to survive in the workplace. Nor do you have to become the b**ch to be taken seriously. Nor do you have to play the seduction card… it’s only degrading you.

There was a day when my motto was that the only thing a man could do that I could not was pee standing up and if I practiced long enough I could probably do that too. I was under the delusions of the lies that were being fed to me by the world. I somehow felt I needed to prove my worth by showing I could measure up to a man.

How backwards that thinking is. It is absolutely crazy to me now… but I guarantee that this thought still continues to thrive in the minds of females all across our nation. Today I realize that there is only one man who can define my worth and who I should be measuring myself by… and His name is Jesus.

It wasn’t until I came to know Him, that I began to truly understand what it meant to be a woman. In Him I learned that I am not less because I am female. I am not weak because I am a girl. Precious one, listen, you don’t have to earn your place in the world by trying to do things like a man… this is not a man’s world… the world belongs to God. It’s His and all that’s in it.

  For the world is Mine, and all it contains.
Psalm 50:12
 
Just be a woman of God.
Keep your head held high and your back straight and your integrity strong.
Just be real.
There is a huge lack of authenticity in our current day.
 
“Behold, I have discovered this,”
says the Preacher,
“adding one thing to another to find an explanation, 
which I am still seeking but have not found.
I have found one man among a thousand,
but I have not found a woman among all these.
Ecclesiastes 7:27-28
 
God created you female and He created you to display His image in your femininity. He created you to bear His likeness as a woman surrendered to His will and bathed in His beauty and grace. Be a woman that God calls a woman worthy of praise.
 
 Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain,
But a woman who fears the LORD, she shall be praised. 
 Give her the product of her hands,
And let her works praise her in the gates.
Proverbs 31:30-31
 
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The thoughts from this post began from the encouraging word I read in my EE newsletter. If you would like to also receive these words of encouragement just go to http://eternalencouragement.com/ to get your free newsletter.
 
Disclaimer: I post for EE magazine and receive products from EE in return for an honest review.
Proven Path Ministries

>Instruments of Your Grace

>Revive us O Lord…
Wake us up from our slumber.
Let us not be content in our comfort.
Nor be consumed with the pleasures of this world.
Let us spend less on entertainment and more on eternal attainment.
Let us see past our own noses into the depth of the eyes of others… Let us be willing to step into their hurts and see past their defences and introduce them to Jehovah-rapha, the LORD our Healer…  Let us be willing to stop and listen… Let us be purposeful to smile through even our own pain and bad days and not take our own frustrations out on others…
Let us, O LORD, be instruments of Your grace.

Revive us O Lord.
Teach us in Your ways.
Let us not continue to wander in our wilderness…
Nor grumble and complain.
Let us be renewed in our commitments and focused on Your face.
Let us see past our own selfish desires and submit our hearts unto Your lead… Let us be willing to die to ourselves and take up our own cross.
Let us follow You alone and not the ideas and philosophies and traditions of man… Let us be reminded of our blessing of the forgiveness of our sin and let us be willing to forgive as we have been forgiven…
Let us, O LORD, be instruments of Your grace

Revive us O Lord…
Let us, O LORD, be instruments of Your grace